MAPLEWOOD and SOUTH ORANGE – The Columbia High School 2017 Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Dinner will take place Thursday, May 4, at Orange Lawn Tennis Club House, located at 305 N. Ridgewood Road in South Orange.
The cocktail hour is at 6 p.m. and the dinner is at 7 p.m. For tickets, contact Ed Manigan at emanigan@gmail.com.
This year’s inductees are:
- Henry Pryor, Class of 1943, football
- Don Rogers, Class of 1955, football
- Paul Hooper, Class of 1978, lacrosse
- Mary Alice Zavocki, Class of 1990, all-around
- Andrew Laskowski, Class of 1995, soccer
- Aiyanna Burton Anderson, Class of 1995, track and field
- Ibtihaj Muhammad, Class of 2003, fencing
- Dave Curtin (Pete Cross Award)
- Ed Saggio (Coach Award)
- 1995 Girls Lacrosse (Team Award)
Here are their bios:
HENRY PRYOR
Henry Pryor’s life was full of success, as an athlete, military figure and educator.
His remarkable journey began at Columbia, where he was a member of the Class of 1943.
Pryor, who was the third of four children, grew up in South Orange. He excelled in basketball and track, but achieved his greatest success as a halfback and return man on the football team under coach Phil Marvel. With Pryor leading the way, the team went 8-1 during his senior year.
With World War II dominating the times, Pryor enlisted in the military after high school. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps in a segregated unit in the Pacific. He was a rifleman, anti-aircraft gunner and military policeman.
Upon returning home, he enrolled at Rutgers University in 1946. He was able to continue his football career and was also active on campus, where he was a member of several honor societies and served as president of Military Honor Society. In 1994, he was inducted into the Rutgers Football Hall of Fame.
After graduating from Rutgers, Pryor was again called into military service, this time in Korea in 1951. He served there with the U.S. Army in the First Calvary Division.
His military service continued beyond Korea. He stayed on active duty with the 41st Civil Affairs Company and earned the rank of captain before receiving an honorable discharge in 1957. He continued to serve in the Army Reserve and achieved the rank of full colonel before retiring in 1978.
Henry married his wife, Carolyn, in 1951, and the couple eventually settled in Cranford, where they raised four children.
Pryor had a long career in education in Union County, first as an elementary and then high school teacher in Elizabeth, and later in Roselle. He was also an adjunct at Union County College, where he directed the Educational Opportunity Fund for 28 years before retiring in 1996.
He served on many boards and community organizations in the Cranford area and was honored many times for his service.
He died in 2011 at age 86.
Pryor was also inducted into the Columbia High School Hall of Fame in 1995. With his induction into the Athletic Hall, he is one of a small number of individuals to be honored by both prestigious organizations.
PAUL HOOPER
In the long, proud history of the Columbia lacrosse program, Paul Hooper stands out as one of its all-time greats.
The 1978 graduate was a captain during his junior and senior seasons and an All-State selection both years, when the Cougars won state championships. He was also an All-American as senior. During that season, the attackman was the state scoring leader with 96 points.
He continued his career at Washington College in Maryland, where he was again a two-year captain and was chosen an All-American in both 1981 and 1982. He led the team in scoring three times at Washington, and after his senior season in 1982, was chosen as the school’s Male Athlete of the Year.
After college, he played for a year in Australia.
He then returned to the United States, where he embarked on a successful coaching career.
Hooper worked as an assistant at Dartmouth in 1983 and 1984, and then at North Carolina in 1985 and 1986. He was head coach at Vermont for one year, before becoming an assistant again at Brown from 1988 through 1992.
He later became a high school coach in Rhode Island. He led North Kingstown to state titles while there from 2005 through 2007, and led Moses Brown School to two championships while there from 2008 through 2010.
When The Star-Ledger published its Lacrosse Teams of the Century in 2000, Hooper was an All-1970s decade selection.
Hooper was inducted into the New Jersey Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2003, and The Washington College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013.
He now lives in Rhode Island with his wife, Kim, and two sons.
MARY-ALICE ZAVOCKI
If there were to be a ranking of Columbia’s top three-sport athletes over the past 30 years, Mary-Alice Zavocki would place high on the list.
The 1990 graduate was a standout on the field hockey and basketball teams, earning All-Iron Hills Conference recognition in each.
Zavocki, a goalie, helped the field hockey team win the Iron Hills-Iron Division championship during her junior and senior years.
In basketball, she was a four-year starter and set a school record for career assists. And in softball, she was also a four-year starter for the Cougars.
After Columbia, she moved on to Lehigh University, where she was a four-year starter in goal for the field hockey team. Her impact was immediate – as a freshman in 1990, she made 450 saves, which was an NCAA single-season record that still stands. She finished her career with 1,273 saves, which ranks second in NCAA history. She was MVP of the Patriot League tournament as a senior, and was also named a Regional All-American that season.
Despite having never played lacrosse, she took up that sport in college and became a two-year starter at Lehigh. She was also selected to the All-Patriot League team both years.
In 2015, the Patriot League celebrated its 25th anniversary by selecting an all-time field hockey team. Mary-Alice was one of two Lehigh players selected to the 25-member team.
After graduation, she embarked on a career as a teacher, coach and volunteer working with young athletes. Her first endeavor was coaching a fifth and sixth grade basketball team at Our Lady of Sorrows in South Orange, where she graduated from after eighth grade. She was honored by OLS with its distinguished Alumni of the Year Award in 2000.
Soon after, she began teaching technology at Saint James the Apostle School in Springfield. She also started the New Jersey Crusaders basketball club, which offers high-level, off-season training for girls in grades 6 through 11. Her teams have won three AAU state championships, and also fared well at the national level. More than 70 of the players she’s coached have gone on to play college basketball.
AIYANNA BURTON ANDERSON
Aiyanna Burton Anderson is a classic Columbia High School success story.
A standout track athlete for Cougars, the 1995 graduate continued that success during a splendid four-year career at Princeton while on full scholarship.
Her Ivy League education was followed up with a medical degree from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, which she also attended on a full scholarship.
While competing at Columbia, she was a four-year member of the indoor and outdoor track teams. She won 10 individual county championships, and 10 gold medals in state meets.
Her events included the high jump, long jump and 400 intermediate hurdles. Along with teammates Joy Ononuju and Ayana Coleman, she also set a national record in the 3×400 intermediate hurdle relay. Among many other honors, she departed Columbia as its record-holder in the 300 intermediate hurdles, high jump and heptathlon, and ranks second in the 400 intermediate hurdles.
At Princeton, she set a number of school records while winning several Ivy League championships. Among them were a school record in the pentathlon.
Her Princeton degree was in molecular biology. While there, she also performed as a dancer in the Black Arts Company on campus.
After graduating from medical school, she served her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. While there, she was the administrative chief resident.
She then returned to New Jersey, where she began a fellowship specializing in a Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
For the past seven years, Aiyanna has been working at Obstetrix Medical Group in Fort Worth, Texas, as a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist, where she cares for pregnant women with medical complications and women whose fetuses have known anatomical abnormalities.
A year after arriving in Texas, she met her future husband, Keon, while attending a birthday party. They welcomed their first son, Jaden, last year.
ANDREW LASKOWSKI
It’s not easy to emerge as an all-time standout within the Columbia boys soccer program, but Andrew Laskowski can be considered one of the team’s most prolific offensive players since the late 1980s.
The 1995 graduate scored 45 goals over his three-year varsity career, and was the top scorer on the team as a junior and senior. During that time, the Cougars went 59-10-5, winning three Iron Hills Conference-Iron Division championships, two state sectional titles and one Essex County Tournament crown.
During his career, he was a three-time All-Conference and All-County player. He was an All-State selection by The Star-Ledger, and as a senior was named an All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association. Closer to home, after that season he was also presented with the coveted Will Shue Award, which goes to the player who best exemplifies the spirit of Columbia High School soccer.
After his senior season, Laskowski and teammate Chris Quinn were invited to join an elite group of New Jersey players on the newly formed Colonia FC team, which won NJ President’s Cup championships in U19 in 1996 and U20 in 1997.
Laskowski was a highly-recruited player out of high school, and went on to a successful college career at Wake Forest.
He now works as a Director of Operations for TAPFIN, ManpowerGroup Solutions, which is a division of ManPower Group. He resides in New City, N.Y, with his wife, Lisa, and two daughters.
IBTIHAJ MUHAMMAD
Like just about everyone else who has ever grown up in Maplewood, Ibtihaj Muhammad has been stuck in Parker Avenue traffic outside of Columbia High School.
But unlike the others, the 2003 graduate has turned that inconvenient moment into an international athletic career that’s led to plenty of other opportunities, and even recognition on Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People list in 2016.
Back on that one particular day, Ibtihaj — a freshman at the time — and her mom could see the team practicing inside the cafeteria. While sitting in their car, they were immediately intrigued.
She had played other sports growing up in town, but being a devout Muslim, fencing would afford her a chance to compete in an activity where the uniform would be consistent with the religion’s tenet of modesty for women.
Muhammad gave fencing a try. She liked it, and quickly excelled at it, as well.
Specializing in the sabre, she became an All-State selection who led the Cougars to two state titles.
She then went to Duke University, where she became a three-time All-American before graduating with dual degrees in International Relations and African-American Studies with a minor in Arabic.
She continued to fence internationally, and in 2009, became the coach of Columbia’s girls team. After leading the team to the state championship in 2012, she was named state fencing Coach of the Year by The Star-Ledger.
Her focus then centered on qualifying for 2016 Olympics. She made the team, and came home from Rio with a bronze medal from team sabre competition. She was also one of the most visible athletes in the United States delegation after drawing global attention for becoming the first American woman to compete in the games while wearing a hijab.
She has competed for the national team since 2010. She is a five-team world medalist, including a 2014 championship in the team event.
Ibtihaj has branched out in other ways. Along with her family, she started Louella, a fashion line featuring modest and affordable wear for women.
She was also a part of the U.S. Department of State’s Council to Empower Women and Girls Through Sports before being appointed by President Obama following the Olympics to serve on the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.
DON ROGERS
When playing careers of Columbia football players are compared, the accomplishments of Don Rogers top the list.
The South Orange native graduated from Columbia in 1955. He was a lineman who was an All-County and Daily News All-Star selection after the team finished 4-3-1 in his senior season.
Rogers then played center for three seasons at the University of South Carolina, and was named the team’s outstanding lineman in 1958.
Upon his graduation in 1959, he was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the seventh round (74th overall) in the NFL Draft. He instead chose to play for the Los Angeles Chargers in the newly-formed American Football League.
In 1960, he played in all 14 games as the Chargers reached the AFL Championship before losing to Houston. The Chargers moved to San Diego in 1961, and again reached the championship before falling to Houston.
Rogers and the Chargers won the elusive AFL championship in 1963 after beating the Boston Patriots, 51-10. With Rogers helping to clear space up front, San Diego had 610 yards of total offense in the game. In 1964, the Chargers made a return trip to the AFL title game, but lost to Buffalo.
Rogers retired following that season, having appeared in 68 out of a possible 70 games during his AFL career.
Girls lacrosse has been a varsity sport at Columbia since the early 1980s. During the program’s history, one season stands above all others.
1995 GIRLS LACROSSE TEAM
The 1995 Cougars, under the leadership of head coach Marguerite Dempsey, ended with a 19-1-1 record. Their only loss was against perennial powerhouse Moorestown in the NJSIAA state championship game. In those days, all of the state’s teams competed in one overall state tournament.
Columbia entered the season with promise, hoping to build upon a 9-6-1 finish in 1994. A senior class comprised of six players — Jordan Brodsky, Debbie Castine, Erinn Frayer, Sophia Kim, Meghin Meade and Nadia Rogala — figured to lead the way.
The Cougars opened the season with seven victories before playing to an 8-8 tie with Montville.
Another winning streak followed, enabling Columbia to win the Stripes Division in the Tri-County Conference. Dempsey’s team beat Summit, 15-13, for the conference championship.
Columbia then advanced through to the state final against the South Jersey juggernaut, and the score was 6-6 at the half before Moorestown eventually took control for a 17-6 victory.
During the season, the Cougars defeated many of the state’s top programs at the time, including Montville, West Morris Central, Chatham, Ridgewood, Summit, Lenape and Shawnee.
In addition to the aforementioned seniors, the 1995 team also included juniors Rachel Bernstein, Chrissy Keating, Julie Revesz, Sharie Robinson and Holly Stevenson. Sophomores were Heather Egan, Meredith Egan, Kelly Frayer, Katie Frese, Susan Garea, Cheryl Levanda, Jordana Metz and Lauren Vader. Katie Jenkins was the lone freshman.
Castine, who had a 69 percent save percentage in goal, was named an All-American. She was an All-Conference selection along with Brodsky, Kim and Rogala. Those players were also named to the All-Division team, along with Meghin Meade, Bernstein, Keating and Meredith Egan.
No prior Columbia girls team had advanced as far in the post-season as the 1995 team, and no team has fared as well since.
DAVE CURTIN
Dave Curtin is a man who left an indelible mark during his time at Columbia. It’s therefore appropriate that the late coach and athletic director is the recipient of this year’s Peter Cross Award for his contributions to the school and community.
Curtin, who had coached at a number of area schools, came to Columbia in 2003, when he replaced Bob Curcio as athletic director. Curcio had retired after serving two decades in the position.
While continuing to serve as AD, Curtin also took on the job of head football coach in 2007.
The team had gone 1-29 in the three years leading into that season. His first team was 0-10, and the 2008 squad snapped a 45-game losing streak by beating Dickinson, 48-0, in the final game of the season.
A turnaround began thereafter. The 2009 Cougars went 8-2, which was the team’s first winning season since 1993. Columbia earned a berth in the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 playoffs, which was just the second all-time post-season appearance by the Cougars, and first since 1982. The eight wins were also the most by a Columbia team since the 1951 team ended 9-0. Curtin was named Essex County Coach of the Year by The Star-Ledger.
The good times continued with a 9-1 finish in 2010 that included the Super Essex Conference-Liberty Division championship and a return to the playoffs. Columbia hadn’t had back-to-back winning seasons since 1987 and 1988.
He stepped aside as football coach for health reasons prior to the 2011 season, and when Larry Busichio became athletic director in 2012, Curtin returned as football coach for two more years.
Curtin passed away last August at age 58 after battling cancer.
He was remembered not just for his team’s accomplishments and work as AD, but for his overall commitment to the South Orange-Maplewood community.
“I ran the Maplewood-South Orange recreation wrestling club,” former Columbia Athletic Hall of Fame president Jerry Auriemma told Essex News Daily after Curtin’s passing. “He gave us all of Columbia High School one Sunday for the Essex County tournament, which was 27 teams, and he gave me the whole school. He would come to the football games for the kids. He would come to baseball games. He would let the kids play on the field. He was that type of guy. He cared about the kids. He really did. When they got to Columbia, they knew who he was. That was the secret to his magic. He was one of a kind.”
ED SAGGIO
While it might be hard to replicate the success the Columbia High School Volleyball Team had during the 1978-1989 seasons in which the program went an amazing 11 years undefeated under Coach Gene Chyzowych, former Coach Ed Saggio had started the beginnings of his own volleyball dynasty and is currently the second-most winningest coach in school history.
Ed had never played or coached the game prior to starting his volleyball coaching career in 1982 at Millburn High School and only started coaching because a mentor told him it would look good on his resume. After a few years at Millburn, he continued his career at Madison High School where he quickly developed the program into a top 5 team.
He came to Columbia in 1989 when he took the Junior Varsity position after Mr. C retired, and spent 4 years as the JV Coach going undefeated all 4 years. In 1993 he took over as Head Coach and led the Cougars to a 100-4 record as the varsity coach over the next 4 years, including an 83-game winning streak and 2 undefeated seasons in 1994 and 1995. The Cougars won the Suburban League Championships in 1993, 1994, and 1995, and finished second in 1996. Columbia was also ranked No. 1 in The Star-Ledger 6 out of 8 years during his time with the program.
He was named The Star-Ledger Coach of the Year in 1995.
Upon leaving Columbia, he went on to work at two of the top programs in the state, Paramus Catholic and Paramus High School where he won numerous County and League Championships, including 5 State Titles and winning the prestigious Tournament of Champions with Paramus in 2005. He also started up the Boys Volleyball Team at Belleville High School in 2004 and coached there for 6 seasons.
Ed has been fortunate to train under and befriend some of the top coaches in the County, including legendary Olympic and College coaches such as Carl McGowen (BYU), Marv Dunphy (Pepperdine and Olympic Assistant Coach) and Ron Larson (Olympic Assistant Coach) to name a few.
Currently considered one of the top technical coaches in the state, he received one of the highest honors when he was named a a Legend of the Game at the Tournament of Champions in 2014. Prior to that he also received the NJSAII Sports Award for Volleyball in 2010.
Ed has been a physical education teacher for 32 years and is currently the Technical Director for the Essex Volleyball Club, formerly known as the South Orange Maples which was the exclusive offseason club of Columbia High School. He resides in Scotch Plains with his wife Nancy, who is also the Head Volleyball Coach at Union Catholic High School and their four children – David, Samantha, Jack and Sean.
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