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January 3, 2001

Ocean City's Best of the Century in sports

By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist

A year ago, at this time, while many were celebrating the arrival of 2000 and what was perceived as the start of a new century, we were in the process of recognizing the best of the 1990s - sport by sport - at Ocean City High School.

We are currently in the middle of a series reviewing the best of the century in each sport at OCHS.

Click here for the all-century teams that have already appeared in the Gazette.

Now, as in the first issue of 2000, we will offer a brief review highlighting a handful of individuals. Last year it was the best of the 1990s. This week it is those who were the absolute best Ocean City had to offer during the 20th century.

SPORTSPERSONS OF THE CENTURY-Fenton Carey & Dixie Howell
It is hard to imagine any two people who had a bigger impact on Ocean City sports that these two former coaches.
For a number of years in the 1950s, they were the entire athletic department at OCHS. Carey coached football, swimming and track. Howell coached basketball and baseball. There was no athletic director, so each made up his own schedule and handled all arrangements.
During his years as a coach, Carey, an OCHS graduate, also directed the baseball and basketball programs. And Howell was also a tennis coach for the Raiders.
But it wasn't just for their success as coaches that these two men are deserving of this recognition. They went above and beyond the job requirement.
They started a Saturday morning program, where pre-high school kids could play basketball and swim in the high school. (This was 40 years ago, a time when the gym and pool at the high school were considered impressive.)
Both coaches were positive and encouraging, keeping track of their former players and pointing out their successes with pride. There are very few male athletes (there were no girls sports most of the time they were coaching) who came through Ocean City High School who were not strongly impacted by one or both of these two men.
There are a number of things named in their honor - Carey Stadium, the Dixie Howell Tournament, scholarships, etc. - and deservedly so. Howell died more than a decade ago and Carey now lives in Upper Township.
Fenton Carey and Dixie Howell are clearly the two most important people in the illustrious history of Ocean City sports.

COACH OF THE CENTURY-Mike Naples
How can you argue with the numbers? In 37 seasons as a head coach in girls track and girls cross country, his total record was 329-29. His teams won three state championships, 10 South Jersey championships, 27 Cape-Atlantic League championships and 31 Cape May County titles.
But that's not all.
A total of 11 other teams were ranked among the state's top three. There were 13 other teams who finished second in South Jersey. And 14 of his teams had undefeated seasons.
It didn't happen by accident. He nurtured young players, giving them experience and confidence in ways that the casual observer wouldn't even notice. He demanded that they work, but they couldn't outwork him. His knowledge of the best times, distances and heights put together by potential opponents is legendary. He regularly could predict the final scores of meets within just a few points.
Naples made his seasons fun. Sure, there were some expectations and a bit of pressure. But that came with the success of the program and the big challenges they faced. The coach rarely got mad, simply offering his critiques in a matter-of-fact approach. And his overnight trips - the first for an OCHS program - pulled his teams even closer together.
At a school that has experienced tremendous success and has been blessed by an abundance of talented coaches, Mike Naples was the best.

FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE CENTURY-Cory Picketts
Though she has only been gone for one year, Picketts had a pretty amazing record.
She started on three state championship teams in field hockey - very few boys or girls have done that at OCHS. She led South Jersey in scoring twice - no other Raider female has done that. She was named the Player of the Year in the state, also a first for an OCHS athlete.
Then, in softball, despite missing her junior year due to injury, Picketts set most of the school's hitting records and led South Jersey in home runs during her senior year.
This past fall, as a freshman at Princeton, she started for the Ivy League field hockey champions who reached the NCAA quarterfinals where Picketts scored the game's first goal for the Top 10 Tigers.

MALE ATHLETE OF THE CENTURY-Archie Harris
This is a pretty clear-cut choice.
Harris was a very good football player in the mid-1930s, an end who went on to play at Indiana University. He started for three years on the Raider basketball team, playing on a South Jersey finalist in 1937 and averaging in double figures two seasons - during a time when double-figure scoring was rare.
If that wasn't enough, he set a WORLD record in the discus during his senior year in high school. Harris would have been on the 1940 Olympic Team, and possibly the 1944 team, if those games had not been cancelled by World War II.
Of course, as an African-American, Harris accomplished what he did in an atmosphere of racial bias, both in Ocean City and elsewhere. Local newspaper accounts, while lauding his accomplishments, regularly referred to him with insulting nicknames. There were a number of families - including the Careys - who helped him through his high school years. But, in general, this great athlete faced discrimination.

GIRLS TEAM OF THE CENTURY-1994 Girls Track Team
This team gave new meaning to the term undefeated.
Not only did it finish with a 9-0 record in dual meets (average score, 92-30) but these Raiders finished first in the Wildcat Relays, the West Deptford Relays, the prestigious Woodbury Relays, the Rowland Relays and the Cape May County Meet.
At the end of the season, they won the South Jersey title by 22 points over Camden and Bridgeton and the state championship by 13 points over Bridgeton.
Five athletes on this team won medals in the NJSIAA Meet of Champions, where the best from all groups get together, led by Megan Hartman's best-in-the-state win in the 1600 meter run. The other medalists were Kellie Adams, Shelly Solheim, Mary Beth Wendorf and Janine Minehan.

BOYS TEAM OF THE CENTURY-1996 Football Team
Gary Degenhardt's South Jersey champions were 11-0, the highest scoring team in school history, the South Jersey Group 4 champions, the No. 1 ranked team in South Jersey, No. 3 in the state and No. 8 in the East.
This team featured three of the greatest offensive weapons in OCHS football history - running back Kevin Sinclair, wide receiver Scott Lipford and quarterback Matt LeFever.
But there was more.
Dennis Singleton, Nick Bailey and Greg LeFever all received all-state recognition. Mike Pfaff, Josh Case and Pete Simon got All-South Jersey nods.
It was a great team that, in Ocean City's only year in Group 4, faced a tough schedule and handled them all, including the South Jersey final over a Shawnee team that was loaded with Division I talent.

These were the best in a century filled with coaches, athletes and others whose talent, desire and determination created a record of success. Those records show it was a great, great century for sports in Ocean City. And the people are certainly in place to start off the school's second century with some of those same accomplishments.

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