Category: Wrestling

by Mike Pavlichko

St. Thomas Aquinas names Matthew Silvestri as school’s new Athletic Director

St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Edison has named Matthew Silvestri as its new Athletic Director, the Trojans’ successor to Jerry Smith, who announced his retirement in early June after six years at the helm.

Silvestri comes from Pioneer Academy in Wayne, where over the past three years he helped launch and expand the athletic department to 14 teams, including varsity, JV, and middle school boys’ and girls’ basketball and volleyball, boys’ soccer and wrestling. According to a release from St. Thomas Aquinas, he has also led varsity programs in swimming, water polo and soccer, “consistently emphasizing student participation, discipline, and team culture.”

A 2015 graduate of Howell High School, he later attended Manhattan College, and participated in swimming at both. He’s also a certified emergency medical responder, and serves as a sergeant with the Sea Girt Beach Patrol.

St. Thomas notes that more than 80 percent of its student body participates in its 22 sports, including football, a program Pioneer Academy doesn’t have at the moment.

“We are excited to welcome Mr. Silvestri to the Trojan family,” St. Thomas President Kevin Sacco said in a release. “We knew it would take the right leader to guide our well-established athletic program, and we are confident that he will help it reach new heights. Our student-athletes are an essential part of our faith-based community and we look forward to seeing this program thrive under his leadership.”

In addition to overseeing its athletic programs, Silvestri also will manage STA’s athletic facilities, including an ongoing renovation of the main gymnasium where the basketball teams play. An original part of the school, which opened in 1969, the gym recently got upgraded scoreboards with shot clock capabilities. A new track is also being installed at the football stadium as well.

His predecessor, Smith, has long been a household name in Middlesex County high school athletics. He’s in the Woodbridge Township Athletics Hall of Fame, having coached baseball at JFK in Iselin, where he was 248-119 in 15 seasons and remains one of the winningest coaches in the GMC; they won eight division titles and two state sectional championships under his mentorship. Smith also coached basketball and track at multiple schools, and will turn 79 in late August.

Click below to hear new St. Thomas Aquinas Athletic Director Matthew Silvestri talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

by Mike Pavlichko

Promising to “put a fence around Perth Amboy,” John Fiore takes Panthers’ AD job

In his years as a head coach, John Fiore has worked in some very diverse communities, including the place where he had his biggest success, up at Montclair.

With student-athletes from “every socio-economic background on the spectrum” in terms of culture and diversity, Fiore had a 93-31 record with the Mounties over ten seasons from 2010 through 2019, winning four NJSIAA sectional titles in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2017, going undefeated three times in 2012, 2013 and 2017.

Now, after a brief stint at Elizabeth, Fiore is taking over as the new Athletic Director at Perth Amboy High School, taking over for Ken Mullen.

It’s an exciting time in the Bay City, with the brand-new, $283 million, 590,000 square foot high school just a year old, replacing the Eagle Avenue building that opened in 1971.

Fiore will officially start July 1, and has been meeting people around the school lately – trainers, coaches, student-athletes – and says the students are all “hard-working, great, respectful kids.” And he’s looking to keep kids in Perth Amboy, rather than going to other schools, whether public, charters or non-public, aiming to show they can have success not only in a Panther uniform, but also at the new high school.

Football – Fiore’s area of expertise – hasn’t had a winning season since Perth Amboy went 6-4 in 2011 under Mike Giordano, capping it with a fourth straight Thanksgiving win against arch-rival Carteret.

Perth Amboy’s boys’ volleyball team had the most success in wins and losses this school year, going 12-4 and winning the GMC Blue Division with an 8-0 record. Softball also went 13-10 and won the GMC Blue with an 11-1 mark,

Boys’ basketball went 15-12, while the girls were 6-17, and the baseball team went 8-12 in 2025.

Click below to hear new Perth Amboy Athletic Director John Fiore talk about his new job with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

by Mike Pavlichko

Veteran administrator Jerry Smith says it’s “The End of the Road,” announces retirement from St. Thomas Aquinas

After six years as Athletic Director at St. Thomas Aquinas, longtime administrator Jerry Smith announced Friday morning he’ll be stepping down at the end of the school year, on June 30th.

Smith – who will turn 79 in late August – has long been a household name in the world of Middlesex County athletics, having coached basketball, baseball and track at multiple schools, including a long baseball career as head coach at JFK in Iselin. He remains one of the winningest coaches in GMC history, going 248-119 in 15 seasons with the Mustangs, including eight division titles, and sectional championships in 1992 and 1997.

He’s in the Woodbridge Township Athletics Hall of Fame, and the Hoboken Athletics Hall of Fame as well. It was from there he retired as an eighth-grade middle school teacher in 2004 to lead the St. Joseph-Metuchen athletic program, where he remained for more than a decade, which saw some amazing St. Joseph basketball teams in the mid the early 2010s, with a Karl-Anthony Towns-led squad qualifying for three straight Tournament of Champions, winning it all in 2014 with Towns, Wade Baldwin, and Marques Towns, all D1 recruits.

We talked with Jerry at length for a wide-ranging interview, from how he got started in coaching and athletics, the development of programs at St. Joe’s and Aquinas, and even how he never meant to get into coaching – he initially had gone to seminary to be a priest.

Click below to listen to Jerry Smith talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko about stepping down from St. Thomas Aquinas at the end of the year:

by Mike Pavlichko

GMC’s 24th annual Dan Hayston Memorial Sportsmanship Awards honors dozens of student athletes, and adds Kindness Counts Awards through Marisa Tufaro Foundation

As dozens of student-athletes from around the GMC gathered at the Pines Manor in Edison on Wednesday, for the second year in a row, there was a new wrinkle for those in attendance at the 24th annual Dan Hayston Memorial Sportsmanship Awards Luncheon.

Five of them were honored with Kindness Counts Awards, given out by the Marisa Tufaro Foundation and the Peter Fund, going to those who demonstrate compassion, generosity, kindness, sportsmanship, inclusivity and empathy.

They included John Colon of North Brunswick, Grace Gogola of East Brunswick, Roberto Morales-Lopez of Piscataway Magnet, Juliana Marques of South River, and Shasha Smith of Mother Seton.

The Kindness Counts Award was established in loving memory of the late Peter Bonn Elchoness, a student-athlete from Niwot High School in Colorado who died suddenly and without warning in his sleep at the age of 17 in November, 2022, from a rare disease that causes damage to the heart.

Former longtime Home News Tribune sportswriter Greg Tufaro speaks at the 24th annual Dan Hayston Memorial GMC Sportsmanship Awards Luncheon at the Pines Manor in Edison on April 9, 2025. (Photo: Robert Morris/Studio Rob)

Each received a commemorative plaque and a $500 donation in the name to a charity of their choosing that helps children in need in Middlesex County.

As far as the Sportsmanship Awards, one boy and one girl from each GMC school was honored, while school awards went to East Brunswick, New Brunswick, Perth Amboy and Wardlaw-Hartridge.

The awards are named after Dan Hayston, the longtime East Brunswick boys’ soccer coach who roamed the sidelines for 22 years and taught physical education there. The Hall of Fame coach passed away at the age of 56 in 2006. With the Bears, he had an unfathomable 358-91-24 record, winning a league record ten GMC Tournament championships.

Ten $300 scholarships were awarded to the Sportsmanship Award nominees, chosen at random, with two additional scholarships thanks to Jim Gano of Crown trophy in Flemington – which donated the plaques for the event – awarded by The Peter Fund and the Marisa Tufaro Foundation.

Here’s a complete list of individual winners, who also received a letter from State Senator Patrick Diegnan of South Plainfield, who also attended:

  • Calvary Christian School: Ben Dabrowski and Victoria Barella
  • Carteret High School: Shane Castor and Daniela Portillo
  • Colonia High School: Joseph Figueira and Oyola Mia Cardenas
  • Dunellen High School: Danny Watts and Ella Walker
  • East Brunswick High School: Silas Vega and Samantha Arnold
  • East Brunswick Magnet School: Ramon Garcia and Addison Calabrese
  • Edison Academy Magnet School: Nimay Sathees and Deeya Mulchandani
  • Edison High School: Brody Ferrer and Olivia Smart
  • Highland Park High School: Seth Shapiro and Ruby Miller
  • J.F. Kennedy High School: Jayden France and Darshana Shah
  • J.P. Stevens High School: Sean Weeks and Jada Corbitt
  • Metuchen High School: Daniel Galligan and Ava Barasch
  • Middlesex High School: Owen Reynolds and Madison DeOliveira
  • Monroe High School: Kyle Capodanno and Nishmitha Thambi
  • Mother Seton Regional High School: Olivia Martinez
  • New Brunswick High School: Kevin Mercado and Kennedi Johnson
  • North Brunswick High School: Jahir Dawud and Rahkai Degrasse
  • North Plainfield High School: Anthony Penaranda and Saja Singletary
  • Old Bridge High School: Joshua Santiago and Peyton O’Regan
  • Perth Amboy High School: Yandel Susana and Genesis Soto
  • Perth Amboy Magnet School: Ethan Chendorain and Mextli Lomeli-Roman
  • Piscataway High School: Vaughn Turner and Alisha Dhillon
  • Piscataway Magnet School: Joel Polynice and Leila Martinez
  • Saint Joseph High School: Gavin Rivera
  • Saint Thomas Aquinas High School: Lucas Cassino and Emily Pittari
  • Sayreville High School: Brody Cannan and Angelina Sepulveda
  • Somerset Tech High School: Daniel Wuh and Rohini Routray
  • South Amboy High School: Jeremy Vasquez and Gabrielle Evanski
  • South Brunswick High School: Matthew Gomez Jimenez and Alexis Lease Springer
  • South Plainfield High School: Ryan Rizk and Ava Chapman
  • South River High School: Julius Rosado Juliana Marques
  • Spotswood High School: Matthew Reed Mikayla DaRocha
  • Timothy Christian School: Aaron George Anya Wildgoose
  • Wardlaw-Hartridge School: Ryan Maciorowski Mohisha Jha
  • Woodbridge Academy Magnet: School Sujal Dhoka Kiah Parekh
  • Woodbridge High School: Jahmir Beal Angelina Smolder
by Mike Pavlichko

New St. Thomas Aquinas boys’ basketball coach Austin Whitehurst suspended for recruiting violation by NJSIAA

When the NJSIAA altered its transfer policy a couple of years ago – most notably eliminating its residency requirement – it added the stipulation that schools are permitted to “recruit” student-athletes before they enter ninth grade, but emphasized all the ways that practice is illegal once they’re enrolled in high school.

And the NJSIAA also promised to crack down more on such illegal recruiting.

Apparently, the state’s high school athletic association is working to make good on that promise.

New St. Thomas Aquinas boys’ basketball coach Austin Whitehurst – who took over the program in the spring after Bob Turco left to become the head coach at Piscataway – has run afoul of those rules before even coaching a single game, and been disciplined by the NJSIAA.

NJSIAA Spokesman Mike Cherenson confirmed that news to Central Jersey Sports Radio in an email Tuesday, saying “NJSIAA’s Controversies Committee did hold a hearing and found that the coach had violated the Association’s rules against recruiting.  Penalties have been issued against the coach and the school.  NJSIAA will not provide any further comments on this matter.”

Sources familiar with the matter say Whitehurst was suspended for the first eight games of the 2025 season. The school was issued a fine, and Whitehurst also will have to attend education sessions and/or a workshop.

The suspension means Whitehead’s first game on the sidelines would be a non-conference home game on Saturday, January 11th against Cliffside Park, per the St. Thomas Aquinas basketball schedule posted on greatermiddlesexconference.org.

Reached late Tuesday afternoon, Aquinas Athletic Director Jerry Smith told Central Jersey Sports Radio that another school in the Greater Middlesex Conference had discovered that Whitehurst directly contacted one of its student-athletes, which is not allowed under NJSIAA rules.

Central Jersey Sports Radio is not naming the school or the player involved, in order to protect the player’s privacy.

The violation is considered a Level 3 offense, according to the NJSIAA’s Policies and Procedures for the 2024-25 school year. A Level 3 offense is “Direct recruiting contact/communication with a 9-12 grade student-athlete, or their family, from another high school by a district approved person including, but not limited to: paid coaches, volunteer coaches, students at the behest of their coach, or any district employee.”

The maximum penalties allowable for such a violation are as follows, per NJSIAA policy:

  • Violating program is ineligible to compete in NJSIAA Championship Tournament for one year or removed from tournament if in progress.
  • Vacating previously earned championships due to this recruiting violation.
  • Head coach of program, if not directly involved, will be suspended for ⅓ of the season’s maximum contests for that sport (scheduled contests if sport has no max.)
  • Any coach involved will be suspended in all sports for 1 year.
  • AD, head coach and all other coaches involved will take NFHS Course and attend appropriate NJSIAA workshop at own or district expense.
  • School (all sports) placed on probation for 1 year for 1st violation; 2 years if a repeat level 2 violation.
  • School will be fined ½ of the maximum amount allowed in Article 10, Section 2.

Whitehurst – an assistant the past four seasons under Turco, and previously a fixture on the AAU circuit – was hired back in late April. Turco won three straight GMC Tournament titles in six years at St. Thomas Aquinas, going 123-34.

Several of Whitehurst’s AAU players were on Turco’s 2021-22 team, which went 27-2 with only one loss to a New Jersey opponent, to eventual Non-Public South A champion Rutgers Prep.

Smith said he understood the situation, saying “It is what it is. You accept the penalty,” adding saying he had no animosity toward the reporting school, and acknowledging that the reporting school’s administrators did the right thing in supporting their own coaches. That’s something Smith has been well-known for in his long career as an athletic director.

But he also offered some advice for his fellow athletic directors, since the connections between high school sports and AAU programs often tend to blur the lines in terms of contact with players from other schools.

“Watch when you hire coaches that belong to soccer clubs or AAU,” Smith said, urging that they do their due diligence. “If you hire any of those coaches who have access to many kids, you’re putting yourself at risk for a penalty.”

by Mike Pavlichko

Services announced for giant of NJ H.S. Football, Immaculata’s Pierce Frauenheim

Get there early.

Services have been announced for the remembrance of Pierce Frauenheim, the longtime, much respected former football coach and athletic director at Immaculata High School from its inception until his retirement in 2012.

Frauenheim passed away Monday morning at the age of 83, leaving many in the high school football community stunned and saddened.

According to his obituary, family and friends are welcome to gather for visitation from 2 to 8 pm on Thursday, November 21 at Immaculata High School, with services to be held at 6 pm.

Large crowds are expected all day, not only from the immediate Immaculata community, but from all over the state.

There will be a Mass of Christian Burial at the Church of the Immaculate Conception – just south of the high school, on Mountain Avenue in Somerville, at 10 am Friday. Entombment will follow at Piscataway’s Resurrection Cemetery. Somerville’s Cusick Funeral home is handling the arrangements.

According to the obit, donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Christine Fox Frauenheim Foundation, the Pierce Frauenheim Scholarship Fund at Immaculata High School, or the Unitas Caritas Foundation, an organization founded six years ago “by a group of alumni that were dedicated to preserving the long, rich tradition of Immaculata High School,” according to its website. They “focus on preserving the school’s proud tradition by providing resources to help fund capital improvements, athletic equipment and other needs of the school.”

Former Immaculata head coach and Athletic Director Pierce Frauenheim. (Source: Immaculata Athletics Website)
by Mike Pavlichko

Legendary Immaculata football coach, Athletic Director Pierce Frauenheim dies at age 83

Pierce Frauenheim coached his last game for Immaculata in 2012, but his presence could still be felt in the decade-plus since throughout New Jersey high school football, whether it be the countless student-athletes who moved on or those who coached under him.

All are now mourning Frauenheim, who passed away late Monday morning at the age of 83, according to his family and Immaculata Athletic Director Tom Gambino.

Frauenheim had been having health problems the last several months, and his wife, Ann Marie, passed away less than a year ago. according to his daughter-in-law, Kathy Frauenheim.

Former Immaculata football coach and Athletic Director Pierce Frauenheim. (Credit: Patrick Frauenheim/Unitas Caritas TV)

CLICK HERE for information on visitation, funeral services, and where to donate in lieu of flowers.

Pierce Frauenheim was an Immaculata original. He was there in 1962, when it opened its doors, and started its football program a few years later, in 1966. His Spartans won four state championships in football – coming in 1984, 1985, 1994 and 2006 – along with 23 Conference titles, and had a state record of 16 consecutive regular season shutouts at one point.

He also had a run of 29 straight winning seasons from 1978 to 2003, and never finished under .500 again from 1978 through his final season in 2012, finishing with an overall record of 337-137-2. He is a member of the Immaculata Hall of Fame, was inducted into the NJFCA Hall of Fame in 2002, and the NJSIAA Hall of Fame in 2001.

A Pittsburgh native, Frauenheim was a standout in football, basketball and baseball, he was also a star at Rutgers, a two-way player on the school’s first undefeated team, in 1961.

Note: We corrected Frauenheim’s overall record and number of conference championships won, which were inaccurate in an earlier version of this story.

by Mike Pavlichko

Westfield’s Mammary appointed as NJSIAA Assistant Director, will oversee four sports

Former longtime Westfield Athletic Director Sandra Mammary – who retired after the most recent school year and was succeeded by longtime football coach Jim DeSarno – has been appointed an NJSIAA Assistant Director.

The NJSIAA announced the appointment Thursday, saying Mammary will oversee boys’ and girls’ tennis, field hockey, boys’ and girls’ swimming, and girls lacrosse. She’s no stranger to the association, which she’s worked with since 2019 in varying positions.

She’s been a part of the NJSIAA/NJSCA Hall of Fame Committee, as well as its’ Boys/Girls Tennis Committee, and the Flag Football Committee, a sport that has taken off in recent years. She also is involved with the Union County Insterscholastic Athletic Conference, and the Union County Conference.

An East Stroudbsurg graduate, Mammary received her master’s degree from Kean University in Union, and has been in education for more than 30 years.

“Sandy has been a part of two committees within the NJSIAA since 2019, and we’re excited for her to have a bigger role on our team,” said NJSIAA Executive Director Colleen Maguirein the release announcing the appointment. “As the former supervisor of athletics for Westfield Public Schools, she has 14 years of experience supervising 32 sports programs. I’m confident she’ll do an excellent job in this position.”

by Mike Pavlichko

“It’s my time:” Outgoing Colonia AD Ben LaSala looks back at decades of coaching multiple sports, molding student-athletes

He has spent decades on the sidelines, coaching sports like softball, wrestling, and most notably, football. In 2013 he stepped away from all that, but not too far away, to become Colonia’s Athletic Director.

Now, after 11 seasons at the helm, there will be no more schedule-wrangling, uniform purchasing, or myriad regulations to worry about. Now, he can just go to a game if he wishes, or not.

Ben LaSala announced his retirement months ago, early in the 2023-24 school year. But that was something to look forward to. Now, that moment is here.

There are so many names, so many people he’s had contact with, influenced, educated, he doesn’t want to forget any. As you would expect from someone who’s been an educator in some shape or form for more than 40 years.

Of course, he did try, sending frequent messages on Twitter over the past school year as he recalled stories, people, places and things from his long career.

And what will he do in his spare time? Beyond spending time with his family, listen all the way to the end of our conversation with him to find out!

Click below to hear Colonia Athletic Director Ben LaSala talk about his long and wide-ranging career with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

by Mike Pavlichko

Measures in the state legislature would offer protections, pensions for high school coaches

Contrary to popular belief, the high school football coach at (inset your favorite school here) is not striking it rich. Quite the contrary.

Not only that, but unlike teachers in a district, they have no protection from the whims anyone in charge. There’s no “tenure” for a high school baseball coach.

On average, New Jersey State Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D-Paterson) says high school football coaches make about $9,000 a year. If you broke that down by game for a team that plays ten games, that’s $900 a week for ten weeks.

That’s not bad if that was all they did. But they are involved year-round with their programs in some capacity or another. There’s pre-season, postseason, college recruiting season, weight room sessions in the off-season, and so on, and so on.

Wimberly knows this well. He was a highly successful football coach at Paterson Catholic – producing several future NFL players, including former New York Giant Victor Cruz – and later spent nine seasons at Hackensack before stepping down in 2021.

He has sponsored two measures in the New Jersey legislature aiming to help not only high school coaches, but anyone in education involved in an extracurricular activity.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel,” says Wimberly. He says the proposals are inline with what neighboring states like New York are doing.

The first measure would require that compensation for coaching – or other activities like band or school play – be considered as income toward that person’s retirement fund.

The second would allow for schools to offer head coaches three-year contracts and assistant coaches two-year contracts, giving existing coaches job security, as well as creating potential to attract – or retain – the best coaches.

Wimberly says the feedback he’s received has been mainly positive so far for both measures, which will be introduced again in May.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly about the proposals: