OCEAN CITY — Eight-year-old Shiloh Smith can’t wait to be in the parades. A student at Ocean City Primary School, Shiloh was crowned Little Miss Ocean City 2027 Friday night, Aug. 14, at the Ocean City Music Pier.
Ocean City’s pageant queens — Little Miss, Junior Miss and Miss Ocean City — have a lot of fun performing their duties throughout the year representing the resort. Among them is riding in parades, and Ocean City has a lot of parades — the Baby Parade, the Doo Dah Parade, the Halloween Parade and the Christmas Parade.
Smith is the daughter of Kevin Smith, who was a longtime football coach at Ocean City High School, and Brenda Colon-Smith, a teacher at OCHS.
Fourth runner-up was Sophia Mazza; third runner-up, Laura Buck; second runner-up, Addison Selby; and first runner-up, Olivia Vogt.
The 8- to 11-year-olds competed in interview, talent, poise and composure, and academic achievement. Shiloh won the talent award for her dance routine and the poise and composure awards before being named Little Miss Ocean City.
Her mom said it hadn’t sunk in yet that her daughter had won the crown, “but seeing how happy she is and how natural she is, it’s made me very, very happy.” Shiloh actually jumped for joy when her name was announced as the winner.
Brenda said the pageants really hadn’t been on her daughter’s mind, but a group of her 8-year-old friends thought about it “and they were like, ‘Sure, why not? And here we are. It was like two minutes of thought and then we were in it.”
Brenda was head coach for the Red Raider cheerleaders for years and now acts as an assistant. Shiloh has been on the sidelines for many games, hanging out with the cheerleaders and being near her dad when he was the coach.
But Shiloh isn’t following in those footsteps.
“I don’t want to be a cheerleader,” she said. “I want to be a dancer.”
“Her goal is to be on the high school dance team,” Brenda explained. Shiloh has been dancing since she was 4 years old and performed a dance for the talent competition.
Her mom’s goals for Shiloh in the year ahead are simple: “Seeing her grow and continue to be as confident as she is for an 8-year-old girl.”
Her dad still looked surprised as he stood on the stage for photographs with his daughter and their family.
“I didn’t give this two seconds of thought prior to coming here because she’s 8 years old and we were just like, ‘Babe, have a blast. Have a great time,’” Kevin said. “I’m so proud of her just because she had so much just poise and she was just herself up there. That was so fun to watch. It was really cool,” he said.
“You know, being around football for all these years, that’s another world, so this is a totally different experience for me. And it was just a pleasure to watch her enjoy herself on that stage.”
Asked if he was going to be a pageant dad, he just shook his head. “I don’t even know what that means, but you know, as long as she’s having fun, then I’m going to have fun with her.”
Shiloh was crowned by outgoing Little Miss Ocean City 2026 Harper Juelg with support from Junior Miss Ocean City 2026 Arianna DiAntonio and newly crowned Miss Ocean City 2027 Kayla Magazzu.
A new Junior Miss Ocean City 2027 is to be crowned Saturday evening at the Music Pier.
Eighteen girls competed for the Little Miss title.
Shiloh said she’s looking forward to entering third grade at the Primary School so she can see her friends and hit the playground. Her favorite subjects are writing, art and social studies.
In her free time, she enjoys going to the beach and the playground, relaxing and watching TV.
Asked if she liked winning the title of Little Miss Ocean City, she smiled and said, “I like it a lot.”
Awards
Third place golf: Victoria Selby
Second place golf: Harper Juelg
First place golf: Sophia Mazza
Miss Congeniality: Shiloh Smith
Miss Photogenic: Shiloh Smith
Bowfish Originality Award: Juno McCullough
Tracy White Spirit Award: Sophia Mazza
Joyce Trofa Hostess Award: Atley Richards
Sunshine Award: Isla Sykes
Compassion, Kindness and Sincerity Award: Siena Kolins
Essay, Third Runner-up: Olivia Vogt
Essay, Second Runner-up: Adriana Vogt
Essay, First Runner-up: Shiloh Smith
Essay Winner: Luci Schmid
Talent Recognition Award: Emma Olsen
Interview Recognition Award: Atley Richards
Scholastic Recognition Award: Olivia Frank
Pose and Composure Recognition Award: Ariana Jonuzi
Talent Award: Shiloh Smith
Interview Award: Olivia Frank
Scholastic Award: Sophia Mazza
Poise and Composure Award: Shiloh Smith
Fourth Runner-up: Sophia Mazza
Third Runner-up: Laura Buck
Second Runner-up: Addison Selby
First Runner-up: Olivia Vogt
Little Miss O.C. 2027: Shiloh Smith
Contestants included Cosette Stanton, Aurelia (Aura) Pepe and Vivienne Pittaluga,
Pageant director was Kristie Fenton with stage design/production by Joan Timmons. Denise Jessel was the hospitality chair, Emily (Aita) Galazin the judges chair, Cindy Ford the hostess chair and Amanda Pannone in charge of the program. Mary Pavoni of Ford Scott was the auditor, Kylie Kilmer and choreographer and Sally Onesty the hair stylist.
Judges were Betty Anne Martino, Lindsey Petrosh-Delia, Susan Noles, Karli Scott and Francesca Trimble.
Natalie Ragazzo-Williamston was the mistress of ceremonies.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
