The following are the opinions of long time reporter and Hall of Famer Joe Hofmann.
By Joe Hofmann for MorrisCountyHSWrestling.com
Vito Luppino is a new assistant coach at Madison. Luppino has done great work as one Chris Kubik’s assistant coaches during Madison’s run that saw the Dodgers win three straight sectional football titles in Section 2, Group II.
Luppino has deep roots in wrestling. He was the Daily Record’s 1995 Wrestling Coach of the Year for now-defunct Bayley-Ellard in what was an easy choice for me. The Bishops won the Parochial B North championship one year after fielding a team with just a handful of wrestlers. Taking a Bayley match over the phone (back when newspapers routinely ran box scores in the next day’s editions) took about one minute because of all of the forfeits.
Bayley had a state heavyweight runnerup in Roy Attieh in the late 1990s. The Bishops also had a terrific middleweight wrestler in Chris Froehlich, who became the center of a conversation I had with Vito at the Roselle Park Christmas Tournament.
Froehlich beat Hanover Park’s Joe LaValle 2 of 3 times when they wrestled during Froelich’s senior year. But I gave first-team All-County to LaValle, who placed fifth-sixth in the state tournament in Atlantic City that winter. Froelich didn’t place.
“Froelich should have been All-Area that year!” Luppino said. …
One of the best parts of the Christmas tournament season is running into referees/friends who are back for the new season. Four refs I ran into were Tim Wyatt, Lou Delmonte, Joe Benvenuto, and Vin Russo. I also touched base with longtime Kittatinny coach John Gill, one of New Jersey’s best for a long time. The first time I ever met John Gill was back in around 1992 or so when they lost to Jefferson, which was No. 1 in the state at the time. Gill was gracious in defeat, but the thing I remember was how young he looked. I mean, he almost could have passed for a high school student at the time, not a coach! …
Hanover Park made a HUGE statement in winning the Henry Boresch Duals at Newton High this past weekend. The Hornets beat Howell and a Raritan team that beat South Plainfield – and James LaValle’s team did it without three starters, including heavyweight Nick LaShell, who lost to Haddon Township’s Alex Thompson in the state tournament by just 3-0 last March. LaShell is not ranked among the top eight heavyweights in the state by Bestonmat.com (the state’s premier individual rankings) but he should be.
If all goes according to plan, I think the Hornets have a real good chance of beating South Plainfield in the Section 2, Group II finals. Hanover could possibly become just the third public school from Morris County to have won a Group championship if it could get past High Point. Can you name the other two public schools from Morris to have won a Group and when? Answer below.
By the way, who was Henry Boresch? He coached Newton from 1927-1964, meaning, he was old enough to have watched Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle hit World Series home runs. He was 245-38-7 in his coaching career. I think the most amazing thing about his career is that he coached 76 individual state champions, a record that will not only not be broken, but will never, ever be evenly remotely threatened.
I remember writing a story about Boresch after covering his funeral service for the Daily Record. One of the best guys to speak with about Boresch was longtime Hunterdon Central coach Russ Riegel, whose team had many, many battles against Newton. …
Kudos to Pequannock coach Len Smith, who won his 400th career match when the Golden Panthers beat Scotch Plains for the North Warren Duals championship over the weekend. Smith continues to get it done. …
Trivia answer: The two Morris County public schools to have state Group championships on their resume are Randolph (1993) and Jefferson (1992-94). Delbarton won Non Public Group A in 2011. …
