By TOM WILLIAMS

In 2025, the Ocean City boys basketball team reached the South Jersey Group 3 championship game for the third straight season, defeating Timber Creek to win the title.

All of Ocean City’s South Jersey tournament games were played at home, in the Dixie Howell Gym. It marked the Raiders’ seventh South Jersey title but the first one on their home court. And the second by Coach John Bruno.

The first was in 1999 when that half-court shot by Ryan Reich sent the championship game into overtime and OCHS defeated Middle Township. In 2025, it was a comfortable 66-53 win over Timber Creek.

Earlier in the season, Bruno became the first OCHS coach in any sport to register 500 career victories.

And in the beginning of the 2025-26 season in December, Bruno’s team was 6-0, sending them on to a season where they are 17-4, ranked No. 17 in South Jersey and seeded No. 2 in the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament that begins tomorrow for them with a home game against Absegami.

In a couple weeks the Raiders will begin play in the NJSIAA Group 3 Tournament. If they reach the South Jersey final again it will mark the first time in school history that Ocean City reached that final for the fourth straight season.

All of this success moved Bruno into the South Jersey top ten in career wins, currently with 528.

For all his team accomplished last year and for how the season elevated his career, John Bruno is the OCHS Coach of the Year for 2025.

The 68th Ocean City Sportsperson of the Year will be coming on Thursday.