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MorristownHockey AmongThe State’sBestPage 3Girls' Basketball:Crusaders RegroupPage 4NJAC Boys’Basketball UpdatePage 6-7NJAC WrestlingUpdatePage 8-9Whippany Park’sTom Wilson: TheConsummate Coach

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Morristown’s win in the Halvorsen Cup last year couldwell have been nothing but a fluke. TheColonials, who finished third in the division,knocked off division winner MountainLakes in overtime in the cup final.That win continued a trend; in threeof the four years since the creationof the Halvorsen Cup, it has beenwon by a sub-.500 team that did notqualify for the state tournament.But Morristown’s performance in

the first half of the 2011-12 seasonmakes it clear: the Halvorsen Cup winwas a sign of a team on the rise, a teamready to shake up the Morris Countyhockey scene.The Colonials brought back a strong

roster, led by a couple of key seniors onthe forward line. Last year Jordan Klotzwas the top offensive player forMorristown, but this season ZachMourad has stepped up his game and isthe team’s number one goal-scorer.“Jordan was the heart and soul of the

team last year,” says coach Bobby Jones. “I thinkhe’s a target this year, which is giving Zach’s line moreopportunities.”Mourad, who plays alongside junior Tommy Donofrio and

sophomore Brian Begley, has made the most of those chanceswhile providing leadership to the team. “Everyone looks up tohim,” Jones says. “He’s also doing better point-wise than Iexpected.”Morristown has an embarrassment of riches at goalie, where

freshman Shane Brown has taken on the responsibility as thestarter. “He’s come in and handled it very well,” says Jones.“He’s getting a lot of help from our defense, but he’s won somebig games for us and can only get better.”Brown’s backup, sophomore Jack Ray, is also an AAA-level

club goalie, so there’s very little drop-off. Even third-stringerBen Rudinski would play for many other teams. “I’m veryfortunate to have these guys,” Jones says.With all that

talent, “We hadhighexpectations,”Jones says. “Wewanted to be topten overall in thestate and topfour in PublicA.”Despite the

high hopes, theColonials’season got off onthe wrong skatewhen theysuffered a 2-1setback to Mendham in their opener. But Jones says his teamdidn’t allow the loss to shake its confidence. “I think it was a good thing that we lost, in a way,” he says. “It

showed us that we have to work harder in practices and games.”After that Mendham defeat, the Colonials won 11 of their next

13 games, with the only losses coming to Mennen Divisionpowers Morris Knolls and Randolph. In the latter game, theColonials led entering the third period before the Rams rallied fora 2-1 win.Morristown did knock off two members of the Mennen

Division when it beat Kinnelon and Chatham in back-to-backgames. And the Colonials didn’t just beat those two teams, theydominated, outshooting both squads by better than a 3-to-1margin.The last Halvorsen Division team to make so much noise was

Kinnelon four years ago. Those Colts went on to win the PublicB state championship. Were they in Public B this year, the

Colonials would surely be a favorite to pull off the samefeat. But Morristown High School is above the cutoffline by about 10 students, forcing the Colonials tocompete with larger schools in the difficult Public Abracket instead.Jones still believes his team is ready to compete with

the big boys. “It’s going to be a rough battle but we’reup for it,” he says. He says the road to the title clearlygoes through Randolph, which has a remarkable recordin the past decade in the states, but believes any of thetop eight teams in Public A is a threat to win it all.Before the states, of course, Morristown has much

work to do. And while fans, and even players, mayfocus more on repeating as Halvorsen Cup

champions, Jones has his eyes on winningthe regular-season Halvorsen Division

title.“It’s important since we

have not done it inthe four years thatI’ve been here,” hesays. And Jones isespecially interested in the prize

that comes with a division title: the opportunity to move up tojoin the Mennen Division next year.Jones has experience with such a move; he was a player at

Morris Knolls when the Golden Eagles made the jump to theMennen in 2001. “It can be very risky,” he notes. “You can takea lot of losses that first year.”But the coach believes the move would have a positive long-

term impact on the program, even though it means competingwith some of the best teams in the state each year. Says Jones,“We’re ready to take that challenge.”

HockeyNotebook

Colts Charging:Kinnelon completed a rare andimpressive daily doublerecently when it defeatedMennen Division stalwartsRandolph and Morris Knolls inback-to-back games. BrianGnad had a goal and an assistto help lift Kinnelon to a 2-1triumph over Randolph, thefirst loss of the season for theRams. Goalie Thomas Huberhad 28 saves for the Colts.Just two days later, Huber

was even more outstanding inKinnelon’s 3-0 victory overMorris Knolls. The juniornetminder made an amazing 48saves to post the shutout asthree different teammates litthe lamp at the other end of theice.Kinnelon has just three losses

to date and looks like one ofthe favorites for the Public Bstate title at the end of theseason along with BrickTownship and Tenafly.

Spartans Hoist theCup Again:When Spartalost a league game to Newton-Lenape Valley in December, itappeared the Spartans’ hold onthe Sussex Cup could be indanger. But when the twoteams met again in the cup

final on New Year’s Eve, Sparta pulled out a 4-3 victory to winthe milk jug trophy for the fifth straight year.Eddie Ziegenfuss had three goals for Sparta, and Gage

Malinowski broke a 3-3 tie with the game-winner with sixminutes to play.The two teams meet once more on January 21 in the rubber

match; Sparta needs a win to have any chance at the NJIHLWestern Division title while Newton-Lenape Valley would putitself in the driver’s seat with a victory.

Delbarton Sailing Ahead: Once again undefeatedagainst New Jersey schools, Delbarton is the clear #1 team in thestate. The Green Wave did suffer an upset loss to Hotchkiss ofConnecticut, but also recorded a couple of impressive wins on theroad in Massachusetts.Within the Garden State, Delbarton has dominated the Gordon

Conference, winning no game by less than three goals. But thatisn’t the feat that it used to be. Until recently the clear eliteleague in New Jersey, the Gordon has fallen on hard times thisyear. Besides Delbarton, only Don Bosco Prep and ChristianBrothers Academy have strong records, and conference membershave suffered a series of unexpected losses to outsidecompetition.In fact, Delbarton’s only close game thus far within New Jersey

came against Morristown-Beard of the Mennen Division, whichfell 2-1 to the Green Wave. So while Delbarton isn’t a lock forthe Gordon Cup and Non-Public state titles, it would be even abigger surprise than normal if they don’t emerge on top this year.

Photos by:Vinny Carchietta

www.mchss .net

Freshman goalie Shane Brown

COLONIAL UPRISING: MorristownHockey Among the State's BestBy Paul Mencher – ASM Northern Review Managing Editor

Senior forward Zach Mourad

The Morris Catholic girls sat silently in the center of the gym floor.Some had their legs crossed in front of them with their arms resting ontheir knees. Others had arms folded in front of them, eyes closed orlooking down. It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop and the sound of asingle bounce of a basketball echoed off the walls. The Crusaders have the

reputation as winners, but thisis not a story about victories.It’s about getting up off thefloor. It’s about what a goodteam does after a bad loss. Noteam in any sport likes to talkabout failure, but it’s how ateam responds to failurewhich often leads to itssuccess. Chatham defeatedMorris Catholic 64-49 thenight before and now theCrusaders had to decide whatthey were going to do about it.“In general, after any loss

everyone is going to be upsetabout it,’’ senior forwardJessica Porada said. “It mightnot be the most constructivethinking, (players) might bemad about what they didduring that game. When youget to think about it, yourealize what you did wrongand what you could have done better -- what the other team did right thatyou couldn’t stop. You want to make sure the next game you play to notlet those things happen again.’’The loss wasn’t just a normal regular-season game. There were some

tears shed by Morris Catholic players afterward. Some were stunned ordisappointed. The Crusaders trailed 7-0 just two minutes into the gameand never did get within six points of Chatham – which beat out MorrisCatholic for the division title last year – for the rest of the contest. Seniorpoint guard Danni Brown thought about the loss throughout the long ridehome.“I was personally a little upset with myself,’’ Brown said. “As a point

guard, I think I should have carried my team a little bit more. I could’vedone something better to contribute to that game. I know it’s not alwaysgoing to be perfect but I think as one of the leaders on the court I couldhave done something to produce more for the team.’’Losses are not something players like to accept, but they happen, so the

Crusaders were prepared to take their medicine when their coach RichFachet started to talk. Fachet and his assistant Bob Caprio have been withthe Crusaders for four years but have been teaching and coachingbasketball for decades. They are old school guys and their spiral-boundthoughts and ideas are time-tested. They know what they don’t like andhow they want it to be fixed, and were willing to tell their players in nouncertain terms. After a loss, it’s time to figure out what went wrong andget back to work.“It’s a learning experience and you try and correct the most obvious

mistakes,’’ Fachet said. “If you do a lot wrong, you can’t change 15 thingsbut you take two or three of the most serious problems and try and rectifythem, and then go to the next game and hopefully get better at the thingsyou didn’t do the game before.“Losses are tougher at Morris Catholic, but it’s mostly from the fans

and it’s a matter of having a realistic approach to what your team iscapable of doing. You want to play to the best of your abilities. Ifeveryone accepts their roles, you can be very successful at.’’Fachet believes that roles and chemistry are critical to any team

success. He often looks back to the best basketball team he ever coached:the 1991 Parsippany Hills boys basketball team which finished with a 26-1 record. Glenn Sekunda was the leading scorer in Morris County history,but each member of the Vikings had their role and understood what wasexpected. They won championships 20 years ago and are still consideredone of the best basketball teams in the history of Morris County. Boys orgirls, the elements that make a team succeed have not changed much overthe years.The Morris Catholic players seem to know their roles. Experienced

returnees like Sade Idera and Devin D’Amico and talented newcomersAnna Toke and Alexa Guiliano along with their teammates have the skillsto adapt to what the Crusaders want to do.Fachet also believes that having good captains is a huge plus to a coach.“Captains, to me, are liaisons between the coach and the team,’’ Fachet

said. “If the captains don’t support the coach, you can have a problem. It’sa matter of them transferring in a positive way the thoughts of the coach.It’s a huge factor.’’

Fachet likes his captains and he believes the makeupof the Crusaders, who have four returning starters fromlast year, can absorb a loss against what is obviously avery good Chatham team. After a small talk, the players got up and went to

work. The practice focused on running the offensebetter and getting in better position for rebounds.Gradually a few smiles broke out from the serious facesof the girls. A practice they probably dreaded from themoment they left the Chatham floor was winding down.There were reasons to be happy again.“Whenever he talks to us about the game the night

before, whether we win or lose, its always constructivecriticism,’’ Porada said of her coach. “We get to thenext game and we work on whatever we need to workon. He also tells us what we did right.’’“Towards the middle part of practice, we were

working hard and got into what we needed to do andwhat we needed to work on.’’Brown, who is very competitive and understands the

burdens of being the team captain and the point guard,tries to keep a positive outlook.“Coming back into the gym, I think we were all

pretty straight minded and had a good attitude and we were ready to reallypay attention and get things going for us again,’’ Brown said. “You haveto handle (losses) in a mature way because we are a team. We all knownot one person lost the game for us. We all contributed.“We are all good players. We all do things well. As a team we just have

to be mature about it and look at it in apositive way. If we blame the game oneach other, nothing would have beenaccomplished in any of the practices.’’Perhaps the best thing for the

Crusaders was that they had a game thenext day and had to get right back at it.They ended up playing (and beating)Paterson Kennedy on a neutral court. Inthe coming weeks, they have to focus onbeating Pequannock and Hanover Parkand the rest of the NJAC IndependenceDivision teams on their schedule in orderfor their next meeting against Chatham tohave any importance. And at least thatrematch will be on the Crusaders homefloor.Perhaps the previous defeat will help

them better defend the Cougars and oneof the standout players in the county,Amanda Berntsen. And don’t be surprisedif a hint of emotion dwells in the back ofthe Crusaders’ minds as well, becausewinners hate the taste of defeat.

“I hope I never feel like that again,’’ Brown said. “It was apretty bad loss.’’

4 / ASMNorthern Review Volume- I I Issue-1 1 /23 / 12

Senior Danni Brown

Photos by :E i leen Ke l l y

Senior Jessica Porada

Girls' Basketball: Morris Catholic Seeks ToBounce BackB y M a r k K i t c h i n – S t a f f W r i t e r

www.asmnorth.com ASMNorthern Review / 5

There aren’t many public schoolswilling to pick up the phone and take thechallenge of playing one of the best highschool basketball teams in the nation.Morris Knolls didn’t blink an eye. TheGolden Eagles initiated the schedulingof a game against St. Anthony in JerseyCity, which was played in December.

The 91-38 loss was expected, but Morris Knolls,which is having one of their best seasons in years,might have gained a little, too. At least they can saythey tested themselves against the very best.

“We wanted to face the challenge,’’ senior guardEsaun Mobley said. “We wanted the competition.

“I thought it would help our team in general. It wouldhelp us get ready for this county.’’

Niko Kotoulas, who was on the verge ofreaching the 1,000-point career scoring mark atpress time, said the Golden Eagles weren’tdisappointed in their performance and playedwell in spots.

“We wanted to play the top kidsin the nation and see where westand against them,’’Kotoulas said. “I justthought it was a greatexperience to play topcaliber kids. They are goingon full rides to every school in the country.’’

The players asked Coach Ken Ferrare andathletic director Ken Mullen to schedule thegame, which took place in a small gym near theJersey City school. The Golden Eagles tookthe defeat as a learning experience.

“As a coach it was a blast,’’ Ferrare said.“My seniors are a mature group and theywanted it, and basically out of respect for themyou want it. We made the phone call to set upand surprisingly they had an opening and itworked.

“I’ve seen (St. Anthony coach) Bob Hurley manytimes, always as a clinic speaker. You are talkingabout one of the best high school coaches of all time.You are talking about four big, strong, Division Ischolarship athletes. It was another level of basketball.This particular year -- even though they hammered us --I think it worked out well.’’

An International Wave

Delbarton boys basketball is suffering through one oftheir toughest seasons in years but a visit from anunlikely opponent just might help turn their seasonaround. On January 15, the Green Wave held ascrimmage against Nanyang Paradigm High Schoolfrom Shanghai, China and edged their opponents onRyan Curran’s buzzer beating 3-pointer.

“It was really exciting because it was so different,’’Delbarton coach Dan Whalen said. “. I think it wasgreat for our kids to host the Chinese kids. … Just

playing a different style of team is kind of fun. Ithought it was a great experience.’’

The Chinese team was supposed to play another NewJersey private school which backed out, and Delbartonstepped up to take its place.

The tour came about when JosephCooley, who lives in Shanghai and runsthe China operation for an Americancompany that makes automotiveleather, struck up a relationship withthe school. Shanghai is a

basketball crazy cityand the

hometown ofrecently retired

NBA

standout Yao Ming.The trip, which tooka year and a half toput together, isconsidered to be the first

time a high school basketball team from China has evertoured and played in the United States. Their stopsincluded Chicago, Buffalo and Washington D.C.

“It’s been a great cultural exchange,’’ Cooley said.“The basketball games are incidental. It’s the exchange,the interaction; the home stays with the kids. They aregoing to go home different people. That’s the greatthing about it.’’

The Curran family was one of several local familiesthat housed one of the athletes for a few days.

“It was great having them over, seeing what they arelike as kids, not just playing basketball,’’ Ryan Curransaid. “It was weird (playing them) on the court becausesometimes you can catch on and figure out what playsteams are running -- here we couldn’t.’’

The language barrier didn’t stop Curran who took apass from Billy Carroll and nailed a 3-point shot as

time expired which gaveDelbarton a victory, at leastin their hearts.

“It got us our first winin quite awhile,’’ Curransaid. “Maybe we can getsome momentum cominginto the next group of

games.’’

A Ram on the Run

Randolph standout Julian Aiken will make aname for himself if he continues to put together

the type of numbers he has been lately. The Ramsstandout is averaging more than 27 points a game.

The top scorer in Morris County is also among thescoring leaders in the state.

“He’s one of the best players inthe county,’’ Morristown-Beard’sHarrison Rosemond said.

“He knows what to do with the ball. He’s verycrafty with the ball and he knows how to finishwith the contact. He’s gotten strongerthroughout the years. He can finish and hewas piling up points on us.’’

Julian Aiken, a 6-foot-2,170-pound senior guard is

great in the open floor, he can also knock downthrees and hits his free throws. He finished with 38

in a loss against Morristown-Beard. His top gamesalso included a 38-point performance againstHunterdon Central and a 37-point game againstMonroe.

Unbeaten Crimson

It’s not surprising that Brian Bartner and hisMorristown-Beard teammates are having such a goodyear. Bartner, for one, is coming off a great summer oftraveling and playing hoops.

“This past summer I played a lot of AAU with HoopHeaven elite,’’ said Bartner, who will be playingcollege basketball at Wesleyan University in

Stepping Up: NJAC Boys' Basketball U p d a t eStepping Up: NJAC Boys' Basketball U p d a t e

C o n t i n u e d o n n e x t p a g e


B y M a r k K i t c h i n – S t a f f W r i t e r

Connecticut next year. “I played with all the Gill St.Bernard’s guys. We traveled all over the country. Theyare all great kids. They just love passing the basketball.They are fun to play with. We made the final four ofthe showcase in Orlando. We played against all thetop teams and we got one of our games onESPNU, so it was a real fun time.’’

The Crimson have played uneven at times,but as of this writing were the lastunbeaten NJAC school. Chris Jenkins,Harrison Rosemond, Tyler Terens,Bartner and Matt Rosenberg have hadtheir share of good and bad outings,but when one player slips up, anotherone has always stepped up. Morristown-Beardalso has some quality depth and adetermined attitude when the games gettight.

“We’re a more experienced team now andwe know how to deal with adversity,’’Jenkins said. “We stay together and keepplaying hard, like we do in practice.’’

Tigers BurningBright

Hackettstown is puttingtogether a strongseason. After arough opener, theTigers rolled toseven straight winsbefore a triple-

overtime loss at Newton. Butthey bounced right back to winthe next two games on theroad at Belvidere andRoxbury.

One of the Tigers’biggest wins of theseason came in thefinal of their ownholiday tournament,when they puttogether a strongeffort to topHanover Park58-44. It was an

emotional night, as Hackettstowncoach Mike McDonagh had lost his

father earlier in the day.

The loss to Newton dropped theTigers into a three-way tie for theFreedom Division lead. However,Hackettstown would appear to have theedge as they will play Hopatcong andNewton at home the second time around.

Zach Arconasenior guard

Cougars on Crutches

Despite injuries to some key personnel, theChatham boys’ team just keeps rolling along. Theylost last year’s leading scorer Jonathan Bertnsen toa torn meniscus and an important rebounder and

post scorer Sam Carson to abroken leg. Still the Cougarswere tough enough to upsetneighboring Madison when theDodgers were unbeaten andthey did it while using severalathletes they called up from thejayvee level.

“Coach (Todd) Ervin just keepstelling us to stay focused on the

game,’’ junior forward Joe Timmessaid. “We always stay prepared. Wealways try to watch some film. Weprepare ourselves the best we can --even the guys on crutches. We just tryto stick to our assignments and playevery game with effort.’’

Both Berntsen and Carson areexpected back before the season ends,meaning Chatham will be eventougher come tournament time.

Colin Brown senior forward

Photos by :

Rober t Ha r r i swww. rober tha r r i s . smugmug.com

Pau l Swensonwww.photosbyswens.zenfolio.com


One year after the NJAC produced two state team champions inwrestling, and nearly a third, the conference does not appear tohave any super teams this year. What the league does have isparity, mirroring the situation across the Garden State.

The top team in MorrisCounty thus far in theseason is Morris Knolls.The Golden Eagles featureone serious contender tobe a state champion, JanRosenberg at 106 pounds.But it’s their strength inthe upper weights,combined with the newweight classes for thisseason, that has pushedthe Eagles to the top.

The new weight lineupputs more emphasis on thehigher weights, which iscausing difficulty formany teams. But for

Knolls, it’s no problem at all.

The Golden Eagles made the most of their advantage in aseason-opening win over Delbarton. Knolls won all six weightclasses from 160 to heavyweight to pull out a 30-29 victory overthe defending Non-Public Group A state titlist. Knolls followedthat up with wins over Randolph and Roxbury, two of the otherstrong teams in the division.

“It's a big confidence (boost) knowing that we have the bigboys up top to score some points,” says Morris Knolls coachLarry Rizzo. “That makes it a lot easier for some of the otherguys.”

“We're very flexible, we can bump weights up and down,” saysjunior Mike Rettino, who usually wrestles at 182 pounds. “Thenew weights are definitely helping us this year.”

The Golden Eagles are clearly in the driver’s seat for theNational Division title and must be considered a favorite to winthe North 1, Group IV sectional title. Few opponents will be ableto match up with their strength at the top of the lineup.

“We're very fortunate in that respect,” says Rizzo. He thenadds with a chuckle, “This year it's working out but I don't knowabout next year.”

Green giants in the lower weights

The lower half of the Delbarton lineup is as strong as any in theGarden State, perhaps rivaled only by the group at SouthPlainfield. Five Green Wave wrestlers are listed in the individualrankings, so the Green Wave promises to come away with lots ofhardware from Atlantic City in March. They’re also the favoriteto repeat as champions in the upcoming Morris CountyTournament.

But the new weight classes are going to make it tough forDelbarton to earn a second straight Non-Public A state title. TheGreen Wave was already young and inexperienced in the upperweights, and the loss of state place-winner Devin Gobbo to aseason-ending injury simply exacerbated the situation. The

defeat to Morris Knolls made clear how big achallenge it would be.

Delbarton has been wrestling a challengingschedule, and also suffered losses to SouthPlainfield and St. Peter’s Prep, two of thestate’s top five teams. Still, the Green Wavecommands respect for its remarkable strengthin the lower weights, and will be an opponentno one wants to face in the state tournamentnext month.

Sussex County showdown

As expected, Kittatinny and High Point appear to be on theirway to division titles. Both are also favorites for their respectivesectional crowns and must be regarded as real contenders for stategroup titles as well.

Kittatinny has just one dual-meet loss this season, and that onecame in strange fashion against Warren Hills, when a Cougar

wrestler suffered adisqualification for anillegal slam in the finalbout when Kittatinny wasabout to wrap up thevictory. The Cougarsfinished fourth in therecentHunterdon/Warren/Sussextournament, a solidperformance in a powerfulevent, but still a slight

disappointment.

Coach John Gill has a reputation for getting Kittatinny to peakin time for the state tournament, and with the Group I state titleup for grabs this year, the Cougars have a real chance to addanother trophy to their case.

As for High Point, the Wildcats found out how different life in

Morris Knolls’s Jan Rosenberg

Weighty Issues: NJAC Wrestling UpdateBy Paul Mencher – ASM Northern Review Managing Editor

Morris Knolls’s Jermaine Eluemunor

8 / ASMNorthern Review Vo lume- I I Issue-1 1 /23 / 12

Kittatinny’s Nick Romyns

C o n t i n u e d o n n e x t p a g e

the post-Class of 2011 era will be at a recent quad meet. HighPoint suffered three losses in the event held at Southern Regional,falling to the hosts, plus Brick Memorial and Bergen Catholic.All three are strong teams, but the Wildcats lost as many matchesto NJSIAA opponents in one day as it did in the previous fourseasons combined.

High Point also finished seventh at the H/W/S tournament, butthe Wildcats cannot be counted outwhen it comes to the teamtournament. Group II also appears tobe a wide-open affair, and despite thelack of big names in its lineup, HighPoint is one of the teams which willbattle for the crown.

While local fans look forward toseeing how these two teams do in thestates, there may be even moreanticipation for their head-to-headmeeting on January 26 in Wantage.High Point won the last fivematchups, and while Kittatinny is thefavorite this time, all bets are offwhen these two teams get together onthe mat.

Panthers claw ahead

One of the biggest Morris County duals of the season tookplace this past week when Pequannock edged Hanover Park, 33-29. While both are Group I wrestling schools, they are amongMorris County’s best and have proven their ability to competewith some of the state’s top teams.

Pequannock hasn’t lost to New Jersey competition since itsfirst dual of the season, a streak of 13 straight victories. ThePanthers went to South Jersey recently and crushed thecompetition at the Collingswood Duals, and also beat threeGarden State teams at an event in Pennsylvania. But the winover Hanover Park was Pequannock’s biggest test yet.

The Hornets came in battle-tested, having faced a toughschedule that includedTimber Creek, at thetime ranked #1 in NewJersey (a match HanoverPark lost by only eightpoints).

After Pequannockjumped out to an earlylead with the matchbeginning at 195 pounds,Hanover Park won five ofthe seven bouts in thelower weights to build a25-18 advantage. Butpins by Tyler VanDykeand Keith Lemengello,sandwiched around a key

decision by Joe Fierro, allowed the Panthers to clinch the victory.R.J. DeGeorge also had a critical win, taking a 3-2 decision overGenaro Cucolo at 132 pounds.

The Panthers are now all but assured they will win theIndependence Division title, which they shared with HanoverPark and Parsippany last season.

Raising their game

Give Mountain Lakes credit for trying to build its program.Wrestling has never been a big sport at the school, better knownfor powerhouse programs in lacrosse, football and swimming.But coach Matt Stanzione put several tough duals andtournaments on the Lakers’ schedule this year.

While Mountain Lakes suffered some lopsided lossesagainst teams like South Plainfield and Delbarton, they alsoearned a key win over defending Liberty Division championBoonton. That gave the Lakers a chance to earn a historicleague title, but a loss to Whippany Park on January 19 dealtthose hopes a serious blow.

Pequannock’s Chaz Coppa

Pequannock’s R.J. DeGeorge

Photos by :Ed Leonard

www.edleonardphoto.smugmug.com

T racy K l imek


Sometime within the next week or so, theWhippany Park girls’ basketball team willpick up yet another win. The Wildcats wina lot, but this one will be noteworthy as amajor milestone in a remarkable, andunderappreciated, coaching career.In his 30th year coaching the Whippany

Park girls, Tom Wilson is about to securehis 500th victory. It’s a hugeaccomplishment, one that puts Wilson on avery select list that includes the likes oflongtime Sparta coach Fred Geffken andformer Mendham mentor Fred Corona. Animpressive achievement, to be sure, yet it’sjust the latest in a long and successfulcareer coaching three sports.Since coming to Whippany Park in 1980,

Wilson has earned well over 1,200 victoriesas a varsity head coach. Yet to hear him tellit, much of his success can be attributed to aseries of fortunate breaks.After graduating college, Wilson took a

job doing cost accounting for Colgate-Palmolive but found it unfulfilling. Hedecided to look for a teaching positioninstead. “The first job I applied for—theonly job, in fact—was the Whippany Parkjob,” he says.It was perfect for Wilson, a college soccer

player, because the school also needed avarsity boys’ soccer coach. He has been thecoach of the boys’ soccer squad ever since,except for two years in the 1990’s when hemoved over to coach the girls’ soccer team.Coaching basketball was never in

Wilson’s plans, though; he originallyfigured he would work as a hoops referee,until a twist of fate. “My second year ofteaching the assistant girls’ coach quit and

they needed somebody desperately,” hesays. “With very little knowledge, I becamethe JV coach for a year. Then when thevarsity coach left to coach in college Iended up being the varsity coach in just mythird year.”His own basketball experience mostly

came from riding the bench for two years atMorristown High School, so Wilson had toexpand his knowledge. “I remember takingclasses at the County College of Morris,” hesays. “I read a lot.” It helped that hisinitial group was extremely talented; in justhis second season with the varsity, theWildcats went all the way to the state final.A funny thing happened to this soccer and

baseball guy, too: he fell in love withbasketball. “I just love everything aboutit,” Wilson says. “It’s a small group of kids,you get to know everyone real well. I alsolove the games because you can really makea difference as a coach.”Wilson has clearly done that; as of mid-

January, he had a 496-238 career record inhoops, leading the Wildcats to sixconference titles, three sectional crowns anda pair of state final appearances. Still, he’dlike to accomplish more; the Wildcats havenever been able to break through against thelarger schools in the Morris Countytournament.This year’s team provides a real

opportunity to add to Wilson’s legacy. Ledby seniors Olivia Dudley and LaurenO’Connor, the Wildcats had only one loss intheir first nine games, by three pointsagainst a very tough Blair Academy team.Wilson notes, “This team has a chance tomake it four years in a row of 20-plus wins,

which is the beststretch in schoolhistory.”With all of Wilson’s

achievements,though, he doesn’tseem to get theaccolades that someother coaches do. Hisone stretch in thespotlight took placewhat seems like alifetime ago—and itwas, for all of theplayers on his currentteams.Wilson took over

the Whippany Parksoftball program in1985, another position he says he got almostby accident. Just a few years later, he foundhimself in charge of one of the greatdynasties in Morris County sports history.From 1989 to 1992, the Wildcats went

110-2 in softball. Led by pitcher ToniFortunato, one of the most dominant everon the mound, Whippany Park won fourstraight county titles and three statechampionships. Wilson coached eight moreseasons of softball, winning another statetitle in 1999, before stepping down to beable to watch his kids play Little League.He has the coaching history of a grizzled

veteran. Yet when you meet Tom Wilson,he simply doesn’t seem old enough to haveaccomplished everything he has. He couldeasily pass for a decade younger than hisage. “I’ve been fortunate, I’ve beenhealthy,” he says. “I think the fact that I am

active keeps me young.”As for reaching the 500-

win plateau? “I think thismeans I’ve been doing thisfor a long time and I’ve hada lot of talented players. Iwas able to find somethingthat I love doing and it’salso great to be able towin.”Wilson has also enjoyed

coaching his daughters forthe last six years; hisyoungest, Shannyn, is amember of this year’sbasketball squad. He’shappy that she’ll be there tobe a part of the celebrationof the milestone win.

But Shannyn will be graduating thisspring, and with his kids all leaving thenest, it begs the question of whether Wilsonmight be thinking about retirement. Whileacknowledging that things can change, hestill talks about goals he’d like to achieve,like getting to the county final four inbasketball, another county title in soccer,maybe another trip to the state finals. Hecertainly doesn’t sound like someone readyto hang up his whistle.“I think as long as I’m teaching, I plan to

coach,” Wilson says. “And maybe beyondthat if they’ll still have me.”

The Consummate Coach: Whippany Park'sTom Wilson Closes In On Another MilestoneBy Paul Mencher – ASM Northern Review Managing Editor

Photo by :Bob Dan i e l s


It may be fun, but there are times where playing basketball forthe Mount Olive boys’ team seems like playing in a paralleluniverse, where a lot of the fundamental rules of the sport do notapply.

Or, as the Marauders senior guard Justin Palanchi described it:“Not many teams can come down and shoot a three on almostevery possession and not get yelled at for doing it.’’

But Mount Olive gets away with it because it’s a fundamentalpart of the Grinnell system. It’s a style of play that gladlyexchanges three-point baskets for two-pointers, and doesn’t mindmisses as long as they are done quickly. It’s a system that uses thewhole court and subs players in and out just as fast as ice hockeyshifts. It’s an action-packed system that is almost as tiring towatch as it is to play, but at Mount Olive they hope the hard workthey have put in while learning it will pay off in victories.

Can such a system work at the high school level? Coach KevinMoore believes it is a gamble but not one without merit.

“I didn’t know,’’ Moore said. “We took the risk. Our coachingstaff spent hours with this in the spring. In the summertime wedecided we were going to have a mini-camp to implement it.

“We introduced it in July and we spent the rest of the summerplaying it. We wanted to gauge where wewere, so we scheduled a game withHackettstown in August. We had refs comein and the score was 122-97. We said, ‘Holycow, it can work. It can be successful.’ “

The trick is to score points in bunches,with a target of 100 points a game. TheMarauders finally reached that goal in agame January 18 against High Point; theyaverage more than 80 points per contest.

When successful, the system forces mostopposing teams to throw away much oftheir playbook and Mount Olive is able todictate the flow of the game. In other words,lace your shoes tight and be ready to run.

“It’s creating tempo,’’ Moore said. “Wewant to control pace of play, so we aretrying to get a shot off in 12 seconds, but wealso want the ball back in 12 seconds if wemaximize our effort. We will substitute fiveplayers every 60 seconds or so. It’s playinga game of attrition. You want to tire outanother team, and at the end of the game weshould have fresher legs.’’

It’s certainly not a traditional way to play,and most basketball coaches would considerit a gimmick, but Moore has never been afraid to experiment.When he was coaching at Bayley-Ellard he loved to have hisathletic teams play in an uptempo style. He also rememberedthose days in the 1980’s when he would stay up late and watchHank Gathers, Bo Kimble and their teammates put up amazingoffensive numbers for Paul Westhead’s Loyola MarymountUniversity college teams.

Moore, who is in his second year at Mount Olive, came across

Grinnell system websites and learned abouthow the system transformed the small Iowacollege from a non-descript program to aDivision III success in only a year. He alsoread about other high school and smallcollege teams who adopted the system andfound measures of success.

The Mount Olive boys’ basketball team hashad good years and bad years but they havenever won a county title or achievedconsistent success on the state level. Mooreknew that success would never come unlessall the players believed in it and were willingto go the extra mile.

“Everyone was really excited because noneof us have ever played like this before,’’Marauders’ senior guard Kevin Miller said.“We were all excited to try something new. Abunch of us like to shoot and we knew thatwas a big part of it, so most of the team wasvery excited.’’

That commitment included the Marauders often spending thefirst 30 minutes of practice out on the track, sometimes in 20-

degree weather, running laps and followingeach other up and down the football fieldbleachers.

“Even if we win, our goal is to get 100points, and if we get under that we have to runa lap for each point,’’ Palanchi said. “The lasttime we only scored 90, so we had to run 10laps for the 10 points we didn’t get, and thenwe ran on the bleachers for 10 minutes.’’

It’s uncertain whether the outdoor duty waswhat the players had in mind when the newsystem was introduced, but they understand thereason to keep the team’s conditioning at a highlevel.

“We were all for it. Just the thought of usscoring 100 points and shooting threes everytime we went down the court sounded awesomefor us,’’ Palanchi said. “We were definitely allin. There’s a lot of hard work to put into it butwe know what the results are going to be.

“The toughest part is the defense. Sometimeswe can’t get back in time and we’ve beenletting up some open layups. We have to workon that but I think we’re slowly comingtogether; we are working and getting better.’’

Much of a typical practice is spent on perfecting traps, runningbreaks and finding teammates on the perimeter for shots. Thereare 3-point shots taken constantly throughout the practice andespecially during the last half hour, when arms and legs feel theweakest and Moore wheels out “The Gun”.

It’s a three-point shooting and rebounding machine in whichthree nets are positioned just above the hoop to insure a good

shooting arc. A funnel is positionedunderneath. A mechanical server then firesthe basketballs to a waiting player whopasses them to players on the wings for aconsistent stream of treys. The machine alsohas a counter which tabulates makes andmisses.

Some of the Marauders’ results wereexpected. Since everyone is getting out onthe floor, there’s a lot of team togetherness--and few complaints about starting--becauseplayers are switched on an off the floor inone or two minute shifts. The team is in greatshape and there have been very few injuriesas a result.

One thing that has surprised the Maraudersis how enthusiastic their opponents havebeen this year. Mount Olive seems to begetting an opposing team’s “A” gamebecause they want to be the ones that “beatthe system”. Or maybe it’s because they

know a high-scoring, fast-paced game will give their scoringaverages a lift and there is no shortage of players who love toshoot.

Another big byproduct of the style of play is that – frenetic as itis – it is fun to watch and has been bringing a lot of people to thegames. Mount Olive’s cavernous gym has a great atmosphere andwhen the Marauders hit the road, like they did in packing theMendham gym a couple of weeks ago, fans are curious to see thisstyle of play and how their team might respond.

“I know we lost at Mendham, but just the fact that we sold outthe gym was great,’’ Palanchi said. “My mom almost didn’t getinto the gym because it was sold out but she talked her way in. Itwas wild.’’

The Pope John game was the school’s home opener and morethan 1,000 came to see Mount Olive earn a 94-87 victory. Sincethen every home game has been a must-see contest.

“It’s been great. I love it,’’ Miller said. “The hype in our schoolhas been great. The best game has been Pope John. That was themost fans I’ve ever seen for us.’’

The Marauders are still a work in progress and many of theirhigh scoring games have been surprisingly close. Only time willtell how successful the new system will be, but the efforts of theteam are not lost on their coach, and win or lose, theirperformances may have gotten local basketball coaches andplayers to look at the sport just a little bit differently.

“We have a great group of kids,” Moore said. “The extra workhas never been an issue. They bring a lot of energy and effort. It’shard. Day in and day out, getting yelled at and being told to run,run, run, go, go, go.

“If it was easy, then a lot more people would do it.”

A New Way To Play: Mount Ol iveTurning Heads With Frantic SystemB y M a r k K i t c h i n – S t a f f W r i t e r

Photos by :

Mark K i t ch in

Senior guard Kevin Miller

Senior Kevin Schafer

12 / ASMNorthen Review www.asmnorth.com Volume- I I Issue-1 1 /23 / 12

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