Wareham steps down as basketball coach at Wildwood Catholic

Posted: January 1st 1970

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

With the start of a new season about 3 ½ months away, Wildwood Catholic Academy is seeking a new head boys basketball coach.

Will Wareham, who had been in charge of the program for the past three seasons, submitted his resignation to the school on Monday.

He cited family reasons for his resignation. One of his daughters graduated from Wildwood Catholic in June and is heading to the University of West Virginia in the fall. Another daughter has two young sons. And he also has younger children who are competing in youth sports.

“I’d like to try to be there more for all of them,” Wareham said. “I really want to spend more time with all of them. So I think this is the best time for me to move on.”

WILL WAREHAM

Wareham led Wildwood Catholic to a very successful season last winter. The Crusaders went 20-9, reached the championship game of the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament and won a first-round state playoff game. He finishes his Wildwood Catholic career with an overall record of 40-43.

“I was definitely very happy with the results from last year,” Wareham said. “Coming into coaching there, I thought things would be a little easier than they were but I quickly realized there was a lot of work to be done. I was fortunate enough to have a lot of people in my corner, (athletic director) Mike Rennie especially, who really helped me. The support system from the people in the Wildwood Catholic community made things a lot smoother for me as time went on. We wouldn’t have been able to get to where we were last season without that support and the kids’ hard work.”

Wareham, a 1996 graduate of Lower Cape May Regional High School, took over at Wildwood Catholic ahead of the 2022-23 season after Anthony Raffa left after one season. Wareham brought extensive coaching experience with him to the job, serving as an assistant coach at Division II Holy Family University prior to landing at Wildwood Catholic. He was also previously the head coach at Rowan College of South Jersey’s Gloucester County campus as well as Rowan College’s Cumberland County campus and also previously served as an assistant coach at Division III Gwynedd-Mercy University. Early in his coaching career, he was an assistant coach at the high school ranks at Cape May Tech.

A resident of Vineland, Wareham worked for more than 20 years with the New Jersey Army National Guard, spending more than a decade as a recruiter with military service. He was deployed overseas in Iraq for two years in the early 2000s before becoming heavily involved in high school and college basketball upon his return home.

Wareham said there’s a chance he could get back involved in coaching basketball at some level in the future.

“When I came to Wildwood Catholic three years ago, my intentions were for it to be my last coaching gig but at the same time I didn’t think my tenure there would be this short, Wareham said. “So I’m definitely not closing the door on coaching. If the right opportunity comes up down the line, I’d 100 percent consider it.”