Things keep changing in the Cape-Atlantic League.

First of all, there is a new athletics director at Absegami. Steve Fortis has been named to succeed Scott Lodgek, who left to assume the same position at Middle Township in the middle of the school year. Gami has been functioning without an AD since Lodgek left. And Oakcrest is looking for an athletics director to replace Brian Currie, who left after less than a year.

Absegami has replaced two head coaches. Dennis Scuderi Jr., who coached at Middle Township and has most recently been an assistant at Rutgers, replaces Doug Colman as football coach. Colman has returned to Nebraska where he was part of two National Champions. And Meghan Tracey will succeed Greg Goodwin as head coach of Gami’s girls basketball team. Tracey is a longtime Goodwin assistant who played for Sam Botta at Egg Harbor Township.

At Millville, assistant coach Jason Durham has replaced Tom Wickward as head football coach.

Scott Douglass, the longtime assistant to Roy Wright, will replace Wright as Lower Cape May’s girls basketball coach. It is not expected that Douglass will inherit Wright’s title as the “The GQ of the CAL”. The early favorite for that position is Wildwood Catholic boys coach Dave DeWeese.

Ocean City will be replacing two highly-experienced head coaches who filled three positions. Bill Nickles, who has coached OCHS wrestling for 30 years, has retired along with assistant Pat Lynch. The new head wrestling coach is former Buena star Mike Castellini. He will be assisted by Angelo DiBartolo and Chris Clark.

The other retirement at Ocean City is Bill Moreland, the head boys cross country and indoor track coach. He had also been head girls track coach but resigned that position last year and was succeeded by assistant Kevin Greene. The new boys cross country coach is Matt Purdue, who just completed his first year as OCHS head boys track coach. And the new indoor track coach is Debbie Cathcart, who will be assisted by Moreland.

In addition, OCHS has two new assistant football coaches – former Raider Joe O’Neill and Michael Hall replace Leo Hamlett and Nick Bailey. And Trish Henry, the Raiders' head girls cross country coach, returns to her other position as freshmen girls basketball coach. She had taken a maternity leave of absence.

There have also been some changes among athletes.

Keep in mind that high school varsity athletes from New Jersey have until Sept. 1 to transfer under the current transfer rule, the one that requires letter winners to sit out the first 30 days of the season. Any varsity transfer in September or later without a change of address that includes a change in sending district will be faced with a one-year suspension.

So, if you’re going to make the move, the next seven weeks is the time to do it.

Joanna Persiano, who won the Boo Pergament Award as the most improved basketball player in the CAL and was a second team selection as a catcher in softball for Atlantic City, has enrolled at Holy Spirit. She will be a junior and must sit out the first 30 days of both seasons.

Holy Spirit also lost its 6-2 basketball center, Hillary Drinovsky, who moved to Las Vegas.

Abby Logan, a 5-11 baseline player for the Middle Township girls basketball team the last few years, has transferred to Ocean City. She will be a senior. And her younger sister, Georgia, a 5-10 eighth grader who played on the CAJr all star team, will be a freshman at Ocean City. The family has reportedly moved, so Abby will not have to sit out 30 days.

Ocean City also got a transfer in the spring when Matt Lombardi, son of former OCHS athlete and current ESPN football analyst Mike Lombardi, moved from Denver in the late winter. Lombardi made the American Conference second team in golf. Last football season, Lombardi passed for over 1100 yards at Rock Canyon (CO) High School. In one game, he was 13 for 19 for 235 yards and three TDs. Because the family moved, he is not required to sit out.

There may be more significant transfers throughout the summer and, if there are, we will tell you about them. We will also examine the new transfer rule in more detail as we get closer to the fall season.