Paul Leuthard … paging Paul Leuthard.

Who is Paul Leuthard? Well, he was a Morris County Tournament champion out of Morris Knolls.

And he is the one who got away. 

Literally.

Let me explain.
For the 25 years that I was the Daily Record’s high school wrestling beat writer, I made it a point of tracking down every single MCT champion and chatting for a few minutes. It made for a great follow-up second-day column.  

I’d get the kids while the tournament was going on and have my attention divided between the wrestler I was interviewing and the two wrestlers going at it on the mat.

It was a little crazy, but all 14 MCT champions had a story to tell and it was my job to tell it.

So, what about Paul Leuthard? He left Roxbury’s gym before I was able to get him. I searched far and wide … no luck. 

He left.

No problem: I called him the next day.

See, I couldn’t write about all of the other MCT champions and leave him out. I don’t want to operate that way. Gonna be thorough! 

I have been covering the MCT since 1992, either for the Daily Record, the Star-Ledger, or Morris Sussex Sports (Now Garden State High School Sports). 

The MCT is most certainly one of the high points of the season. Dozens and dozens of great wrestlers have walked through the doors at Roxbury and Mount Olive.

The wrestlers work so hard – more than any other sport because diet is involved. They deserve the accolades. The fans deserve the coverage. That is why covering the MCT is a huge responsibility. You don’t want to shortchange the kids, their coaches, their families, or the fans.

That is why, by my count, I have tracked down 390 wrestlers at the Morris County Tournament (and almost 800 at the districts, but that is a story for another time … I used to cover not one, but two districts every year. I took great pride in being the only New Jersey sports writer to cover two and not only one).

While interviewing so many kids at the MCT, I came across a wide variety of personalities and heard a lot of stories. 

Here are some of the memories and thoughts that stand out. 

1. James LaValle’s first MCT. The Hanover Park three-time state champion is the best wrestler I have ever covered … and, um, shall we say, not one who is chatty when talking about himself. When he became Hanover’s coach (replacing Dave Ryerson), Ryerson texted me and told me I wouldn’t believe who the new Hornets coach was. Yup, James LaValle. Lets’s just say I wasn’t too pleased t the time. But as it turned out, he was great at talking about other kids. Just don’t ask James LaValle to talk about James LaValle. Fair enough! The irony of the story: When I first interviewed James’ son Vincenzo three years ago, it was like night and day. Vincenzo was a quote machine!
2. In 1994, I predicted the first 13 MCT champions before Mount Olive’s Greg Dash was upset in the finals. That’s as close as I have gotten to picking ‘em all!
3. Jefferson’s Jeremy Bailer didn’t win an MCT as a junior but DID win a state championship a few weeks later. A year later, he was just as thrilled to win an MCT because it was his first MCT.
4. In 1992, Jefferson had four MCT champions in a row (Mark Piotrowsky, John Piotrowsky, Ken Rossi, Keith Rossi) and then a Madison wrestler won. The capacity crowd at Roxbury seemed to give a sarcastic cheer as if to say … “Finally, someone other than a Jefferson wrestler is an MCT champion!” I wrote it that way, and the Madison wrestler’s father called to complain that they were cheering a little louder because his son had won his third crown. 
5. The MCT has a wonderful Hall of Fame ceremony before the finals. Sometimes, kids or coaches that I haven’t seen for awhile return to get their award and make a short speech. It was great running into longtime Randolph coach Mike Suk the other day. That brought to mind the Rams great run of wrestling during his tenure. Randolph was in a lot of big matches, but as the beat writer for Morris and parts of Sussex County (and not just Randolph), he thought I should have covered more Randolph matches. Other people thought I covered too many Randolph matches. There were other good teams in the area, of course, and it was my job to find a balance. Some folks thought I achieved that balance and others thought I favored certain teams (depending on the team). Truth be told: I followed the winning teams, because they drew more readers.
6. There was a time when pots of coffee were necessary to remain awake during seeding meetings. Back in the day, seeding meetings would last until 11 pm after beginning at around 4. Nowadays, the coaches have turned to a much more efficient point system. Once in a while, coaches would contest an obvious No. 1 seed with a kid who clearly didn’t belong as a No. 1 seed. Many eyes would roll skyward, believe me. 
7. MCT trivia is unlike any other sport because of the incredible work of statistics guru Cliff Sailer. He has been around almost from the beginning of the MCT and there are few people as into high school wrestling as Cliff, who actually wrote a book about the history of New Jersey wrestling. 
8. One year, Jefferson’s Dan Vallimont beat Par Hills’ Justin Knag in the final but struggled. Vallimont was clearly agitated. “What are you mad about, you just won a county championship!” I said to him. He said, “Yeah, but if I want to win a state championship, I’ve got to do better.” Vallimont did indeed better, winning it all that year, his first of two.
9. Best Brother Act 1:  That had to have been Randolph’s Hakim family. All three – Sam, Tim, and Ali – were MCT champions. I spent a lot of time with Sam and Tim going into the 1993 state tournament and did a diary about their week. They each took third in Atlantic City. Tim wound up winning it all a year later. As a junior, he watched Sam get upset in the semifinals and that upset Tim so much that he went out and lost. A year later, Tim focused on HIS wrestling and won a state title. A few years after that, Ali won a state championship. Some kids are very guarded about what they say after winning a big match, but these three kids were terrific. They never dissed an opponent, but they made my job a lot easier. One time, Sam started saying something to me and I began writing it down. “Wait a minute,” he said, “I said that last week. Let me think of something better to say.” 
10. Best Brother Act 2: The Dattalo triplets did something in 2002 that will likely never be done again: The three won back-to-back-to-back MCT titles to lead the Rams to the team title as Patrick (103), Albert (112), and Mario (119) won their respective weights. Patrick would go on to become a two-time state champion and OW as a senior. Patrick won it as a junior at 103 and then, a year later, NO ONE picked him to repeat. Turns out, he beat the two kids everyone was raving about and brought home OW. 
11. Sad to say, back in the day, the MCT carried more excitement from a team standpoint. In my first six years, Jefferson won the team title before Randolph won the next seven. Rosbury, Hanover Park, and Morris Knolls won one each in the early 2000’s. Lately, it has been all Delbarton, which has won 15 straight. The MCT is no longer filled with suspense. Everyone knows full well the Green Wave will win it all again and win at least 9-10-11 weights (if not more). What makes it worse is that most of the finals are not competitive. Back in the day, it just seemed as though there was more suspense and intrigue. I’m not saying Delbarton shouldn’t be in it, I’m just saying that, when the team title isn’t known going into the finals, there is a different buzz in the crowd. That buzz has been missing for quite some time.
12. In 2013, I was elected into the Morris County Wrestling Hall of Fame without ever having set foot on a mat (unless I was interviewing someone … I played hoops in high school). When my name was introduced, it was nice to hear some applause. The funny thing is, I didn’t know a headlock from a hemorrhoid when I started out. I owe a lot of my knowledge and passion for wrestling to … read No. 13.  
13. A wrestling beat writer in Morris County high school sports is only as good as the Morris County coaches who were willing to take the time to help the writer through. There were many, many coaches who were terrific in the early going to help me along: Ron Standridge (Randolph), Buddy Freund (Roxbury), Jeff Churchilll (Morris Knolls), Kevin Carroll (Madison), Terry Hurley (Morristown), Ernie Eveland (Hanover Park), Fred Piotrowsky (Parsippany, Par Hills), Larry Rizzo (Morris Knolls), Oscar Zavala (Boonton), Len Smith (Pequannock), Brent Kaiser (Whippany Park), Bob Schernce (Mount Olive), Jeff May (West Morris), Mike Rossetti (Jefferson), John Krip (Montville), Mike Bullis (Mendham), John Liberato (Parsippany). Hope I didn’t leave anyone out.
14. One of the cool things about wrestling is that you can see kids emerge during their time in high school. Mendham’s Steve Adamcsik was a JAG (Just Another Guy) as a freshman but through perseverance and a tireless work ethic made himself into an MCT champion as a senior … and a state champion a few weeks later.
15. How many MCT wrestlers have I covered who have gone on to become head coaches? Wow, there are a ton. Here they are, with their high school followed by their coaching school Jefferson’s Mark Piotrowsky (Pope John), Jefferson’s Ken Rossi (Jefferson, West Morris), Roxbury’s Sean Smyth (Mount Olive), Morris Catholic’s Dave Ryerson (Hanover Park, now an assistant at Mount Olive), Hanover Pak’s James LaValle (Hanover Park), Jefferson’s Frank Ciaburri (Kinnelon), Roxbury’s Chad Eckert (Roxbury), Roxbury’s Todd Milsom (Roxbury), Morris Knolls’ Darren Bruseo (Sparta), Roxbury’s Kurt Freund (Hasbrouck Heights), Morris Knolls’ Joe Barchetto (Morris Knolls, now an assistant at Mount Olive), Roxbury’s D.J. Roman (Roxbury), Mendham’s Chris Marold (West Morris), Whippany Park’s Devon Engelberger (Whippany Park), Mount Olive’s Eric DiColo (Kinnelon), Mount Olive’s Anthony Colabella (Kinnelon).
16. A couple of guys I covered became AD’s. Jefferson AD Billy Koch wrestled for Bayley-Ellard and Mount Olive. West Morris AD Matt Moscatello wrestled for Lenape Valley.
17. Sometimes, people need to brush up on their reading comprehension. Around 1999, a good Roxbury wrestler named Carl Perrone won a county championship and said he wanted to win it all in Atlantic City. The only problem was that Lakewood’s Damion Hahn – a New Jersey all-time great – was in the same weight class. I reminded Perrone of that and he responded that he wanted to go for it anyway. Good for him! So, what happens? Some knucklehead posted on that old New Jersey wrestling forum that I was predicting that Perrone would beat Hahn. An army of people believed him and called me crazy, all because a guy didn’t know how to read. Learn to read, bro! There, I have been dying to get that off my chest ever since!
18. Morris Knolls’ Ben Denise won a county championship and advanced pretty far in the state tournament. He was an obvious choice to be Daily Record first-team All-Area. When it was time for him to come to the paper for his all-county picture, he showed up with a sticker of a leprechaun on his forehead. Yup, his headshot appeared that way in the paper soon after.
19. Sometimes, coaches know something about their wrestlers better than anyone else. In the early 2000’s, Roxbury had a scrawny kid who couldn’t make it up to 103, but then-coach Buddy Freund said he was the soundest technical wrestler and best kid in the Gaels program. Turns out, Freund was 100 percent correct. The wrestler was Ryan Fikslin, who’d become an MCT and a state champion.     
20. One of the most incredible success stories was turned in by Delbarton’s Henry Forte, a backup who wound up finding a spot in the lineup last year and the year before and wound up winning it all.