Almost Summer

This is a rather interesting time of year….one that really doesn’t have a true identity. We’re a couple of weeks away from the official start of summer although for some the summer season is well underway. Parochial schools have all pretty much finished for the year so for those students the vacation has already begun. Public schools have at least another week to go and some don’t finish until late June because of snow days and other postponements.

Memorial Day has become the unofficial start of the summer tourist season but except for weekends you would not know that and really won’t for a few more weeks. When the weather cooperates locals can pretty much enjoy semi-private beaches during the week and even the weekends won’t be packed until later in the month. Popular restaurants in beach areas that are normally jammed in July and August are easy to get in right now…at least during the week so it’s a good time to head over the bridge. After eating you can even stroll a fairly empty boardwalk and burn off the calories.

This all will end fairly soon and people will settle into a summer routine. For many that means taking the kids and heading to the beach or pool or making sure older ones get to their jobs. Some will spend part of their summer at camp which gives Mom a badly-needed break. After spending the past nine or ten months just driving kids from one place to another the summer allows for a somewhat slower pace. Of course that’s not the case for all but usually there is a change in the routine and sometimes that’s all you really want.

I’ve always said the best time of year around here can be the middle part of June and then the first couple of weeks after Labor Day. You get to enjoy the perks of life at the shore without the downside of all the people and traffic. So enjoy because July 4th is only 25 days away.

Ocean County Sportsmanship Awards Breakfast

The Ocean County Directors of Athletics held their 17th annual Ocean County Sportsmanship Awards Breakfast yesterday at the Quality Inn of Toms River. Each of the county high schools had a male and female senior student-athlete honored for their citizenship, fairness, ethics and general qualities of sportsmanship. As I have for 16 of the 17 years this has been held I served as Master of Ceremonies and once again applaud the Athletic Directors for recognizing these outstanding ambassadors for their schools.

Also honored was Point Pleasant Boro’s Bill Larkin as the county Athletic Director of the Year, a well-deserved honor for a man who has devoted his entire career to students first as a teacher and coach and most recently as the AD and Supervisor of Health & Physical Education at both the middle and high schools. I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s breakfast and enjoyed sitting with the family of Brick Memorial honoree Brian Staub, a three-sport athlete who will play football at Springfield College in the fall.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that yesterday’s event was the last for Walt Peto, the District Athletic Director for the Toms River Regional School District. Walt will retire at the end of this month and recently he was honored at a surprise retirement party which unfortunately I could not attend. He has spent the bulk of his professional career in Toms River and was a teacher and coach before becoming the Athletic Coordinator at High School North and then the District Athletic Director the past couple of years.
He is known for his calm manner and ability to get along with others and is truly one of the good people I have been able to work with over the years.
Walt has earned his retirement and will enjoy spending time with his wife Janet and their grandchildren.

It was quite a Sunday for good friends and sports legends Tiger Woods and Roger Federer. Woods rallied from four shots back to win Jack Nicklaus’
Memorial Golf Tournament for the fourth time with a brilliant final round 7-under pat 65. Across the ocean in Paris, Federer finally won the French Open Tennis Championship and tied Pete Sampras’ record of 14 major singles titles. The two struck up a friendship after filming a TV commercial a few years ago.

Honoring Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship is defined in a variety of ways including:

Fairness in following the rules of the game; the behavior in playing sports; a conformance of the rules, spirit and etiquette of sport; an attitude that strives for fair play, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, ethical behavior and integrity and grace in losing.

Some athletes get it and some don’t. Thirty four who truly understand what sportsmanship is all about will be honored Sunday morning at the Quality Inn of Toms River during a breakfast hosted by the Ocean County Athletic Directors Association. I will once again serve as Master of Ceremonies at an event that celebrates what’s good about high school sports.

The soon-to-be high school graduates who will be honored are:

Barnegat- Nicole McCrann Teddy Ray
Brick Memorial- Corine Dafeldecker Brian Staub
Brick Twp.- Maggie Murtagh Matthew Dornacker
Central Regional- Jamie Skibee Logan Dudas
Jackson Liberty- Olivia Rotundo Colin Gorman
Jackson Mem- Kellie Rose Derrik Russell
Lacey- Alyssa Morris Steve Torre
Lakewood- Jasmine Turner Jorge Flores
Manchester- Meghan Jirkovsky Craig Leppert
Msgr Donovan- Cayla Linfante Jonathan Curtin
Pinelands- Jes Talerico Peter Cardillo
Point Beach- Justina Daley Daniel Enoch
Point Boro- Brianna Blank Jeff Keffer
Southern- Erin Reagan Steve Sibona
TR East- Taylor Madden Vinnie Dellefave
TR North- Nicole Testa Pat Szukics
TR South- Erin Applegate Kevin Bowden

Congratulations on being selected as representatives of your school and
I’ll see you Sunday.

Sports Shorts

Congratulations to the Jackson Memorial High School baseball team for winning the Shore Conference Tournament for just the second time in school history and first since 1984. Pete Kelich threw a five-hitter and struck out 7
as the Jaguars collected a 2-0 win over CBA in the championship game Wednesday night at FirstEnergy Park. Kevin Needham and Dave Kalash singed in runs for Jackson, who finishes the season with a 22-3 record and both the Class A South and Shore Conference Tournament titles under fifth year head coach Frank Malta.

The Southern Regional High School Boys Volleyball team looks to complete a championship season tonight when they face St. Peter’s Prep in the state tournament final at South Brunswick High School. The Rams won the South Jersey title earlier this week and now meet the North Jersey champs…a team they edged a month ago in three exciting games. Tonight marks the final game for five senior starters….Nick Nichols, Tyler Callahan, Rob Kraft, Shaw Keller and Austin Geary. Rams head coach Eric Maxwell has had quite a year…he guided the girls team to a state group championship in the fall.

While today might not feel like a summer day you can kick-off the summer season by attending a barbeque and business after hours networking event sponsored by the Toms River-Ocean County Chamber of Commerce and Jersey Coast Appliance. The event will take place from 5-7pm at the Jersey Coast Appliance location on Route 37 in Toms River near the Crystal Diner.
The cost is $10 for chamber members and $20 for non-members and will include steak, shrimp, hamburgers, hot dogs, beer & wine. Dynamic Cooking Systems will bring their mobil outdoor kitchen and grill the food
on location.

The Berkeley Soccer Association will be holding registration for the fall season tonight from 5-8pm and Saturday from 2-6pm at their soccer complex on Eastern Boulevard in Bayville. For more information you can check out the club’s website at www.berkeleysoccer.com

The Beachwood Soccer Club will hold its final scheduled registration for the fall season Saturday from 4-6pm at the soccer complex on Berkeley Avenue. For more information you can visit www.beachwoodsoccer.com

Honoring The WOBM Student Of The Week

They are valedictorians, class Presidents, Bloustein Scholars, All-State athletes, Eagle Scouts, school newspaper editors, Math League champions, prom kings and peer leaders. They play in the band, sing in the chorus, act in school plays, volunteer in many ways from tutoring to organizing food drives, and play three varsity sports. They often juggle incredible schedules that make you wonder how they do it all in 24 hours and still make the High Honor Roll and earn selection to the National Honor Society.

They are the 21 males and 17 females who have been honored this school year as a WOBM/Gateway Toyota-Scion Student of the Week. The 13th consecutive year of this program concludes this morning at 8:20am when one of the 38 high school seniors is randomly selected by Ed Sunday of Gateway Toyota-Scion to receive a $1000 college scholarship from the Toms River car dealer and Millennium Radio. (Ed will do the drawing live on 92.7 WOBM).

The weekly honorees were selected by their schools and every Monday we have aired a feature on their accomplishments. Just to be in this rather select list of 38 high school seniors is quite an honor. They are:

Teddy Ray & Sean Dangelmajer from Barnegat High School
Melanie Caruso & Brian Staub from Brick Memorial
Collin Crilley & Chelsea Greenstein from Brick Township High School
Matthew Solomon & Alyssa Mayo from Central Regional
Chris Griffin & Jillian Anzalone from Jackson Liberty
Michael Carletta & Kevin Matthews from Jackson Memorial
Julianne Whitleigh & Patrick MaGuire from Lacey Township High School
Michelle Lopez & Ian Vogler from Lakewood
David Boeger & Emberle Lawson from Manchester Township
Leonard Weg & Sarah Stefanelli from Monsignor Donovan
Anthony Wahler & Dan Sepp from New Egypt High School
Nathan Boyd & Steven Hartman from Pinelands Regional
Meghan Sosnowski & Cameron Dering from Point Pleasant Beach
Jackie Ball & Jacqueline Christenson from Point Pleasant Borough
Barbara DellaValle & Jeff Boye from Southern Regional High School
Vin DellaFave & Christopher Shore from Toms River East
Suresh Parakash & Tina Sankhla from Toms River North
Rae Drach & Eric Wengrowski from Toms River South
Joe Griggs & Monica Smetts from the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science

Sharing The Road (Tuesday, 6/2)

As the weather warms up and school days come to a close you are likely to see more children and adults riding bicycles through neighborhoods and of course resort towns and boardwalks. As days get longer many look to take advantage and early in the evening it’s a common site to see families out riding. I am reminded by a listener by the name of Paul that there are rules of the road and failure to follow them could have negative consequences.
Among those rules:

1. Always wear a helmet
2. Always ride on the right side of the road and travel in the same
direction as vehicular traffic.
3. Use hand signals for turns and stopping.
4. If you ride at night, use a light and reflectors and wear bright
colors or even a reflective vest.


While riders have to be aware of cars and other vehicles, drivers also have to keep their eyes open for those riding bicycles and also recognize that they have rights as well. The same goes for pedestrians and again with longer days and kids outside navigating local roadways calls for more attention by those behind the wheel. Drivers needs to be alert and think ahead so put the cell phone down and watch for kids and bikes darting in and out of traffic.

The summer is a great time of year but nothing can ruin it faster than a tragedy…especially one that can be avoided.

Season Finales

This is a bittersweet time for high school seniors as the days until graduation wind down. They and their families are going through things which had become routine for the final time and included in that for many are their days as a competitive athletes. Over the past couple of weeks just about each day a high school team’s season ended with a loss and as of today only a few are still playing, including the baseball teams from Toms River North and Jackson Memorial. The Mariners, who won their second straight South Jersey Group 4 Championship, will face powerful Hunterdon Central in the Group 4 semifinals tomorrow. Meanwhile the Jackson Jaguars have a Wednesday night date with CBA in the championship game of the Shore Conference Tournament at FirstEnergy Park.

Another group looking for a championship is the Southern Regional Boys Volleyball team. The Rams face defending champion St. Joseph of Metuchen in the South Jersey Sectional Final tomorrow night at South Brunswick High School after finally getting some revenge on East Brunswick in the semifinals. Nick Nichols led the Rams against an East Brunswick team that had knocked them out of the tournament two straight years. Coach Eric Maxwell’s team takes a 36-5 record into the section final.

With Toms River East bowing out of the state and Shore Conference Tournaments the season is over for all of the Ocean County softball teams.

A sad footnote to a historic tragedy:

The last remaining survivor of the Titanic disaster died over the weekend in the same city her family was trying to leave behind when the unsinkable ship sunk on its maiden voyage. 97-year old Millvina Dean died in her sleep in a nursing home in Southampton, England. She was just two months old when the Titanic hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912 and along with her mother and 2-year old brother were among the 706 survivors. Dean’s father, who was moving the family to Kansas City, died along with more than 1500 others. After the disaster her family returned to England…Dean was not told she was a passenger on the ship until she was 8 years old. She never married and spent the last three years of her life in a nursing home.