BY JOE HOFMANN
Christmas tournament trivia time: There are four 4X Parsippany Christmas Tournament champions. Name them. Answers below.
While covering the Parsippany Christmas Tournament this week, a few memories popped into my head.
Here is the top one: Way back in the late 1990s, a freshman heavyweight from St. Benedict’s beat up a senior from Bayley-Ellard.
The names might ring a bell: The Bayley big man was Roy Attieh, who wound up losing in the state finals that year. The St. Benedict’s kid? That was Steve Mocco, who wound up transferring to Blair Academy a short time later and became the nation’s top heavyweight.
Mocco won the match that night, 10-2. State finalists getting majored rarely, if ever, happens. But that’s how overpowering and technically sound Mocco was.
It is interesting to think back and recall the many different schools that come and go to the Parsippany Tournament, which is in its 48th year. Some of the schools that have participated in the recent past off the top of my head include North Hunterdon, New Providence, Delbarton, Whippany Park, Boonton, Newark Academy, Morris Hills, and St. Benedict’s.
Others I discovered while thumbing through tournament director Gary Vittorio’s informative tournament program include Sparta, Livingston, Millburn, Morristown, Morris Catholic (the Crusaders finished second three times, in 1969, 1970, and 1977), Emerson Boro and Bridgewater West.
Parsippany High had the best run of any team in the tournament’s history, winning the team title every year from 1973-79 (seven straight years) under Vittorio.
North Hunterdon had a dynasty of its own from 1983-1992, winning the tournament title eight times in 10 years (Union won it in 1988-89).
Another reason to love this tournament for me: All along, Vittorio personally has maintained that it is the Parsippany Christmas Tournament. It says so right inside the tournament program. When I was growing up, wrestling and basketball tournaments around this time of year were ALWAYS called Christmas tournaments – that is, until the secular, politically correct storm troopers decided to take the word Christmas out so as not to offend anyone. How ridiculous!
Trivia answers: Jan Rosenberg (Morris Knolls), Mike Grey (Delbarton, didn’t he win every tournament four times in high school?), Mike Van Doren (North Hunterdon), and Richard Strunck (Whippany Park).
Did you know? John Liberato coached Summit to a state football championship earlier this month. Liberato’s first head coaching job in football was at Hanover Park. Before that, his first head coaching job in any sport was at Parsippany, coaching the Redskins wrestlers.
