By TOM WILLIAMS

It was quite a season for high school football.

It started in August at Ocean City’s Carey Stadium, ended the first weekend of December for 10 public schools in SHI Stadium at Rutgers but was strangely over for a number of schools before November 1st.

Millville won one of those five games in December to become the first CAL school to actually win a state championship. Through the years, public schools have awarded jackets, shirts, rings and plaques that declared they were state champions when, in reality, they were South Jersey sectional champions. The Thunderbolts now become the first CAL school to legitimately earn the title – state champion.

Swimming season has already started and wrestling and basketball get underway later this week, followed by indoor track. But before completely filing away all football records and eventually moving on, lets review some of the highlights of the football season.

STAT LEADERS: Hammonton sophomore Kenny Smith ran for 1,670 yards and five other backs also gained more than 1,000 yards. Among other leaders, Holy Spirit’s Gavin Roman caught 113 passes (a state record) for 1,249 yards; Spirit’s QB, Sean Burns, completed 251 of 384 passes (both CAL records) for 3,125 yards and 29 TDs; Millville’s Jacob Zamot threw for 3,180 yards and 27 TDs; and Mainland freshman John Franchini had the highest pass efficiency rating (219.4) among CAL QBs. The stats of 78 athletes, the leaders in rushing, passing and receiving, are available HERE.

HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE: Millville, Pleasantville, Mainland and Atlantic City were all undefeated on their home fields. Holy Spirit, Lower Cape May and Hammonton had only a single away loss. The final records of all CAL teams are HERE.

BIGGEST IMPROVEMENTS: Pleasantville was clearly the winner under new head coach Malachi Timberlake. The Greyhounds went from 0-10 in 2021 to 7-3 this season. They won their division of the West Jersey Football League, won their Group 2 playoff opener and scored 40 points in their Thanksgiving win over Ocean City, their most points against the Raiders since 1952. You can check the final Online 25 rankings of South Jersey teams HERE.

IN THE RECORD BOOK: Lotzeir Brooks of Millville completed his sophomore year with 29 career touchdown receptions which is already the record for a CAL player. He broke JoJo Bermudez’s record of 26 set last season. And he has two more years to go. Sean Burns set new CAL records with 35 completions and 52 pass attempts in a comeback win over Kingsway. He also set a new CAL mark with 447 passing yards against Atlantic City and tied the CAL record with five TD passes in that game. Jacob Zamot also tied that mark with five TDs against Lacey Township. Gavin Roman tied the record for catches in a game with 15 against Kingsway, tying Absegami’s Josh Coursey in 2017.

CAL FOOTBALL: The schools from the Cape-Atlantic League were spread out over seven divisions of the West Jersey Football League. A CAL team finished first in five of them – Millville in the American Division, Holy Spirit in the Continental, Hammonton in the Memorial, Pleasantville in the Patriot and Mainland in the United.

STREAMING SEASON: Live video streams continued to increase this year, Matt Ulmer again played a key role (in between trips to Key West). Bill Shallcross, who has been recording high school football for three decades, continued to expand his role with Prime Events and Crossover Productions. BFA Productions, led by Doug Stasuk, increased its involvement. Brian Cunniff was on 98.7-The Coast, whose coverage also featured the inimitable Buddy Tarbotton. Quinn Broadcasting covered Millville, Dan Hollingsworth and Half Pint Productions streamed St. Joseph Academy, Vineland had coverage from its school TV and Hermits Broadcasting covered St. Augustine. Most of those streams are still available online. And there are lots more as streaming played an even bigger role.

STILL THANKFUL: Ocean City and Pleasantville have apparently played on Thanksgiving for the last time. That series first played in 1921. But it looks like Vineland-Millville and Atlantic City-Holy Spirit might still be hanging on for at least another year, keeping the tradition alive.

PUSHING: It is a simple rule – Rule 9-1 in the football rule book. “An offensive player shall not push, pull or lift the runner to assist his forward progress. Penalty: Helping the runner, five yards.” Yet dozens and dozens of times this year we watched players pushing the ball carrier from behind without a whistle. When an offensive player first pushes a ball carrier, the play is over and there is a five-yard penalty. It drove Bud Rinck crazy.

TRANSFER OF THE YEAR: There were, as always, some transfers who had an impact. Like Freddie Lavan, who joined Millville from Missouri, and Duke Guenther, a transfer from Minnesota who was a two-way star for Ocean City. But the winner is Kye Pressley who brought his skills on both sides of the ball to Hammonton from Camden Catholic.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Speaking of Pressley, he only spent his senior year at a CAL school but it was impressive. Generally double-teamed, he still had more than his share of tackles but his 20 quarterback sacks led South Jersey. And remember, Hammonton had a ball-control offense so their defense was on the field less that most.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: His name isn’t easy (they call him “Ice Cup”) but sophomore Sah’nye Degraffanreidt made a rather spectacular debut this season. His 51 catches for 894 yards and 11 TDs is impressive enough. But many of those catches were extraordinary, including the one-handed grab that got him included on ESPN’s SportsCenter Top 10. He also made his mark on defense and special teams. We know his name now and watching him two more years should be fun.

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: There are a number of players who could be selected. Most of them are mentioned already in this column. But Lotzeir Brooks gets the edge. The Millville sophomore will enter his junior year next August already holding the CAL record for career TD receptions and with over 2,000 receiving yards. This year his 1,089 receiving yards is the most ever by a CAL sophomore. He had the most by a freshman last year. He did all this facing double teams and sometimes triple teams, which opened up things for the rest of the Thunderbolts.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: There is only one player who is listed on our CAL first teams on both offense and defense – Ja’Briel Mace of Mainland. A lightning fast running back who made a big splash as a freshman and just progressed from there. He also had defensive instincts that made him one of the top cover backs in South Jersey. You can see our exclusive All-CAL football teams, plus the names of all the CAL players selected as WJFL all stars, HERE.

FOOTBALL COACH OF THE YEAR: There is quite a group to consider. Bert Ayala at Millville, Mainland’s Chuck Smith, Hammonton’s Jim Raso, Lance Bailey of Lower Cape May, Keenan Wright of Atlantic City and the two new guys – Andrew DiPasquale at Holy Spirit and Malachi Timberlake at Pleasantville. But the edge goes to Wright, who guided the Vikings to a 7-3 season with all three losses coming to Top 10 teams. And the first playoff win by ACHS in a decade.

GAMES OF THE YEAR: This was pretty easy. Millville won the Group 4 state championship with a rally in the final minutes to beat Hammonton for the South Jersey final, did it again against Mainland in the state semi-final and then made a couple incredible defensive stands in the final minutes against Northern Highlands after some shaky offensive execution to win that state title. It was an amazing trio of games.

SAD FAREWELL: Paul Sacco won 357 football games in his 41 seasons at the helm of his beloved St. Joseph Wildcats. That includes 55 wins in NJSIAA playoff games and 25 championships. He didn’t really want to leave but was put into a position where he had little choice by an authority figure with an agenda. Hopefully, he will surface at another school because he has lots more to give to high school football. A man with a strong football and CAL background has been chosen to replace him. Hopefully, he will have success. But the situation brings to mind St. Anthony, a very small school in Jersey City. That school also had a record-setting coach, Bob Hurley. St. Anthony closed within a year after Hurley retired.

LOOKING TOWARD 2023: Though the all star teams are loaded with CAL seniors, there is lots of talent returning. Consider this – of the top 10 players in rushing yards, seven will be back, and five are sophomores. Five of the six QBs with the highest pass efficiency ratings will return. And 10 of the top 12 in receiving yards will be back in 2023. Lotzeir Brooks, Nyjere Robinson, Kenny Smith, Sah’nye Degraffanreidt, J.J. Sinclair, Duke Guenther, Tristan McLeer, Darian Blachewicz, Naeem Sharp, Lucas Goehringer, Nick Layton, Cohen Cook, Marcus Offer, Daniel Russo, Hunter Ray, Mike Zarfati, Christian Medina, Remi Rodriguez, Taron Haile, Julian Turney, Kahlil Witherspoon, Stephen Ordille, Jon Moyer – just to name a few – will all be back. Hopefully they will bring fans more of the excitement we experienced in 2022.