After an extended 5-day waiting period to allow for the best possible surf and weather conditions, The NSL High School Cup was greeted with excellent 2-3 foot offshore peaks at 1^st street in Ocean City, New Jersey.  

Participating High Schools Manasquan, Southern Regional, Middle Township and three-time defending regional champion Ocean City battled in some of the closest Games in NSL history.  

Ocean City High School beat Southern Regional High School by just 1.9 points in the closely fought first semi-final, despite an 8.7 score from Southern Regional’s Conner Willem in the bottom of the third period.

The second semi-final saw Middle Township High take down Manasquan High in low-scoring nail-bitter with Middle Township winning by just 0.45 points, one of the slimmest margins of victory in NSL history. 

This set up a rematch of last year’s regional final between the Middle Township High Panthers and the defending regional champion Ocean City High Red Raiders.  Middle Township won the coin toss and decided to surf in the bottom half of each period, sending Ocean City to the water first in the waist to chest high surf.  Ocean City High alumni and assistant coach Rob Kelly had his team fired up, but the team was only able to drop a 12.7 total period score.

Middle Township, lead by Mike Ciramella sensing the opportunity to build a lead opened the bottom of the first with a series of powerful backhand snaps from the sophomore, scoring a 6.7, cutting into Ocean City’s total first period score with just one wave.  However, the other three Middle Township starters failed to find waves with scoring opportunity and the Panthers finished trailing by a half a point.

In the top of the second, Ocean City struggled with positioning for the high scoring opportunities until Sean Santiago found a clean right-hander and performed a series of clean re-entries earning a 6.7 wave score improving their period score to 15.5.  

Middle Township came back again with Mike Ciramella scoring 6.3 and Austin King dropping a sold score, however the team failed to keep pace with a total period score of 13.3. 

Ocean City High sent out its seniors for the top of the third with Matt Rink and Sean Santiago both dropping solid scores for the team.  In the final minutes, Coaches Mark Miedema and Rob Kelly substituted in Zack Greaser and helped contribute to a final period score of 14.3 and a final Game score of 42.5.   The Red Raiders looked confident in their dugout with a 17-point lead going into the Panthers half of the final period.

Middle Township went right to work for their final period with Mike Ciramella once again putting a big score on the board on a wedging right-hander, he executed a lightning fast power snap straight into a huge blow-tail re-entry on the closeout section. The combination earned Ciramella an 8.3 and the Game’s Most Radical Maneuver.   This left the other three Panther starters needing just 3 point scores each to take the win. 

Ocean City High’s dugout was in disbelief that Middle Township needed such small scores to take the title away.   Middle ‘s Austin King thickened the plot with a 3.5 score, meaning the other two players needed to get a 2.6 each.  Middle Township coach Nicole Roppoli was gripping her radio pleading with the water coach to help position the team into higher scoring waves. However, Middle Township was not able to close the gap in the end and Ocean City High School won their fourth consecutive regional title.

“It was a true team effort today”, said assistant coach Rob Kelly.  “Middle Township was very talented, but I think our experience paid off today with a touch of luck”.

Ocean City High School will now move on the NSL High School Cup National Championships at Upper Trestles on June 12^thand 13^th. 

The NSL High School Cup next travels to D-Street, Encinitas on May 24^th and 25^th for the San Diego Regional Championship.

A special thanks goes out to the City of Ocean City, Nick Bricker, Ed Morgan at Aloha Awnings, Keith Wescott, and Tom Sullivan

Final Game Box Score:

Most Valuable Player (MVP) – Mike Ciramella, Middle Township High School

Most Radical Maneuver (MRM) – Mike Ciramella, Middle Township High School  (Power snap to blow-tail, scoring 8.7)

By: Jon Coen, ESPN

"Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work." — Vince Lombardi.

Ok, so maybe it's a little cheesy to start a post with a quote about teamwork, but after a full week of watching the Red Bull Riders Cup, which uses the National Surf League's Game format, I am feeling the team spirit. Once again, I have to say this is my favorite competition format. "It's not a contest, it's a game!"

Continue reading at ESPN Surfing

The New Jersey Regional Championships, the sixth stop of the 2009 Red Bull Riders Cup season, took place this week in a cold tail end of the East Coast winter in Ocean City, New Jersey.  This stop of the Red Bull Riders Cup, the nation’s premier high school surfing competition, saw New Jerseys best high school surfers paddle out in mostly cold and difficult conditions.    Participating high schools included Ocean City High School, Southern Regional High, Manasquan High, Point Pleasant High and Middle Township High. 

With Ocean City and Middle Township having comfortable wins during the week in their qualifying games, the stage was set for one of the most anticipated match-ups of the season.

Both teams really wanted that trip out west for the finals and emotions ran high.  Last years champions Ocean City managed to clinch it in the final period to get the win and will be back at the Red Bull Riders Cup National Championship, which will be held on June 6-7 at Upper Trestles in San Clemente.

With senior Chris Eaves back in the team and sophomore surprise Mikey Ciaramella posting high scores with an MVP performance, Middle Township posted the highest semifinal game score of 57.5 against Manasquan High.  This put the pressure on defending champions Ocean City and had the whole boardwalk expecting the closest match-up the New Jersey region had ever seen.

From the start of the first period expectations were delivered on, even the weather cleared just as Middle Township won the toss and decided to surf first.  As the fog cleared to show sunny, clean waist high conditions, it was Mikey Ciaramella who drew first blood posting a 6.2 to start off the game.  By the time the top of the first period was over, it was Mikey and Chris Eaves helping Middle Township to a respectable total of 18.5

Ocean City’s first exchange of waves was comparable to their rivals, but their second exchange lead by Chris Kelly with an 8.2 was to prove the difference.  With the whole team posting good scores Ocean City left the water and the first period up by 4 points.

Middle Township paddled out into their second period knowing they had to play catch-up and get the whole team on solid waves.  Unfortunately for them the pressure was getting to them and only Ciaramella managed to get anything over a 5 posting a 6.5 late in the period.

Ocean City however failed to close the door in the second period also only managing to get one surfer on a wave scoring over 5.  It would be Chris Kelly carrying the load for Ocean City posting a 6.3. 

This bought the game down to the third and final period with Middle Township needing something special and Mikey Ciaramella delivered.  With 5:30min left in the period he posted a week high wave score of 9.0 and with Chris Eaves posting a 6.9, this shot up their total and put the pressure firmly back onto to Ocean City.

The game was now in the home teams’ hands, they needed solid scores from all their surfers and with three time outs remaining, the game was theirs to loose.  With experience and depth on their side, it would be those two things that proved the difference as Ocean City managed to answer the challenge and get what they needed with 4mins to spare.

As the final wave was ridden in, the big home town crowd cheered their boys in from the water amid a shower of Red Bull and praise.

A very relieved coach Matt Keenan had this to say. “I’m really proud of the guys, this was a full blue collar team effort.  They made it a real emotional win for the town.”

With last years MVP and now graduate Rob Kelly taking on water coach duties for Ocean City, MVP honors went to his brother Chris, who took on the role as team leader exceptionally well posting high scores all week.  “The pressure was on from the very beginning, this was one team that had an even chance of taking it.  Senior year, last contest, we all really wanted it”  It’s now onto California again for New Jersey’s best, to see if they can bring the Red Bull Riders Cup to the east coast for the first time at the National Championships on June 6-7. 

FINAL SCORES (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

By Jon Coen

Ocean City High School’s surf team rose to the occasion to keep its perfect record alive.

In what was arguably the best game yet in the three-year history of the Red Bull Riders Cup New Jersey qualifier, Ocean City beat Middle Township 60.8-58.6 at the First Street beach Friday. The Red Raiders advanced to the Riders Cup national championships, to be held next month in California, for the third year in a row.

"The pressure was on from the beginning," said Chris Kelly, Ocean City’s standout senior who was named MVP of the final. "Every other game the last three years we kind of walked through. This win was the most satisfying because it wasn’t so easy."

Continue Reading: Atlantic City Press

Ocean City High will now move on to the National Championships at Upper Trestles for the third straight year.

Full Report with photos and video coming soon!

If the forecast plays out as it shows, we should be running Games starting Tuesday, with the final on Friday.

The location might switch from day to day between 1st and 9th streets in Ocean City depending on the conditions, but we’ll let you know where we end up each day.