The Northside Park Basketball Club will be open to all girls and boys entering 5th through 8th grades. The players will be divided up appropriately based on age and/or gender and the format will be full-court five-on-five play. It is not a league, but there will be referees and scoring.

The club will run on every Wednesday throughout the summer beginning next week at Northside Park from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., and it will end on August 14. The cost is $40 for residents and $50 for non-residents for the season, although drop-ins will be allowed at $10 for residents and $12 for non-residents per session. For more information, contact Mitch Good at (410) 250-0125.

The tournament got started on Wednesday with registration and a captain’s meeting under the tent at the Ocean City Fishing Center in West Ocean City, but the real action got underway yesterday with the first of three fishing days. Participating boats and teams of anglers can fish two of the three fishing days from Thursday to Saturday. The event concludes on Sunday with an awards ceremony under the tent.

The Ocean City Fishing Center just across the Route 50 Bridge in West Ocean City is the host of the annual shark tournament and the marina will be turned into headquarters for the event with weigh-ins each day from 3:30-7:00 p.m. Crowds of fishing enthusiasts and curiosity seekers will cram into the marina each day for the chance to see a big shark weighed at the scales, and the entire facility is turned a celebration of fishing, food, music and fun with activities for children included.

While the primary goal of the tournament is to bring the largest shark in several categories into the scales for a shot at the thousands of dollars in prize money at stake, most of the sharks caught during the annual event are tagged and released so their movements can be studied and a greater understanding of the magnificent creatures can be ascertained.

The competition, set for Tuesday, June 18, at the Ocean Bowl Skate Park on 3rd Street and St. Louis Ave. will be the first of three set for the venue throughout the summer. Additional competitions are set for July 16 and August 13. All contests are open to boys and girls ages six and up. There is a $10 entry fee for each contestant.

Registration begins at 2 p.m. with the competitions set to begin at 3 p.m. The top three skaters in each age group will receive prizes donated by local skate and surf shops. The public is invited to enjoy the competition and support the young skaters. For more information, contact Brad Bayliss at (410) 520-5177.

The Mako Mania tournament, hosted by Bahia Marina, is the first in a summer-long series of offshore tournaments held in the resort, and with sharks of all species and sizes turning up in abundance in the canyons off the coast, the 2013 event produced plenty of action. Despite the remnants of Tropical Storm Andrea, which passed through the area last Friday, the tournament was a huge success again with 30 boats and 128 anglers competing for the $46,430 total payout.

Because of stormy conditions, just three boats fished last Friday, the first of three official fishing days. However, 27 fished Saturday and another 30 headed out on Sunday, producing large numbers of boated and released sharks. For the record, first place in the signature mako division went to angler Kelly Barr on the “Moore Bills” with a 209.5-pound thresher worth $14,787.

Second place in the mako division went to angler Victor Muzzati on the “Stress Reelief” with a 144.8-pounder, which was worth $18,979 in prize money because of added entry levels. Third-place honors in the mako division went to angler Ken Thompson on the “First and More” with a 143.2-pounder worth $6,225. First place in the bluefish division went to angler Nate Beck on the “No Limits” with a 12.8-pounder worth $5,437. The “Stress Reelief” crew won the W.W. Harman Award for the most mako releases with five and earned an additional $1,000 in prize money.

The top seniors from the Bayside North schools faced off against the top seniors from the Bayside South last Sunday on the biggest stages of their young careers at Shorebirds Stadium. For the last 25 years, the top senior players in the conference hand chosen by the coaches have faced off in the annual All-Star game that is as much about the camaraderie of the players that have faced each for the last four years as the action on the field.

Many of the players on both teams are rivals during the regular high school season, but play on the same travel ball teams in the offseason. Such was the case for Decatur’s Dallas Harrington and North Caroline’s Colby Biddle, who face each other as opponents during the season but are close friends and travel ball teammates the rest of the year.

Harrington and Biddle were named MVPs for their respective teams with Harrington taking honors for the Bayside South team and Biddle earning the nod for the Bayside North team. For the record, the Bayside North won the game in dramatic fashion with a walk-off bases loaded single by Biddle to drive in the two winning runs.

Harrington is headed to Division II Flagler next year to continue his career, while Biddle will continue to play at Division I Radford in Virginia. Earning Pitching MVP awards during the annual Bayside All-Star game last Sunday were Anthony Jackson of Crisfield for the South and McKenna Dean of Cambridge for the North.

The resort area became ground zero of the youth lacrosse world last weekend with hundreds of teams from all over the mid-Atlantic region descending on Ocean City for a pair of simultaneous tournaments. In and around Berlin, the Brine Beach Lacrosse tournament featured some of the top youth programs in the country at venues such as the Northern Worcester Athletic Complex, Stephen Decatur High School, Berlin Intermediate School, Most Blessed Sacrament School and the Seaside Christian Academy.

Games were played practically around the clock all weekend, culminating with championship games in various divisions on Sunday. In the boys’ 11-12C division, the local Beach Lacrosse team, coached by Bill Cordial and Will Edmunds, swept its weekend games to win the championship. Beach Lacrosse beat Club Blue, 6-3, and Fallston, 11-2, on Saturday in pool play to advance to Sunday.

On Sunday, Beach Lacrosse beat the Hurricanes, 8-5, in pool play, then beat the Hurricanes again, 8-2, on Sunday afternoon in the tournament semifinals. Beach Lacrosse then beat the Fruitland Falcons, 6-1, in the championship game.

In the other divisions during the Brine Beach Lacrosse tournament, the Arden Diamondbacks beat Team 91 2022 Smash, 5-2, to win the title in the 7-8A division; and Team 91 2023 beat Riptide, 7-5, to win the championship in the 7-8B division. Team 91 2020 beat LTRC to win the 9-10A division, while MCL beat Cockeysville, 6-5, to win the 9-10B division. 2018 Orange beat Club Blue, 5-2, to win the 11-12A division, while Dark Horse Black beat Low and Away, 5-4, to win the 11-12B division. Finally, the Crabs beat Team 91 2017, 5-4, to win the 13-14A division, while Kelly Post beat Black Dragons White, 5-2, to win the 13-14B division.

Meanwhile, the all-girls Beach Lacrosse Festival was going on at the same time at Northside Park in Ocean City. Hosted by the Beach Lacrosse program and the Ocean City Recreation and Parks Department, the 2013 Beach Lacrosse Festival featured games played practically around the clock all weekend with many of the best girls’ youth lacrosse programs in the country and culminated with championship games in each division on Sunday. Northside Park became the center of the youth lacrosse universe all weekend with tournament games, music, food and drink and vendors.