When it comes to wrestling, few have been involved as much as Carmine Rossi.

By the time he was a junior in high school, Rossi was winning an NJSIAA championship at Roxbury High School. He was the first state champion at the school, as well as in Morris County.

Although a football injury prevented him from wrestling senior year, he received a scholarship to wrestle at Bloomsburg. After wrestling several matches as a freshman, an arm injury ended his wrestling career, though he remained involved by practicing and working out with the team.

Rossi went on to coach at both the high school and middle school levels, as well as in youth levels. He later became a member of the New Jersey Wrestling Officials Association.

He caught the coaching bug as he did his student teaching at Berwick High School in Pennsylvania, where he was asked to assist with the wrestling team.

From there he was hired by Dover High School, and by his sixth season his team finished 12-0. He coached there from 1964-80, with two teams winning district titles.

In 15 seasons he coached 18 district champions, 6 regional champions, a runner-up and two state champions. He was inducted into the Roxbury High School Hall of Fame and a year later the Region I Hall of Fame.

He would start a youth wrestling team after high school practice, started a middle school wrestling team, and started the Dover Holiday Tournament that continues to this day. In the summer of 1970 he started and became Director of Champion Wrestling Club, where he trained more than 850 youth and high school wrestlers over nine years.

In 1980 he was diagnosed with colon cancer.

“Training from my wrestling helped me maintain a positive attitude and make it through some difficult years,” he said.

Following his recovery, he began coaching the Jefferson Youth Wrestling Team from 1983-1990.

Retired, he now lives in Florida with his high school sweetheart Judith. They have two sons, Anthony and Kenneth, and a daughter Michelle.