Gary Vittorio, Class of 2010

Gary Vittorio, a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and a long-time wrestling coach at Parsippany High School in New Jersey, died Jan. 5 at age 87.

Raised in Watertown, N.Y, he went on to receive a Bachelors degree in Physical Education. From there he attended Penn State to pursue a Masters.

He settled in Parsippany, where he taught science, physical education and health, as well as pursuing an advanced degree at Seton Hall University.

A three-sport athlete in high school, he started the wrestling program at Parsippany in 1960. Twenty-five years later he retired with a record of 201-104-5. His team’s accomplishments included eight conference titles, four Districts and nine Holiday titles.

His wrestlers won 55 Holiday championships, 48 District championships, two state championships, as well as five other state medalists. His 1970 state champion, heavyweight Roy Baker, went on to National Hall of Fame status.

Vittorio went on to serve as Region President for the New Jersey Wrestling Coaches Association, and was also founder of the Morris County and Parsippany Holiday Tournaments.

He was inducted into the Parsippany High School Hall of Fame, the Morris County Hall of Fame, Region 3 Hall of Fame, and was also Coach of the Year in both District 9 and Region 3.

Eventually he became an active member of the New Jersey and National Education Associations and was an early leader of the Teachers Union in Parsippany. In 1960 he left the classroom to become the high school’s Student Activities Director.

Initially coaching football and cross country, his passion was wrestling, where he became an innovator and ambassador in the sport.

He leaves behind his wife Joan, four children, 11 grandchildren, nine great grandchildren, as well as one brother.

Memorial donations can be given to the Gary Vittorio Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Denny D'Andrea, Class of 2014

Denny D’Andrea, a member of the New Jersey Chapter Hall of Fame, died Jan. 18. He was 74.

Born in Jersey City, he graduated from Raritan High School in Hazlet, graduating in 1968 where he excelled in football, wrestling and baseball.

A graduate of Glassboro State College in 1972, he began his coaching career as a volunteer at Manalapan High School. His first head coaching position was at Freehold Boro. He returned to Manalapan as its head coach in 1977 where his teams won the Shore Conference Tournament and District championships in 1981 and 1982.

After five years he took a significant career move by becoming an assistant coach at Brick Memorial, where for 20 years he helped the Mustangs win 10 Sectionals, 18 Districts, five Group championships, and 12 Shore Conference championships, including 10 straight.

Denny also assisted coaching football and baseball at Brick.

Between Manalapan and Brick he coached five State champions, 44 Region champions and 120 District champions.

After a brief retirement he concluded his career coaching St. John Vianney for six seasons, where in 2019 the school produced its first state champion in Dean Peterson. Seven of his wrestlers went on to be head coaches.

Over his career he was named NJ.com Wrestling Coach of the Year and was inducted into the Hall of Fame at both Manalapan and Raritan high schools. In 2014 he was inducted into the New Jersey Chapter of the Hall of Fame.

Denny was the recipient of the Harry E. Lake Award for outstanding contributions to New Jersey wrestling.

In addition to coaching, he also taught for 40 years.

He leaves behind his wife Eileen, his children Mickey and Kelsey, and brother Anthony.

Donations can be sent to the Trenton Youth Wrestling and Learning Center, P.O. Box 55196 or to trentonyouthwrestling.org.

Gene Barber, Class of 2011

A 1969 graduate of Paulsboro High School, his wrestling career would span more than 40 years before retiring as head coach of Absegami High School in the 2010 season.

His own high school career included a District 29 championship while being named tournament OW.

From there he succeeded at the college level, placing second in the Junior Nationals for Camden County College in 1971. More success followed at Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey) where he would be a two-time College Division All-America, including a third-place finish in the DIII tournament n 1972 and 1973.

A career in coaching began in 1977 at Absegami High School, where is was also hired as a physical education teacher. Over a span of 33 years his teams compiled a record of 507-137-4. His teams won four Group IV championships, was ranked No. 1 in the state three years and ranked as high as No. 4 in the country.

From 2001 through 2004 his squads went 22-0, 20-0-1, 23-0 and 23-0.

They won six South Jersey Group IV Sectional titles, had eight individual state champions, 16 100-win wrestlers, 46 Region champs and 129 District champs. They also won 18 Cape-Atlantic titles.

Barber was Region 8 Coach of the Year five times and once named New Jersey Coach of the Year.

He would be inducted into the South Jersey Wrestling Hall of Fame, the Paulsboro High School Sports Hall of Fame, Camden College Hall of Fame, TCNJ Hall of Fame, National Junior College Hall of Fame, and the Gloucester County Sports Hall of Fame.

He is survived by his wife of 42 years , Kathy Barber, and children Matt, Gena and Michael.

- Paul Franklin