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The Blue Devils won the NJSIAA Group I championship for their first sectional wrestling championship d finished with a 25-2 record and ranked in the Asbury Park Press Shore Conference Top 10 for the first time.
Shore also had its second state medal winner ever and its first since 2002 when sophomore Jack Maida finished sixth at 106 pounds.
With eight starters returning next year, including all three of its state qualifiers and state si Shore could begin next season ranked in the top five in the Shore.
Kudos also to Southern’s John Stout, Toms River North’s Bill Wilbert, Ocean’s Cip Apicelli and Rumson-Fair Haven’s Bryan Heller.
Stout and his coaching staff pushed all the right buttons in the latter part of the season.
Toms River North defeated tradtional Shore Conference powers Southern, Jackson Memorial and Brick Memorial to win Shore Conference Class A South for its first divisional title since 1971 and first outright Shore Conference divisional title.
The Mariners will not be going anywhere. They return 11 starters next season.
Ocean overcame a season-long shoulder injury to its best wrestler and 2018 state medal winner Alex Poniros to win the NJSIAA Central Group III championship for its first divisional title since 2012.
The Spartans return nine starters next year.
Rumson-Fair Haven went 12-7 and showed that it will be a force next year.
The Bulldogs return 11 starters next year.
The 113-pound state third-place bout between Brick Memorial’s Vincent Santaniello and Bergen Catholic’s Nick Kayal.
The final four minutes of the bout was contested on the mat where both wrestlers showed their ability to score from the defensive position and score. There were five reversals in the final two periods – three by Santaniello.
Santaniello’s final reversal came with five seconds left, when he broke a tie and recorded a 9-4 win with the three back points that followed.
For a look at video highlights of the boys state championship bouts, go to the video at the top of this article.
The Shore Conference Tournament 126-pound final between Howell’s Neiko Malone and Toms River East’s Michael Conklin.
Malone won 13-11 in a bout that was just one, long, wild scramble after another.
The 185-pound girls state championship bout where Teaneck’s Erin Emery pinned Raritan’s Mia Lazaurs to become the first girls state champion.
For a look at video highlights of the girls state championship bouts, go to the video above.
The 111-pound girls state championship bout where Manasquan’s Bella Serrano defeated West Orange’s Daniela Tacuri to become Manasquan’s first state wrestling champion – male and female.
The 118-pound girls state championship bout where Raritan’s Cristine Gavasheli pinned Notre Dame’s Angelina Romero to become Raritan’s first state wrestling champion – male and female.
The 161-pound bout in the Jackson Memorial-Manalapan girls match on Dec. 14. Jackson Memorial’s Abby Stanburry pinned in the first bout in a girls match in New Jersey scholastic wrestling history.
The 113-pound state final, where St. John Vianney’s ultra-talented sophomore Dean Peterson became St. John Vianney’s first state wrestling champion with a 3-2 win over Emerson-Park Ridge’s Nick Babin.
Voorhees two-time heavyweight state champion Lewis Fernandes.
A hevyweight who can wrestle and sticks legs and boots in is fun to watch.
Fernandes had five pins in a combined 5:24 in his five bouts in the state tournament with four coming in 55 seconds or less.
He finished his career with 107 pins.
Wall senior 160-pound state champion Robert Kanniard.
Kanniard was dominant throughout the season, is outstanding on his feet, is always trying to better himself and became a takedown machine on the scholastic level.
Jewel Gonzalez of Phillipsburg, the 161-pound state champion.
She is strong and She is talented.
The cement job move she used to pin in the state final was extremely impressive.
Jesse Johnson of Manalapan, the 136-pound state champion. She bounced back from being pinned in the region semifinal to win the state title.
She showed why she is nationally ranked.
The 147-pound South Region girls third-place bout between Jackson Memorial’s Brandi Rado and Southern’s Gracie Cordasco. Rado won 3-2 in tiebreaker No. 1 to clinch a berth in the state tournament.
The intensity that both coaching staffs showed through the bout made one believe that it was the deciding bout in the Jackson Memorial-Southern dual meet.
The bout showed that it does not matter what gender it is, when a Jackson Memorial and Southern wrestler are on the mat against each other, the intensity of the Shore’s best wrestling rivalry will always be there.
Southern’s 30-28 win over Howell on Feb. 8 in the South Group V championship match that snapped Howell’s 78-match winning streak.
The match was wrestled in front of a large and boisterous crowd that created an atmosphere not seen often enough these days in dual-meet wrestling.
And the caliber of wrestling was pretty good, too.
Best Match of the Season No. 2. Jackson Memorial 28, Southern 25 on Dec. 19.
The latest installment of the great Jackson Memorial-Southern rivalry was one of the better chapters as Jackson Memorial rallied for the win with eventual state seventh-place finisher Vincent Scollo winning in the final bout to clinch the win.
It appeared to me that were not quite as many of these that were in the past and there is a slow movement, at least on the part of Shore Conference teams not to participate in as many of these this season.
Let’s hope that movement continues, and sometime in the future, most of these events disappear.
Quad and tri meets: The fact that there are still too many of these is annoying.
The endless parade of these events in late December, January and early February is still draining the life out of the sport. They, are for the most part, boring,almost impossible to follow and not well-attended.
More schools need to follow the Phillipsburg model and not participate in these events at all.
The Point Boro model of limiting quad and tri meets and wrestling big matches on Friday nights is a good one, too.
Southern is another school that does not participate in many quads and tris.
How about this concept: You are not allowed more than two quads or tris in a season. They can be used to get divisional matches out of the way early in the season.
Then, use the other Saturdays to wrestle a dual-meet against a team at your own level. At least, that might create matches that are competitive and interesting.
A couple of regions did this, and it is flat out wrong.
The arguments for it are that the Big Ten Tournament does it and it saves time.
To compare a New Jersey scholastic region fifth-place bout with the Big Ten fifth-place bout is ridiculous The Big Ten fifth and sixth-place finisher is still qualifying for the NCAA Tournament at most weights and could possibly win a national championship.
The fifth-place finisher in a New Jersey scholastic region fifth-place bout is not qualifying for the state tournament.
Championship bouts in district and region tournaments should be wrestled on one mat so those wrestlers have the stage to themselves and it is a special thing for them. In some case, a district or region title is the only championship a wrestler will win.
Also, fans deserve to be able to concentrate on a championship bout.
If people want to wrestle the first and third-place region bouts at the same time, that’s something we can live with. The third and fourth-place finishers are still qualifying for the state tournament.
Do not put the fifth-place bouts at the same time as the championship and third-place bouts, though.
Fifth-place bouts in region tournaments.
I have never been in favor of this concept. They are not for advancement and a waste of everyone’s time on region Saturday.
Want to guess how many fifth-place region finishers got to wrestle in the state tournament this year? Zero.
Forfeits have become an epidemic.
The reasons vary from schools not having enough wrestlers to fill all the weights to the strategic forfeit to the bumping away of good wrestlers from each other.
However, it is all putting the future of the sport in peril.
And while we are on this subject, it might be time for the National Federation to reduce the number of weight classes to either 13 or 11 from the current 14 .
Maybe with fewer weight classes, we might have fewer forfeits. It would also mean ties would be broken by most bouts won, instead of going through all the criteria that is gone through now.
The matches involving the No. 1 and 2 seeds against the No. 7 and 8 seeds in each section are ridiculous, noncompetitive and a complete waste of time.
Having wrestleback bouts and risking wrestlers who have already been through the grind of over a month of the season to more bouts and injury, is not a good idea just before the important part of the season.
The SCT is currently a little over a week before the NJSIAA Team Tournament begins and three weeks before the district tournaments.
Wrestlebacks also eat into the bout limits wrestlers have before the state tournament begins.
If the Shore Conference coaches really think wrestlebacks are necessary, then they need to convince the Shore Conference hierarchy to move the SCT up at least a week, if not more.
One coach mentioned to me that maybe the SCT should be at the start of the season. That is not a horrible idea.
George Lucas in Bevery Hills, California, March 11th, 1978.
San Francisco’s North Point Theater is packed with people, tension, anticipation. When the familiar strains of John Williams’ Star Wars theme finally rip through the theater, it brings smiles of relief and recognition to the expectant faces.
Sure enough, there’s Skywalker, big as life. And Han Solo, Princess Leia, R2-D2 and C-3PO – the whole group. The adventure continues.
By the time the houselights come up, the audience is on its feet cheering. The Empire Strikes Back, the long-awaited continuation of Star Wars, has arrived. And it is wonderful.
The Force behind both of these extraordinary films, as well as the cult classic THX 1138 and American Graffiti, makes his way through the crowd. Bearded, bespectacled, dressed in brown cords, brown V-neck sweater, checked shirt and tan sneakers, George Lucas, 36, looks more like a delivery boy than a man who is estimat...
Star Wars, you may recall, not only captured the hearts and imaginations of millions, but also made millions. In fact, it’s grossed more money in film rentals than any other movie in the history of motion pictures – more than $400 million – that is, until The Empire-Strikes Back. Only God, in a galaxy far, far away, kn...
The high wood fence that surrounds Lucas’ house in San Anselmo, just north of San Francisco, is intimidating, as are the signs NO SOLICITING and BEWARE OF DOG. But just as Lucas’ appearance is deceiving, so is all this. Behind the giant fence is a small, unpretentious wood house with a big front porch. And the dog that...
The front door opens onto a comfortable living room, dominated by a jukebox that holds Lucas’ extensive collection of vintage rock & roll records. Like these discs, Lucas is a product of the Sixties. He really does believe in all those Sixties things: art, sharing the wealth, one for all and all for one. He and his wif...
Lucas settles into a roomy chair, crosses his legs, folds his hands on his lap and talks about his latest projects, his hatred of Hollywood and the movie system, how he hopes to beat that system, the tortures of trying to get a film made, his pal Francis Coppola and his dreams for the future – a place where George Luca...
Why didn’t you direct The Empire Strikes Back?
I hate directing. It’s like fighting a fifteen-round heavyweight bout with a new opponent every day. You go to work knowing just how you want a scene to be, but by the end of the day, you’re usually depressed because you didn’t do a good enough job. When I visited the set in Norway and saw all the problems and the mise...
What did you do on this film?
I provided the story and technical advice, like, does a robot do this or that? They shipped me the dailies and I looked at them. There were some problems. They were a little over budget, over schedule. That concerned me, because I only had so much money and I was afraid if they used it all up, we wouldn’t be able to fi...
Well, it’s still my story. I just didn’t have to do all the work. [Smiling sheepishly] I feel Chewbacca is still my Wookiee and R2-D2 is still my little robot.
How would you have made the movie differently?
Hard to describe. I look at a scene and think, “Gee, I wouldn’t have done it that way.” A lot of people have told me that The Empire is a better film than Star Wars, so whatever my disagreements were, well, Kershner was right.
Can you tell us how all this evolved?
[Laughing] Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, when I was in film school . . . It’s a very long story.
Okay. I loved shooting cinéma vérité and thought I would become a documentary filmmaker. Of course, being a student in the Sixties, I wanted to make socially relevant films, you know, tell it like it is. But then I got this great idea for a rock & roll movie, with cars and all the stuff I knew about as a kid. And then ...
Yeah. We were working on it when Francis not only got the deal for THX but for Apocalypse Now, and one to set up American Zoetrope [Coppola’s film-production company]. It was exciting. We were going to be able to do just what we wanted. And then came Black Thursday.
Yeah. That’s what we called it. Francis had borrowed all this money from Warner Brothers to set this thing up, and when the studio saw a rough cut of THX and the scripts of the movies we wanted to make, they said, “This is all junk. You have to pay back the money you owe us.” Which is why Francis did Godfather. He was ...
I was left high and dry. THX had taken three years to make and I hadn’t made any money. Marcia was still supporting us, and I thought, “Well, I’ll do the rock & roll movie – that’s commercial.” [Smiling] Besides, I was getting a lot of razz from Francis and a bunch of friends who said that everyone thought I was cold a...
And it was turned down by every studio in town. The situation was pretty grim. Then I got invited to the Cannes Film Festival, because THX had been chosen by some radical directors’ group. But Warner Brothers wouldn’t pay my way. So, with our last $2000, we bought a Eurail Pass, got backpacks and went to Cannes.
But what about American Graffiti?
Well, I decided to stop in New York on the way to Europe and make David Picker, who was then head of United Artists, have a meeting with me, and I did. I told him about my rock & roll movie.
We flew off to England and he called and said, “Okay, I’ll take a chance.” I met him at his giant suite at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes and we made a two-picture deal for American Graffiti and Star Wars.
But United Artists didn’t make American Graffiti.