There are always a lot of questions entering a school sports season. And the 2008 fall season in the Cape-Atlantic League is no exception.

Will Brett Johnson, the highly successful senior runner from Ocean City, equal his 2007 performance when he won the Group 3 state championship in cross country – a first for an OCHS boy – and was selected the top runner in all of South Jersey? Or will he go further, possibly winning the NJSIAA Meet of Champions?

How big an impact will the move of St. Augustine up to the American Conference have on the soccer and cross country championships?

Is there anyone in the American Conference that will challenge defending champion Mainland in football?

Is there a team that can break up the talented trio of runners who led Millville to the girls cross country crown last year and have all returned?

Can Holy Spirit repeat as National Conference champion in football? Or will St. Joseph return to its championship form after being beaten by the Spartans last year? Or can St. Augustine Prep seriously challenge Spirit and St. Joe for the title?

Will the Ocean City soccer and field hockey teams again add to their already impressive lineup of championship seasons?

Can St. Augustine’s Dustin Thomas and Middle Township’s Nolan Quinn, who combined for more than 3,000 passing yards last year as sophomores, give us two more seasons that will remind us of the Mike Isgro-Matt Flynn passing attacks of three years ago?

There are plenty of interesting questions as we start another year.

The 2007-08 school year was pretty remarkable on another front – the end of big South Jersey winning streaks. Just consider these.

St. Joe lost a football game after a CAL-record 37 straight wins.
Bridgeton lost a girls track meet after 124 straight victories.
Paul VI lost a cross country meet after 244 straight wins over 28 years.
Paulsboro lost a Colonial Conference wrestling match after 307 straight wins over 36 years.
Eastern lost a field hockey game to a New Jersey team after 208 straight wins.

Those are just a few of the historic moments that highlighted South Jersey sports last year. Let’s hope we have that kind of excitement again this year.

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One person who isn’t here as the school sports year begins is Pete Yard. He died suddenly last week while battling a number of ailments.

Yard graduated from Oakcrest but spent most of his adult life in Ocean City and Upper Township. He wasn’t a high school athlete, though he was a pretty good tennis player. His father, however, played professional ice hockey, one of the reasons Pete was a big Flyers’ fan.

Yard spent decades in the radio and newspaper business. He was a reporter who covered high school sports and also a columnist who reviewed performances by the many entertainers who came through the area. But most of his newspaper work – including with Catamaran Media, which owns this newspaper – was in production, the hard-working people who take the written and photographed material and put it together into a newspaper.

In addition, Yard the graphic artist was responsible for the look of all of the program magazines at the basketball events operated by Prime Events. He spent a lot of time and used all of his talents in creating those pages and covers, much like he did in all of his work.

Local sports has lost a dedicated contributor and a loyal fan. Many of us have lost a good friend.

Pete Yard will be missed.