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.

- Paul Franklin