By TOM WILLIAMS

A dozen boys have been selected as finalists for the Billy Schoppy Award, presented to the athlete from the Cape-Atlantic League Class of 2023 who had the most outstanding high school sports career.

The awards originated in 2001 with Jason Kaye of “The Flagship Resort” in Atlantic City sponsoring them. In 2012, Dave Talarico and “Schoppy’s”, the area’s finest trophy and award creator, became the sponsor. And in 2017 the award was changed to The Billy Schoppy Award as a memorial to Billy Schoppy, an active coach and official and the son of William Schoppy, who created the business 1921.

This year’s 12 finalists are from seven different CAL schools and were selected based on their four years of high school sports. Previous winners have included single-sport athletes who were dominant and athletes who played two, three or four sports with success. A complete list of previous winners, plus finalists for each previous year, is available HERE.

The 2023 finalists are, in alphabetical order:

SEAN BURNS (Holy Spirit), football, basketball, lacrosse, swimming. Headed to U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

D.J. GERMANN (Egg Harbor Township), football, basketball, track.

RILEY GUNNELS (Ocean City), football, basketball, baseball. Headed to Shippensburg.

JACK HOAG (Ocean City), football, baseball. He will attend Hamilton (NY) College.

ARCHIE LAWLER (Lower Cape May), football, basketball. Headed to Carnegie Mellon.

JAYDEN LLANOS (Holy Spirit), football, basketball. Headed to Seton Hill PA.

JA’BRIEL MACE (Mainland), football. Will attend Villanova.

JIM MANTUANO (St. Joseph), football, baseball. Headed to FDU.

MAWALI OSUNNIYI (Mainland), football, basketball, track.

CHRISTIAN RANDO (Egg Harbor Township), football, basketball, baseball, golf. Going to Kean.

XANDER ROBERTS-BOGIN (Pleasantville), football, track. Headed to Delaware State.

TAJ TURNER (Lower Cape May), soccer, lacrosse. Headed to Rowan.

The winner will be announced on June 13 at Prime Events annual CAL Celebration in the Ocean City Music Pier auditorium. The event is sponsored by The City of Ocean City, Gillian’s Wonderland Pier, the Ocean City Free Public Library, the Ocean City PBA, Rodio Catering, Sixth Street Pizza & Grill and the Ocean City Firefighters,

The names of the 12 girls finalists were released Tuesday and are available HERE.