April 2, 2008
All Star Saturday - An encore game for Nancy and Amanda
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
Ocean City High School's basketball program has been doing well against very tough competition the past decade.
The boys started the 10-year period by winning a South Jersey title and the girls completed it with this year's
championship. No other Cape-Atlantic League school has won both a boys and girls South Jersey basketball championship
during the last 10 seasons.
And the two Raider teams are the only two from the same CAL school to currently boast a string of four straight years in
which its two teams have both participated in reaching at least one South Jersey final each year.
This year, the girls won a second straight CAL overall championship and finished their season losing to the best team in
New Jersey in the state championship game.
Nancy White has been a major part of the three straight South Jersey finals by the girls. She and Amanda Landi both had
a lot to do with the Raiders winning their first South Jersey title since 1979.
On Saturday, Nancy will pull on jersey No. 14 and Amanda will wear No. 35 one last time. They will join 18 other girls
and 20 other boys, all high school seniors, in a doubleheader that will conclude All Star Saturday in the Dixie Howell
Memorial Gymnasium at Ocean City High School.
The Just 4 Wheels Girls Classic, which tips off at 4:15, will also give White and Landi the chance to team up with some
of the girls they've battled the last few years - including Sara Mostafa of Absegami, Victoria Wermuth and Stephanie
Dugan of Lower Cape May and Christine Wooding and Alissa Lamey of Mainland.
Paul Baruffi will be there, too. He'll get together with Absegami's Greg Goodwin for one last time, coaching the
American Conference girls together. Goodwin has retired as Gami's coach and this will be his final game.
Earlier in the day, at 11, eighth graders Emily Gillian and Shannon Brady will play with a team of future CAL players
against a team from Ocean County. Emily and Shannon certainly hope to have careers like Nancy and Amanda and hope to
bring success to Ocean City like the two OCHS seniors.
There will be a lot going on Saturday. Ocean City's Eric Johnson will play in the boys eighth grade game, looking ahead
to when he might fill the shoes of his brother, Brett, with the Raiders.
Some former Ocean City and Mainland greats will get together again in the Ocean City PBA Legends Game. And the best
senior boys from the CAL will wrap things up in the Ocean City Home Bank Dixie Howell Classic starting at 6.
There will be foul shooting contests for the eighth graders and three-point shootouts for the high school seniors. And,
with all of this talent playing together, you can be sure there will be some spectacular plays.
Most of all, there will be farewells - 40 high school seniors wearing their school basketball uniforms for the last
time. In some cases, it might be their farewell to organized basketball.
But it is extra special for Nancy White and Amanda Landi. They have worked and battled for the past four years to make
the OCHS girls basketball program the success it has become. They not only get to wear their high school uniform once
more, they get to do it in their home gym before the loyal fans who followed them all over the state.
There are lots of things happening this Saturday. Four of the best college basketball teams in the nation will be
playing in San Antonio and most basketball fans will be invited to a Final Four party. And baseball fans will have a
full lineup of games to watch.
Whatever your plans for Saturday, make a visit to the Dixie Howell Gymnasium a part of it. Stop by and watch and cheer
as Nancy White and Amanda Landi say their final goodbyes to Raider basketball.
Read more of
Tom Williams' columns