By TOM WILLIAMS

Work has begun on the curveballs, the baton exchanges, the serves and the tee shots. Ocean City baseball players are even dancing on the Florida dugout with The Phillie Phanatic. Spring sports in the Cape-Atlantic League are less than two weeks away.

This is traditionally the time for the annual basketball buffet, a bunch of stats and links plus lists of the best of the just completed season.

Lets get it started.

Middle Township and Ocean City girls were South Jersey champions and two champs by CAL girls teams in one year is the record. It has now been done 14 times, the last time in 2012. And the eight CAL teams playing in South Jersey finals this year is an all-time record.

Scoring champions: Justin Harper of Wildwood Catholic (22.0) and Emma Peretti of Hammonton (17.8) were the scoring champions of the Cape-Atlantic League this season. Harper is the first from Wildwood Catholic since Anthony Raffa in 2007. One other Crusaders’ player – Dan Leahy – won in 1988. Peretti is the first girls scoring champ from Hammonton since Christina Smith in 1993. Cindy Pierce also won while playing for the Blue Devils in 1991.

Other boys stat leaders: Middle Township’s Bubba McNeal led the CAL in three-pointers; St. Augustine’s Elijah Brown was best in free throw shooting; Devon Theophile of St. Joseph led in rebounds, Jay-Nelly Reyes of EHT led in steals for the second straight year; Macky Bonner of Lower Cape May led in assists; and Atlantic City’s Tysir Jones in blocked shots. St. Augustine (64.6) scored the most points per game and Mainland (38.0) gave up the fewest. Lots more boys stats leaders are available HERE.

Other girls stat leaders: Wildwood Catholic’s Kaci Mikulski made the most threes-pointers; Peretti was the top free throw shooter, blocked the most shots and grabbed the most rebounds (she averaged a double-double for the third straight year); Absegami’s Reese Downey led the league in steals and assists. Atlantic City (53.4) scored the most points per game and Ocean City (33.8) gave up the fewest. Lots more girls stats leaders are available HERE.

In the past, we always selected a five-player all star team from the CAL but this year we expand it to a seven-player rotation.

All Cape-Atlantic Boys: Elijah Brown, St. Augustine; Cohen Cook, Mainland; D.J. Germann, Egg Harbor Township; Justin Harper, Wildwood Catholic; Jay-Nelly Reyes, Egg Harbor Township; Arnaldo Rodriguez, St. Joseph; Devon Theophile, St. Joseph.

All Cape-Atlantic Girls: Kasey Bretones, Mainland; Quanirah Cherry-Montague, Atlantic City; Reese Downey, Absegami; Jada Elston, Middle Township; Ava Mazur, Mainland; Kaci Mikulski, Wildwood Catholic; Emma Peretti, Hammonton.

Players of the Year: Elijah Brown and Quanirah Cherry-Montague.

The Predicted 2024-25 CAL Boys All Star Team: Re’Ale Basquine, Middle Township; Rory Friel, St. Augustine; Jamir McNeal, Middle Township; Kenny Smith, Hammonton; Will Spross, St. Joseph.

The Predicted 2024-25 CAL Girls All Star Team: Reese Downey, Absegami; Averie Harding, Egg Harbor Township; Sabrina Little, Holy Spirit; Taison Parker, Atlantic City; Adelina Wilks, Bridgeton.

Now for some some nostalgia.

The Flashback All-CAL Boys Team from 20 years ago (2002-03): Mike Bradway, Mainland; Anthony Farmer, St. Augustine; Andrew Morrison, Wildwood Catholic; Terrence Woodson, Oakcrest; Lamar Wright, Absegami.

The Flashback All-CAL Girls Team from 20 years ago (2002-03): Kara Ayers, Absegami; Shantae Barnes, Absegami; Bryna Batten, Holy Spirit; Adrienne Rochetti, Sacred Heart; Ikea Witt, Sacred Heart.

The 2002-03 Players of the Year: Andrew Morrison and Ikea Witt.

In 2020, something new was added to our end-of-season summary. In all the stats categories, only two directly pertain to defense, which is pretty much half of the game. So, we created all-defense teams. And who better to ask than the coaches who study opposing teams on video looking for weaknesses and strengths. There were ties in both the boys and girls voting, so we have seven players on each team.

Boys All-Defense (selected by the CAL coaches & select media): Elijah Brown, St. Augustine; Cohen Cook, Mainland; D.J. Germann, Egg Harbor Township; Jamir McNeil, Middle Township; Ife Okebiorun, St. Augustine; Stephen Ordille, Mainland; Jay-Nelly Reyes, Egg Harbor Township.

Girls All-Defense (selected by the CAL coaches & select media): Kasey Bretones, Mainland; Quanirah Cherry-Montague, Atlantic City; Reese Downey, Absegami; Jada Elston, Middle Township; Zashira Jackson, Atlantic City; Maddy Monteleone, Ocean City; Emma Peretti, Hammonton.

All-Transfer Team: Re’Ale Basquine, Middle Township (from London); Keion Elliot, Egg Harbor Township (from Las Vegas); Ky Gilliam, Atlantic City (from Holy Spirit); Madison Palek, Middle Township (from Our Lady of Mercy); Jamil Wilkins, Egg Harbor Township (from Holy Spirit).

Once again, this year, officials were assigned both by the longtime IAABO board in the area and by independent assigner John Rodio. To recognize the best, we again asked the coaches. There were also ties, giving us nine – enough to cover three games.

All-Officials Team (selected by the CAL coaches): Frank Basile, Darrin Bossert, Brian Cunniff, Amanda Feldman, Joe Fussner, Myron Hendrick, Doug Hiltner, Carolyn Jackson, Rob Murtha.

The 2023 winners of the Boo Pergament Memorial Awards as the CAL’s Most Improved Players are Devon Theophile of St. Joseph and Sydney Stokes of Mainland. The Ken Leary Memorial Award to the highest ranked CAL boys basketball team goes to Egg Harbor Township. And The Joe Fussner Award to the highest ranked CAL girls basketball team will be displayed for another year by Mainland.

1,000: Every year a handful of players score their 1,000th career point. It is a great accomplishment, requiring dedication and effort. But this year 1,000 had a different meaning. On January 11th, St. Augustine Prep’s Paul Rodio notched his 1,000th victory, something accomplished by only two other New Jersey coaches – Bob Hurley in boys basketball and Jeff Jasper in girls basketball. Neither in South Jersey. It became that much more special because of the serious health problems Rodio faced about 15 months earlier. That 1,000th win over Ocean City before the Richland Rowdies that night in a gym that had his name on the floor was one of the most historic games in Cape-Atlantic League history. You can re-live that game by watching it HERE.

Injuries of the Year: The Middle Township girls lost junior center Madison Palek to injury for all of February and, although the Panthers won the South Jersey title, a state championship might have been a real possibility with her in the lineup. Egg Harbor Township senior Amelia Zinckgraf, a key returning player, was lost for the season with a knee injury except for a staged layup she scored off the opening tap against Atlantic Tech. And Kori Segich (15.0ppg, .517 shooting percentage) missed nine games with two different injuries at Ocean City. The Raiders were 14-5 with him in the lineup and lost eight of the nine games he missed, including two overtime losses and losses by two and four points. OCHS might have a much different season with Segich available all year.

Double Figures: Two teams this season had four players who averaged scoring in double figures. For St. Augustine it was Elijah Brown, Semaj Bethea, Matt Kouser and Ethan Fox. For Ocean City it was Kori Segich, Omero Chevere, Dylan Schlatter and Sean Sakers. It happens once in a while but its not that common. Also, five players averaged a double-double this year (double figure points and rebounds) – Devon Theophile of St. Joseph, Justin Harper of Wildwood Catholic, Emma Peretti of Hammonton, Quanirah Cherry-Montague of Atlantic City and Angelina Dragone of Our Lady of Mercy. Cherry-Montague had 23 double-double games this year and Theophile had 21, including one triple-double. Peretti graduates with 65 double-double games in her career.

CAL Boys Coach of the Year: Paul Rodio had an historic season. John Bruno, LaMarr Greer, Dan Williams, Paul M. Rodio, Scott Holden, Mike LaTorre, Byron Nelson and John Arcidiacono turned in impressive seasons. But Cameron Bell is the obvious choice – guiding EHT to its first CAL title and first South Jersey championship..

CAL Girls Coach of the Year: Scott Betson, John Leahy, Jason Lantz, Steve DiPatri, Bob Lasko, Tim Whitworth and rookie Tom Zoyak all guided their teams to successful seasons, in most cases against very challenging schedules. Any of them could be a solid choice. But the Coach of the Year is Ocean City’s Stephanie Gaitley, who entered a toxic situation, basically ignored it and had the Raiders playing their best basketball at the end of the season. You can watch the Raiders win in the South Jersey final HERE.

Shot of the Year: Most fans think of him as a football quarterback, a position he played for four seasons at Egg Harbor Township, but the three-pointer that Christian Rando drilled in the final moments of the CAL championship game wrote his name into history. Rando made 50 from behind the arc this season and many of the other 49 were important. But it was the one that gave EHT the lead for good in the title game that will always be remembered. The fact that it happened on his home court and it was EHT’s first title just added to the shot’s importance. You can watch the entire game leading up to Rando’s shot HERE.  

Game of the Year: Traditionally, that EHT championship win, Moorestown’s Group 3 win over Mainland with a three-pointer at the buzzer, Ocean City’s upset of the Mustangs in the girls Group 3 South Jersey final or either of the big road upsets by Absegami’s boys in Group 3 could have been the choice. You could even select the terrible incident in the Camden-Eastside game because eliminating those two teams from the NJSIAA tournaments opened the door for Middle Township and Ocean City to get to the South Jersey finals. But, let’s face it, the Game of the Year was that 1,000th win by Paul Rodio on January 11th.

You can check out the Online 25 final South Jersey rankings (a total of 11 CAL teams are included in the rankings), the CAL standings and highlights from other seasons HERE.

It was a good Cape-Atlantic League basketball season this year, including the debut of the league’s expanded 21-team basketball tournaments. A lot of talent graduates. But there are a great many exciting players returning. Things should be entertaining again next season, which includes new CAL conference alignments.

More about that later this week.