Irvington HS Hall of Fame 2024 class announced

IRVINGTON, NJ — The Irvington High School Athletic Hall of Fame announced its 2024 induction class.

ATHLETES

• Nashawn Brooks, Class of 2019. 

Brooks, who was tragically killed in a car accident in May 2021, lettered in football and wrestling. In wrestling, during his senior year, he won the 220-pound title at the Essex County Tournament and was named ECT’s Most Outstanding Wrestler. In the same weight class, Brooks won the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s District 10 tournament title and took fourth place at the Region 3 tournament to qualify for the NJSIAA tournament in Atlantic City. Brooks, as a linebacker, played football on an athletic scholarship at Wagner College.

• Randy James, Class of 2006.

James was a standout track and field athlete.

• Yvonne Bradford, Class of 1990.

Bradford was a standout soccer and track and field athlete.

COACH

• Kyle Steele, head wrestling and head girls flag football.

Steele has earned numerous coaching honors in wrestling and guided the girls flag football team that won the 2022 state championship. This fall, he was the first-year IHS girls tennis coach.

CONTRIBUTORS

• Ralph Steele.

Steele, who died in March, is the father of Kyle Steele and was the longtime public address announcer for IHS athletic events. He also founded the Irvington Golden Knights Pop Warner football program, which served as a feeder program for IHS and had famous alumni, such as Raheem Morris, current defensive coordinator of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams. 

• Bruce Essing. 

Essing was the former IHS athletic director for 20 years until his retirement in 2008. Prior to being the athletic director, he was a teacher at IHS for 14 years.

TEAM

• 1975 football team. 

The team qualified for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s state sectional playoffs. The NJSIAA state sectional playoffs began the previous year.

  Irvington High School athletics