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August 13, 2008

Summer basketball leagues continue to thrive in Ocean City

By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist


When it comes to the Ocean City Summer Basketball League, the one for current and former high school and college players, Butch Gleason is somewhat of a legend.

A player on Dixie Howell's second state championship team, Gleason played in league, he coached in the league, he refereed, kept the official scorebook, operated the scoreboard clock and, for part of one summer, was the league's co-director.

One year, Gleason's Knight's Pharmacy team included former Ocean City and Glassboro State star Skip Given, who became a successful coach at Washington Township High School; 6-foot-7 Stedman Graham, the former Middle Township 1,000-point scorer who has gained worldwide recognition as the man in Oprah's life; former Washington Township star Jack Pfizenmayer, who is now the Superintendent at Lower Cape May Regional High School; and Fran Dunphy, who played college basketball for LaSalle and is now the head coach at Temple.

Despite Gleason's skillful coaching, that team finished in second place.

Jack Boyd, the former OCHS coach and member of the South Jersey Basketball Hall of Fame, played in the league for Jack George's Doghouse, a boardwalk snack bar owned by George, who played for the Philadelphia Warriors in the NBA.

Ed Keenan, one of Ocean City's great players, who went to the basket as hard as anybody, once was driven into the pole that supported the basket by a defender and suffered an injury to his eye socket. This was in the days before they wrapped pads around the poles.

Those of us who never got to see Dixie Howell's first state champions play in high school - Frank Wickes, Joe Kennedy, Chick McDowell, etc. - could see them play together on a team in the summer league.

In those days, the courts were located where the locker room and the Dixie Howell Memorial Gymnasium are now located. Since the new high school was built, the courts have moved about 500 feet to the east.

Through the years since Gleason moved on, the league has had its good years, and its not so good years. But it kept on going. This summer there are 18 mens teams and eight womens teams playing in the league. And, as in the glory years, there are many recognizable names on the rosters.

For example, on Tuesday night in the mens playoff semifinals, Roberts Place was scheduled to face Grace Realty. The game was played too late to report here. Roberts includes former Holy Spirit and Stockton star Brian Hiltner, along with a collection of former Atlantic City, Holy Spirit and Mainland players - Pat Devenney, Rob Fishbein, Matt Flynn, Brian Commons, Ashton Funk and John Sher. The Grace roster leans toward players with an Ocean City connection - Andrew Moore, Disston Vanderslice and Wildwood Catholic's Clark Hindelang - plus Matt Betley from Lenape and Lafayette.

The other semifinal matches French Real Estate and Comunale Fire Protection. The French team, which has always been competitive under the guidance of David French, includes an assortment of former CAL stars, like Ryan Lancaster from Egg Harbor Township and Mark Crumble and Lawrence Owens from Atlantic City. Comunale includes Matt Byrnes, Joe Geary, Dave Miller and pretty much the entire Whitworth family, including Tim, who plays in Sweden; Tom, a former all-city selection at Chestnut Hill Academy; Pat, another strong player for Chestnut Hill; and Matt, who will be a senior at OCHS.

The winners of those semifinals will play at 8pm on Thursday for the championship at the outdoor courts adjacent to the recreation center on Sixth Street at the boardwalk. At 7pm on Thursday, the championship game of the womens league will be played. The womens league wasn't around when Gleason was involved but, like girls basketball in South Jersey high schools, it has continued to flourish.

In Monday night's women's semifinal, Voltaco's upset The Sneaker Shop, 43-37, to reach the final. Voltaco's includes mostly OCHS graduates. Kaitlin DuRoss led the scoring with 22 points, Nancy White had eight and Casey Beyel seven. Sneaker Shop was led by Pleasantville grad Marissa Franklin with 10 points.

On Thursday, Voltaco's will meet Ocean City Home Bank for the championship and if a summer game was ever a rivalry game, this one is it. Ocean City Home Bank is mostly ex-Mainland players - Fran Raph, Shaune McLaughlin Slattery, Lauren McPeak, Courtney Neall Watson and Alissa Lamey, among them.

The Ocean City Summer League has been written about in national publications. Most of the area's top high school and college players have spent at least part of their summer playing outdoor hoops in the resort. The league thrived in the wide-open years of the 1950s and 1960s. It struggled and re-grouped during the years that the NCAA did not allow any college player to play in a summer league. And this year, well over a half century after it began, the league continues to bring exciting basketball to Ocean City.

It must make Butch Gleason proud.



Read more of Tom Williams' columns