Coach says his priority is making sure his players are set up for success
SOMERS POINT — The Ocean City High School boys and girls golf teams won the 2026 Cape May County Golf Championship at the end of March and posted a 4-2 record heading into spring break, but when head coach Ed Ritti thinks of his priorities, it isn’t the win-loss record.
“I know I’ve said this in the past — I don’t care about the wins and losses. I really don’t,” Ritti said on a windy, chilly Thursday afternoon as his players hosted the Hammonton Blue Devils at Greate Bay Country Club in Somers Point.
“I want to see us do the best that we can and I’d love to see us hopefully peak at sectionals May 4 at River Winds and have some individuals peak at the Cape-Atlantic League Championship on the 18th of May, but in terms of the win-loss record, I couldn’t even tell you what we are right now.
“It doesn’t even come into my thought process until the end of the year,” Ritti said. “It’s more about what individuals are doing and how I can set them up, what I can do to help them reach their potential. So Bryan (Chojnacki, the assistant coach) and I talk about that a lot.”
At the county championship at Shore Gate Golf Club in Dennis Township, the Red Raider boys and girls dominated.
As a team, the Raider boys won with a score of 331. Lower Cape May Regional was second at 363, Cape May Tech third at 364, Middle Township fourth with 377 and Wildwood Catholic Academy fifth at 443.
Sophomore Archie Schreiber and senior Dale Curtis tied with scores of 82 with Curtis winning the playoff for the individual title.
Junior Luke Chickadel was third at 83 and junior Grady Hoffman tied for fourth at 84 with Liam Porter of Cape May County Technical School. Raider freshman Jack Voigt was eighth with an 89, tied with Middle Township junior Nick Distaulo.
The girls team won with 416 points, topping Middle Township with its 490 points and LCMR with 552.
Junior Masey Heenan won with a 94, which Ritti believes is the best girls score recorded in the championship.
“Macey had the lowest female score that we’ve seen at the Cape May Counties. This was our 10th anniversary and I can’t find a lower female score,” he said. “This was from the yellow tees, where in the past we have played from the red tees, but we moved back one once slope and rating came into play.”
“She’s our captain and is really dedicating herself to just reaching her potential,” Ritti said.
Heenan’s freshman teammate, Julie Costello, was second with a 95 and junior Lillian Flora was third at 105. Senior Mia Kaczmarski was sixth with 122 to round out the scoring. Middle Township’s Savannah Lasher (114) and Alanna Lloyd (118) were fourth and fifth.
The coach said Flora is running track as well as competing on the golf team.
“You can do that in New Jersey,” he explained. “You can play golf, and then another sport at the same time. So she’s juggling a heavy schedule.”
He said the Great Bay staff told him Costello was at the course all summer last year and in the fall, “so she really works on her game.” Kaczmarski rounds out the team.
For the boys team, Curtis and Schreiber are the leaders and switch back and forth.
“Right now, Archie’s got the one position; Dale has two,” Ritti said. “Dale’s new to our team. He’s a senior, a very good athlete. He’s learning to play in some of the bad-weather South Jersey golf that you struggle with in competition, but he’s super enthusiastic every time we’re out here. And Archie is just a really good golfer. He loves the sport.”
Rounding out the boys are junior Chickadel, who’s one of the captains and “really came along last year,” Ritti said, stepping into the No. 3 position.
“Grady Hoffman also really came along last year and this year, and a freshman, Jack Voigt, is a pleasure to see. He has a classic golf swing, really shows a lot of potential, really good around the greens, makes good decisions.”
The coach was pleased with the consistency of the boys in the tournament.
“They played really well. We shot an 82, 82, 83, 84, so the grouping’s fantastic. I mean, if you think about it like a cross country race, where you want your grouping to come in all at the same time, we nailed that,” Ritti said. “And then we had a playoff between Dale and Archie. Dale made a par on the 10th hole and Archie just slipped out of putt to tie him. So Dale won in the playoff.
“That’s the second year in a row we’ve had a playoff, the second year in a row that Archie’s been involved in the playoff.”
Ritti said he was happy with the scores.
“I thought this year our boys team might be a little bit down, but that’s not the case at all. We really had some kids step up and fill some positions that I didn’t expect them to be ready to fill. We’re looking forward to hopefully surprising ourselves a little bit as to what we can do in some of the tournaments.”
There are now six girls teams in the Cape-Atlantic League and Ritti hopes that the athletic directors support a girls conference. “That way we can have a true league,” he said.
For now, the teams compete as coed and the girls mostly play as a team in tournaments. Ritti said when Vineland comes to Greate Bay after spring break, they will compete with a boys team and a girls team.
“Greate Bay has been fantastic with us on that,” Ritti said. “It can jam up the course a bit, but they figure out a way around it and are really supportive of the growth of the girls game.”
The coach said Mainland Regional High School’s golf team “is head and shoulders above everyone this year. They have an historic team, a lot of seniors, a lot of fantastic golfers. They’re going to be tough to beat.”
The Mustangs were 8-0 through the start of spring break. The competition through the rest of the conference should be more even. “Every match is going to be a good match,” Ritti said.
As for that win-loss record, Ocean City is putting up good scores even in the two losses. So far they beat Lower Cape May 165-175, Highland 165-183, Millville 168-211 and Egg Harbor Township 165-179. The Red Raiders lost to Kingsway 155-159 and narrowly to St. Augustine Prep 163-164.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
– Photos courtesy of Ed Ritti
