A Little Of This...

A little of this and a little of that this morning:

For the past 38 weeks we have been honoring an Ocean County High School senior each Monday as the WOBM Student of the Week. This Thursday at
8:20am we’ll conduct a live random drawing of those weekly honorees for a $1000 college scholarship which is provided by WOBM and Gateway Toyota-Scion, the sponsor of the program since its inception. Gateway Vice President and General Manager Ed Sunday will do the honors in our studio on Thursday.

Anthony Ranaudo was both a baseball and basketball standout during his high school career at St. Rose. I remember him best from playing in the WOBM Christmas Classic but clearly baseball was his best sport and last night he was drafted by the Boston Red Sox with the 39th overall pick in Major League Baseball’s draft. Ranaudo, a resident of Jackson, helped pitch LSU to College Baseball’s World Series title in 2009 but he’s coming off an injury-plagued season with the Tigers, who were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament this past weekend. The draft continues for the next couple of days and among the Ocean County players whose names could be called are Toms River’s Casey Gaynor and Point Pleasant’s Pat Biserta, who both played for Rutgers. It’s also possible that Jackson Memorial’s Bryan Solomon, the Gatorade New Jersey Player of the Year could be taken with a late pick although he’s expected to attend Eastern Kentucky on a scholarship.

If you’re a long time reader of the Asbury Park Press you are probably aware of Bill Handleman. He was a talented and award-winning sportswriter for many years, best known for his columns on horse racing and the local sports scene. Bill switched to the news side several years ago and I always looked forward to reading his columns, which were often touching and always well-written. Bill is quite ill and not doing very well so this Saturday many of his colleagues will gather at Mister C’s Beach Bistro in Allenhurst from 9:30am-noon. A Tribute to Bill Handelman will feature a brunch and I’m sure plenty of reminiscing. For information you can contact
Tom Luicci at tluicci@msn.com