After Recent Departure Wildwood Catholic Names New Girls Basketball Coach
For over 75 years, Wildwood Catholic High School has been a staple in South Jersey, with a passionate community of support that has prevented the school from closing after multiple attempts of shutdown by the Diocese of Camden.
Today, Wildwood Catholic Academy is a K-12 private school located between 15th and 16th Avenues in North Wildwood. One of just a few religious education institutions that have survived a sharp decline in enrollment had forced the closure of numerous schools around South Jersey.
Rising financial costs along with the changing economic climate in South Jersey forced schools to close over the last 25 years, like Saint Raymond (Villas), St. Joseph School (Sea Isle City), Mainland Christian Academy (Linwood), Star of the Sea Regional (Cape May), St. Augustine Regional School (Ocean City), and Sacred Heart High School (Vineland).
But Community Support for Athletics has kept Wildwood Catholic Academy Alive
Similar to other regional catholic schools like Holy Spirit HS (Absecon), and St. Joseph Academy (Hammonton), athletics are fundamental to the school's support network. Wildwood Catholic Boys and Girls Basketball teams have won numerous Cape Atlantic League Championships along with deep playoff runs in the NJSIAA Tournament.
For the last 13 years, the Wildwood Catholic Girls Basketball Team was led by the winningest Girls Basketball Coach in Cape Atlantic League History. For 13 years, Steve DiPatri coached Wildwood Catholic into a perennial contender in South Jersey Girls' Basketball.
He crossed the 600 wins milestone during the 2025-26 High School Basketball season. But in an exclusive interview with CapeAtlanticLive.com, DiPatri revealed publicly that the long drives from his home in Vineland for 13 years, along with his full-time job at the Bridgeton Public School District as an administrator, led to his decision to step down as Wildwood Catholic Head Coach.
Who Will Succeed DiPatri as Wildwood Catholic Girls' Basketball Head Coach?
Nine days after Steve DiPatri stepped down, Wildwood Catholic Academy announced that Katie Caruso will become the third Head Coach in the last 26 years for the High School Girls Basketball team.
Caruso is a former girls basketball player at Wildwood Catholic, a 1,000-point scorer, and was inducted into the Wildwood Catholic Hall of Fame in 2025. She has two tenures during which she served as an Assistant Coach with the Wildwood Catholic Girls Basketball Team: 1999-2010 and 2016-2026.
Her connection to Wildwood Catholic's different eras of Basketball success, plus decades of coaching experience, makes Caruso the ideal hire to lead the Lady Crusaders into the future.
The announcement of Caruso as the next Wildwood Catholic Girls head Basketball Coach comes a day after the Press of Atlantic City's Mike McGarry confirmed the news that Steve DiPatri would be the next Head Girls Basketball Coach at Deptford High School.
