Manasquan’s Marina Mabrey shines in Chicago

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Manasquan’s Marina Mabrey has had the greatest career of any girl’s high school basketball player to ever come out of the Shore. 

Just a couple of weeks after leading the Warriors to their second Tournament of Champions title in four years she capped her scholastic career in grand fashion last night.  Mabrey was named co-MVP of the McDonald’s All-American game at the United Center in Chicago as her 12 points & 6 rebounds helped the East to an 89-87 victory. 

Playing with the best high school players in the nation the Notre Dame-bound Mabrey hit a pair of 3-pointers in 17 minutes of action as the East prevailed in the highest scoring game in the 14-year history of the All Star matchup.

Another outstanding female athlete continues to shine on the lacrosse field and in the classroom.  Penn State’s Tatum Coffey(Toms River North) scored 3 goals and added 2 assists last weekend in the Nittany Lions win at Rutgers in their Big Ten opener.  The senior midfielder is second on the team with 20 goals as Penn State is 8-3 and ranked 15^th in the nation. Coffey was recently honored during a special on campus ceremony with the John W. Oswald Award for her achievements including being named a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar.

Reform could be coming to high school sports in New Jersey after an NJSIAA advisory committee overwhelmingly approved two proposals yesterday which now head to the executive committee next month.  The first would create separate public school and non-public school conferences for football only beginning as early as 2016.  This would mean the 37 mostly parochial schools in the state would compete in their own conference with divisions likely broken down by size, geography and strength of program. 

The other proposal has to do mainly with varsity athletes who transfer from a public to a non-public school as under the new guidelines they would have to sit out 30 days and would not be eligible to compete in the state tournament.  This proposal could go into effect as early as July 1^st.

Opening day of the high school baseball season featured a matchup of two teams ranked in the Shore Sports Network Top Ten and in what has to be considered a mild upset #7 Toms River South scored twice in the 7^th inning for a 4-2 win at #2 Jackson Memorial, the defending Group 4 state champions.  Spencer Kapp’s infield single scored Mike Conover with the tie-breaking run. 

For a complete story on the game including video highlights visit shoresportsnetwork.com