001e e e oh good evening guys we're going to get uh we're going to get started if you can get get to your tables [Music] all right if everybody can just grab their seat we'll get started [Music] yeah welcome to the 2024 senior athletic dinner uh this is always one of my favorite events of the year uh it's an opportunity for everybody to get dressed up hang out and have one more meal together uh it's also a way to celebrate uh your senior year and your four in many cases your four-year career here at Clifton High School where you definitely made us very very very proud and I just want to thank all the athletes for all that they they do uh BV part of my job is watching you compete every day uh you
002compete on a high level you work so hard you are superstars in the building many of our many of you are our best students in the building there's never any issues uh with you on or off the field which is really fantastic so give yourselves a round of hand for being such great people so as you look back uh we've done a lot of winning here we've done you know some losing and there's been a lot of life experiences that that we've picked up and we hope that that takes you throughout college and and Beyond so we couldn't do that without our coaches your coaches this coaching staff is is the best in the state of New Jersey I say it every year uh and every year I mean it let's give them a round
003of a hand a round of [Applause] applause I don't care where you go you're not going to find the more dedicated professional group of coaches they work so hard for you they really do uh I know that they're going to miss you but I know that they're going to continue to be a part of your life we also have to thank our support staff our games don't run without our support staff they don't run um without our live stream crew who even came to live stream to dinner so thank you to thank you to all you guys who made this process want to thank our our superintendent Dr Rober toi his his his administration Mr hamda his administration our Board of Ed members um the um the next speakers will introduce all of the members
004of uh admin and the Board of Ed but on behalf of the entire coaching staff in the clipton athletic department thank you for all you do uh you're so generous to us you really never say no the facility upgrades that we've had in my 11 years here are phenomenal I don't know of another District who's done an invest Ed as much time and money into an athletic department so let's give them a round of applause all right so before I pass the microphone off to Dr Rober toi every year we give out some special Awards so first award want to thank my assistant M Marion who is definitely the backbone of the athletic department um nothing goes on without her um games buses uh officials ordering she does so much every day uh coaches definitely
005appreciate it we appreciate it and thank you for putting this dinner together so if you want to come on [Applause] up thank [Music] you next up is our appreciation award uh appreciation award goes to someone who does something you know amazing for the Department that doesn't have to be um and this year's award goes to miss [Applause] Rogers I'm going to tell you what did she's wondering what she did she actually did The Impossible she has taught me how to use Google forms only a few reminders throughout the way uh she's definitely helped me organize so many different things have parent meetings uh so just just a little token of our appreciation so thank you M Rogers all right next up the man who makes it all happen Dr roosi thank you Mr Malley good
006evening ladies and gentlemen distinguished guests parents coaches and Clifton High School's outstanding athletes good to be with you tonight we're here tonight everyone here in this room is here tonight to celebrate your achievements so please be respectful when people are at the microphone talking as I know you always are on and off the field uh as I stand here tonight uh I remember how Athletics shaped my life now don't look at me now now I'm round get it round shape my life round to get it uh but about 75 lbs ago I was an athlete and I can honestly say that I would not be where I am today in my life without high school and college athletics many of you will say or think the same thing in the future through Athletics we learn
007the value of teamwork resilience and the importance of never giving up both wins and losses teach us the true meaning of sportsmanship success isn't only shaped by Victory but by how we handle defeat and you will have some defeats in your life but High School sports have helped you prepare for that in the future with Grace and with dignity thank you to our amazing coaches who have dedicated their time energy and knowledge to our athletes if if you take the the stien that they get for coaching and divide that by the amount of hours they put in it's pennies it's pennies what what they make they don't coach for the money they coach for the love of you the student athlete and the love of the sport so thank you to our coaches parents and
008Guardians thank you they get clap for your coaches parents and Guardians thank you for always supporting your children countless hours of cheering from the sidelines endless encouragement long rides all of those things have helped mold these athletes into the outstanding individuals they are today and finally to the athletes we celebrate you tonight for your countless hours of practice the early mornings the late nights the sacrifices that you have made you continue to inspire Us by demonstrating the SU success that success is defined not only by trophies or medals but also by constant growth and teamwork congratulations to all of you and may your journey always be filled with passion determination and a Relentless pursuit of greatness [Music] congratulations before I introduce your esteemed high school principal Mr Honda I'd like to take a moment to
009recognize the Board of Education members who are present here tonight Board of Education members are volunteers who volunteer countless hours to make sure that you have all of the things that you need in school and on the field so I'd like to take a quick moment to recognize the Board of Education president Mr Allan Paris board members Judith bassford board member Tanya Suarez and board member Joe [Music] [Applause] siano and now your principal Mr Honda would like to say a few words [Applause] good evening everybody good evening to our Board of Education to my team to all of our coaches and most importantly and I think I'm going to say this for the first time and I'm going to say this a few more times for the from here till the end of the year
010but most importantly our graduating seniors I look around this room and I think of one word and that's Excellence our coaches embody that word everything that you guys do for these kids will not be forgotten by them the other night I was at a I was at Miss babak's last uh orchestra concert and one of the kids there during their speech to miss babc said you were a second mother to me don't forget that that's the impact that you have on these kids and the reason why that kid said that is not because he was she was in her class it's because of the countless hours that she puts in with them and that's what you all do and you don't know we don't I mean you guys do know but a lot of us
011who aren't as intimately involved with your students don't know what their lives like are at home all the time but you guys take the time to know that and you guys take the time to make them great so thank you for everything that you do coaches to our actual parents everything that you guys have done for our students taking them back and forth all the time coming to their games supporting them thank you because now I'm going to address our students to our students I look around this room and that word again resonates with me Excellence you know as principal I get to know two groups of students right there are some students that I know for not so great things and there are the students that I know for the great things then there's
012a bunch in the middle that I don't know and every day I walk in I you go to school here but you guys I know because of your Excellence every single one of you in here has plans after high school whether that be going to a Ivy League school which I know people in this room are doing whether it's going to college to pursue sports or just purs to academics or whether it's entering the workforce I know that whatever you guys do you guys are going to excel at because you guys know what the word sacrifice means because you guys know what it means to put in the hours and work your butts off to be excellent and that's what you guys have done for the past 4 years and I'm so sad to see
013you all go but I'm so happy to see you all moving on to bigger and brighter things thank you for gracing the halls of Clifton High School for the past 4 years it's always going to be a home to all of you so if you ever need anything please reach out to any of us we will be there for you and good luck with everything that you have in the future thank [Applause] you all right next up is our board president Mr Alan Paris [Applause] thank you m m ladies and gentlemen admired coaches faculty Administration proud parents and most importantly our remarkable class of 2024 Clifton High School senior athletes as the president of the Clifton Board of Education and a proud Clifton High School class of 1977 alumni don't do the math on that
014please it's an honor to address you today and celebrate the outstanding achievements of our High School athletic Award winners your dedication hard work and passion have not only brought honor to yourselves but have continued a Clifton tradition spanning decades what does it mean to be a Mustang it's more than just wearing the maroon and gray it's a dedication to Excellence both on and off the field as basketball legend Michael Jordan w said Talent wins games but teamwork and intelligence win championships it's about the spirit of sportsmanship respect and integrity in everything we do it's about representing our community with pride and living the values that make Clifton such a very special place teamwork isn't just about scoring goals or winning games it's about the unbreakable bonds forged through sweat tears years shared victories and defeats
015it's about lifting each other up when the odds seem insurmountable and celebrating every Triumph big or small together the great Vince Lombardi once said individual commitment to a group effort that is what makes a team work a company work a society work a civilization work each one of you sitting here today embodies the soul of what it means to be a Clifton Mustang sustain your spirit of teamwork the resil the res uh resilience to overcome challenges and the courage to chase your dreams with unwavering passion on behalf of the Clifton Board of Education I want to express our deepest pride and admiration for all that you have accomplished congratulations to our exceptional athletes may your future be filled with continued success both on and off the field thank you Mr President all right so just
016a quick rundown of the night um we're going to do our sport presentations we'll call each coach up individually they'll say a few words about their season about their seniors and then announce the senior MVP then we'll eat I promise I also promise the food f is delicious and then we will have our female and male athlete of the year so it's an exciting night that everybody looks forward to particularly the end and we'll get it started going to bring uh coach sink you up to talk about football good evening everybody um tonight's always a great night because it's about you guys right it's about your work it's about the four years that you put in here right your freshman year you're pandemic freshman right so I can only speak for my guys right so
017I can speak for my guys that as freshman um I remember that summer we were at selanka Park and we were you guys were just doing workouts with uh Jacob Abel and uh just working out in the park and you guys showed up and you kept showing up and you kept showing up to your sophomore year we we want a chip and that was great right and what you guys what you guys learned like sports is life is the ups and downs the es and flows and how to ride them out don't let your highs get too high and your lows be too low and um you guys are an amazing group I got nothing to love for you guys and I know you're going to do great things in this life uh the class
018of 24 is an outstanding class really proud of all your accomplishments um real quick a couple guys going to college next year to play ball uh nateon AR's going to Monclair State um Marvin [Applause] Marvin Marvin Bailey and Devon Strobel are going to Springfield College Tio jimnez is going to Caldwell University and jine Lawson will be doing a postgraduate year at uh W seminary in uh Pennsylvania where he's going to do his senior year over and then hope that turns into something bigger and better and uh as far as our season went like I said it was highs and lows it was ups and downs a lot of injuries right and there's things that you can't you can't come back from and our senior MVP is the big fell Germaine Lawson [Applause] [Music] all right
019next up is coach lri and boy soccer [Music] like to have my staff come on up please so if I can have everybody's attention this is um this is about the seniors and um would I'd like to say on on behalf of being an alumni uh of Clifton High School uh I know what it means to be sitting there and how this school has shaped My Life um I never left it's been over 40 years uh but also uh part of my staff is here uh coach whitler we adopted because she's been with us for so long she's an adopted member of the Clifton family and and coach o' bricky and Coach tretti are both Clifton graduates themselves um as I said we're very grateful and thankful for everything we've had and what our Administration
020and our Board of Education gives us year in and year out it is amazing our 2023 season recap we had 16 seniors 15 of 16 seniors are going to postsecondary educ with one uh taking a gap year the one Gap year we had last year Steven OA has just committed on a scholarship to play division one uh loyal University in Maryland which is dear to my heart is where I played um eight of our 16 seniors 50% of our seniors are playing soccer next year which is an amazing percentage considering nationally 6% is the national average of those eight is a tremendous package deal so we're going to see how that works out but seven of eight seniors are all going to play soccer at Drew University which is the greatest compliment to our program
021where one coach values the the work ethic of our players and the mentality of our players to take seven uh seven of them on the on the roster for next year and then our other senior will be competing at division 2 tiffan University in Ohio our record this year was 15 wins two losses and one tie uh we had an undefeated conference champion ship we recorded our 23rd toake County championship and we reached a group four state finals uh Varsity Aces northjersey.com uh had us in a number three in the final poll in North Jersey Varsity Aces northjersey.com also statistically ranked us in the top five both defensively and on the offensive side New Jersey uh NJ School Star Ledger ranked us uh in the top 20 the entire season and with a final ranking
022of number 11 overall the four years that these seniors have achieved uh is the following and Coach Inu mentioned about that first year which was a CO year which we only had half of a season uh in the four years they stayed in the top 20 all four years in the state they won three conference championships they went to three County championships winning two and they went to two State finalists their overall record was 599 and four not just to say how uh proud We Are of their accomplishments but what a heck of a year we had for our alumni and I'll let you know a little bit about our alumni Dr Muki Manu Ponda was named uh hackin saac Meridian School of Medicine excellence and teaching clinical science recipient and also named to the
023United States soccer Federation medical staff overseeing various teams in World competition Matt meaza who a professional soccer player for Cincinnati FC and Major League Soccer was named a Defender Of The Year Junior and three-time all American Amir lukovich was named the NCA division 3 National Player of the Year and finally after 20 years of professional soccer at the highest levels in the world to sepi Rossi who's a volunteer assistant for us whose father is the legendary coach Rossy who I play for retired from playing and celebrated the birth of his second child so we had one heck of a year this year's MVP who was first team all league First Team all County First Team all state top 55 players in New Jersey uh North South senior allstar game recipient finalist for North Jersey Varsity
024Aces Player of the Year Patterson Oldtimer men Oldtimer soccer player of the year he will be attending Drew University to continue as a student athlete is Vitali DS [Applause] [Music] this up and um Mr M also affords me the opportunity to give out a scholarship that we started a long time ago uh in Mr rossy's name the Alumni Association decided to create a scholarship for the late great coach Rossi the association's goal is to keep a memory of Alive and Kicking for a person that has made a tremendous impact on hundreds of young men that have played for the maroon and gray each year our CHS alumni provide financial support to a deserving senior or seniors soccer players who will continue their post-se secondary education which was one of the core values of this great
025educator and Coach as a leader of the CHS boys VAR City soccer team for 23 years from 1978 to 2001 coach Rossy amassed a record of 353 wins 95 losses and 51 ties which included 12 Pate County championships 10 League championships six State sectional finals two group four finals with a 1994 undefeated nationally ranked team uh with the kind generosity of alumni and the and the annual alumni game uh the districtwide uh faculty and Friends of soccer we have afforded 30 student athletes over the last 10 years uh $330,000 in scholarship money for their postsecondary education Mr Rossi engrained in us all to use sport as a vehicle for higher education and a better life two of those recipients Michael Algerian and Coach tretti behind me also won this award uh the four recipients of
026this year Fernand scholarship will each receive $11,000 and that will be Aiden David Drew University Victor kale Drew University Alex Fedor Drew University and the Clean Sweep Cameron zotek Drew University come on up [Applause] [Music] thank you coach lri next up is girls soccer coach grisy [Music] they can't seear me over the podium all right girls soccer uh I had the pleasure of taking over for the girls this year and I do have to say this group of seniors made that transition so much easier for my self uh I can't thank them enough for all they did and dedicated and sacrificed for a successful season I have 11 seniors Kari stoer Kate R Amanda Pudo Zeta Murphy will be playing at ruter newk Giana Delgado will be playing at ruter Lyla Flores Leslie Perez will
027be playing at VMI Jackie Vis viso um Sierra fisek will be playing at Kane and Nicole aunia our senior MVP will continue her academic and athletic career at VMI she was a heart and soul and kept us in many games over the course of the Season Leslie [Applause] Perez thank you coach chrisin best tonight girls volleyball's up next coach [Applause] Alvarado uh good evening everyone um I just want to take a moment to thank our seniors uh Ashley de losantos Isabella andr uh Bianca jardi otillia uh Kettle and and Gabriela quas um this is my this was my first year as a head coach for the girls program so it was a transition for them and for me as well um so I just want to thank them and uh the senior MVP will continue
028her education at Princeton she is number four in the graduating class of 2024 out of 693 students Paris Gary gerardi thank you coach next up is coach Cole girls [Music] tennis again I'd like to congratulate all the seniors this year the girls tennis team finished the fall with a 13- 12 record we had nine seniors I'd like to uh call them out Jada Witter Dena Assad Lillian ushaw amena Fahim annias Jenkins Tamara corkas Caitlyn Rodriguez Paulina SoDo and Sharon sento this year's uh senior MVP won three straight state county first singles championships she didn't win it her freshman year because we didn't have it due to co but she would have won because she beat the girl that won it the year before the next year but anyway annias Jenkins is our senior MVP who
029will be playing D1 tennis at Fairley Dickinson metro campus this fall [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right coach pis boys and girls cross country [Music] hello everybody it's a pleasure to be here as the oldest coach it's actually a pleasure to be anywhere um I want to congratulate everybody in the room from the leadership of our district our superintendent the board of head the administration of the high school our athletic director his secretary all the coaches the unsung heroes the assistant coaches who do so much to help all of us in my case they M they mainly are my translators to the team but especially I want to thank the heart and soul of Clifton High School that that makes our community special makes us a team in every for for the 4 years that
030you were in high school you were Mustangs the truth is you're a Mustang forever and a Mustang is an animal that fights together for the good of the her and all of you that will stay with us in our community or go forward to other parts of the country fight for what you believe in and continue to make us proud I want to particularly thank three individuals from the boys cross country team Alejandro Raleigh Pat dubron and Dylan Cabrera they were three guys that were truly unique and crucial to the success of our team they were the elite champions for I believe the 18 out of the last 20 years they certainly weren't on those all those teams but for most of their High School career they were special like all of you and our
031outstanding senior who will be a college athlete in his future Patrick duat all right I'm going to start over again because I'm one of the fortunate coaches that get to coach two versions of the same team uh the second version of the cross country team is the girls cross country team that is truly phenomenal and as gifted as the boys are what's unique about all the fall Sports is as warm as it's finally gotten this year your school year started a lot hotter uh cross country is basically torturing kids into running at least 5 miles a day so that they can raise three miles but our outstanding girls the entire seniors that I want to recognize would be Denise dubl Victoria green dbor Amo and Olivia green our our outstanding senior is truly someone who
032is a gift to the team I don't remember her ever saying on a day of a meet or a day of a practice practices I usually refer to to the team is torture and they would certainly agree with that I don't remember her ever saying I can't do that coach she would always ask at the end did I do it all right and as long as you don't lose that trait about yourself Victoria you're going to be everybody's most valuable our most valuable athlete Victoria green [Music] thank you thank you coach this is my 11th year of uh doing this coach and you always start them off with a laugh and it's a different joke every year so I got to give you credit for that all right we're going to move on to the
033winter season uh coach cadus boys basketball thank you again I just want to start off by thanking our administrators and our board and Mr Mady for all the support we get I also want to thank our trainers especially uh trainer Nico trer Nicole to cuz my team was in there a lot this year we were definitely in there we as by the first week of January we had seven healthy bodies and it was a very very tough time and we wouldn't have gotten through it if it wasn't for this senior class um they are probably my favorite group to have coached in my 10 years here at Clifton uh their toughness they're willing to battle through adversity you know with something to be seen um and there's a reason why these guys beat a number
034two seed twice and yeah twice in three years all right they never gave up you know they went through the The Hills And The Valleys right and they kept going they never never stopped going and that was a Hallmark of of this team and it's going to carry with them through life um but we were also extremely lucky to have our senior MVP on our team uh for four years uh this this young man has shown incredible determination to continue to get better um from where he was a freshman on Coach the Ruby's team to where he is now where he is the first player in Clifton history to have a th000 points and a th000 rebounds in his career [Applause] and he got the th000 on the same day all right coach whitward girls
035basketball I first want to thank everyone for being here our our board and our awesome leadership in Clifton High School um so for our girls basketball team this is uh a group of wonderful seniors who most of them did not come out during the co year so I've only gotten three years with them and I've had the pleasure of watching all of them develop skills that I don't even know if they knew they had for basketball um I've got some soccer players and some some softball players on the team that basketball was not their first sport but watching these girls develop skills and work hard to fix mistakes that they made um was really a pleasure so my five seniors for girls basketball were Caitlyn Reyes Kate AR Zeta Murphy Leslie Perez and Kiara Koy
036and our senior MVP uh is a player who really worked to develop uh some of the mistakes that she made early as a sophomore being put on Varsity learning the skills really taking the time to put in the extra work um and it was really fun to watch her develop and take mistakes that she made and stay after practice and say no no I got to do this better or I got to make more free throws so our senior MVP for girls basketball is Zeta [Applause] Murphy con [Applause] [Music] all right next up is bowling coach [Applause] berberich okay it's been a great pleasure to coach Our Boys and Girls JV and Bar City bowling teams this 2023 24 season varsity girls finished with a 4- 10 record qualifying as the 11 seed in the
037state sectional tournament the girls captain and sister of our senior MVP had North Jersey's highest uh 13th highest average with a 164 in League average placing her uh first in state county 70th in the state she rolled a high game of a 215 High series of 534 she was named to the deliver division all team additionally receiving all County honors this average qualified her for the individual state tournament where she placed 33rd in addition our senior J Martinez received honorable mention all County recognition first in the season with a 103 average and in the full she plans to attend Bergen Community College to begin her pursuit in a degree of biology boys team finished uh third in Liberty division with a record of 78 qualifying them for the state sectional tournament 12 Seed where they
038lost a hardfought battle on Monclair boys team captain Sam zuel finished with a 138 average Landing First Team all league and all County honors in addition to his League High game of a 279 with a high series of 670 Sam finished with the third High game inate County tournament with a 2115 he also placed uh third individually in the Liberty division preseason tournament outside of high school bowling Sam also finished top 20 in the p in the Pepsi state tournament this year and top five in the under 18 Edith Kenny classic he will be the recipient of the USBC Pake County boys bowling xano scholarship academically Sam has been inducted into the National Honor Society he has been appointed to the vice president of scholarship he's received distinguished honor role every marking period that he
039has attended CHS he has taken 14 AP exams receiving a five on AP Calculus his sophomore year and a four on the AP Physics Exam which he self-prepared for he has graduated from boy State as a as a delegate where he was the editor of the programs newspaper at his former School of proris he qualified for the National American Computer Science league and was the captain of the history Bowl team where his team qualified for the national tournament Sam has committed to attend Ruckers New Brunswick in the fall where he will double major in astrophysics and philosophy and I don't even know how to spell that please give a round of applause to Sam's we [Applause] right that that's ironic cuz uh my degree is in astrophysics as well so glad we have something in
040common all right guys food is ready we're going to uh take this opportunity to go eat we'll start with the kids over here go ahead who's out here [Music] more Bo [Music] wearing I wanted to go to and play let e e e e e e [Music] [Applause] I'd like to first start off just by uh congratulating all our seniors and wishing them nothing but the best in the future U as far as our hockey team some of you may not know but our hockey team at Clifton High School is combined it's a triop so we're made up of kids from Cedar Grove from Pake Valley and from Clifton uh this year we were lucky enough to have four seniors uh one of them being from Clifton uh our senior our senior MVP is somebody
041who was new to the sport he started playing the game as a sophomore uh and anybody that knows hockey you know you got to know how to ice skate in order to play hockey so picking this up late in life is a tough thing to do but this player took to it very well put in all the hard work uh you know really put in the extra effort in order to make it work and by his senior year he's out there in practices challenging our power play challenging our penalty kill and just making us a better team every day he was there our senior MVP is Ian kro [Applause] yeah there's [Music] coach next up is coach West indoor track [Music] John's just assist yes [Music] get do boys all right so he's going in
042and out here uh for boys track and field I knew that just second for boys indoor track and field the boys came in uh fifth place in counties second place in leagues um before I mention the uh the seniors I would just like to thank all of the coaches that we had for track and field because without them uh we wouldn't have a program so uh coach DS with the uh the jumps coach fot with po coach Tubac with the hurdles uh coach post with the throws Coach Brown also helps out with the throws I can see him and the architect of course of the track and field program coach John [Music] fontis our boys consisted of Felix Benz St Cabrera Patrick du da Gutierrez Jason Jones Harold Munch Elias ragdale Alex rally Jude Rex
043David touris Lee Valentine and Ryan Bella for our MVP for the boys occasionally I do get to work with the high jumpers and occasionally uh I end up be having a really close relationship with my jumpers and is uh it's more than just coach coach athlete relationship so I'm very fortunate enough to to be this individual's coach and watch him progress in the past few years he's only been jumping for 2 years but uh he made it all the way to sectionals and indoor and he's an amazing uh athlete amazing individual my MVP Jason Jones [Applause] [Music] for the girls the girls also came second place in leagues uh seventh place in counties we only had a few seniors uh Denise dubl Lyla Flores Victoria green Jada Witter dor Mo actually I forgot to mention
044if you're on the if you're on uh either the boys or the girls team and you've committed to college please stand up just so you can be recognized please stand up track team if you got committed to a college you can stand up and be recognized please thank you [Applause] for my female MVP uh I'm going to come back up and talk about her a little bit later um also one of my my jumpers she was a second team um All County for indoor she's also a state champion which isn't isn't necessarily mention on here because it was an individual achievement but she's also state champion in high CH and committed to Yale University [Applause] dor thanks coach next up is coach janetti and swim thank you good afternoon it is my great pleasure to
045present the MVP award for our swimming team this award is given to the IND two individuals who have shown exceptional skill dedication and great sportsmanship throughout the season their hard work and pass have not only led to personal success but have also uplifted the entire team your achievements are truly inspiring and we are all proud of you keep up the great work please join me in congratulating Natalie risan and Nicholas Haron as this year's swimming MVPs congratulations [Applause] next up is Cheer and ask coach frini to come up [Applause] [Music] good evening everyone my name is Gina frini and this is my third year as the head trity coach I would like to start off by thanking my coaching staff Samantha ficio Sarah Co and Laura tanell for all their dedication and commitment this season
046I would also like to thank Tom Malley and Lori Maron for all their help and support this year I'm proud to announce that the Clinton varsity tring team had another incredible year they were T attending in classes stump clinics and choreography camps they competed in the big North cheerleading conference local competitions and the NJ cdca state championship they finished the regular season 8- 0 and earned the title of big North Liberty division champions for the third year in a row additionally they became back-to-back state champions at the 2024 NJ cdca state championship competing in the intermediate all girl division against seven other teams at this time i' like to recognize our graduating seniors Julia ovich Captain bana Gonzalez Captain C green nelli Guzman and Captain Nicole [Applause] Maga your leadership dedication and unwavering Spirit have
047truly defined this year's team you have all set a high standard for excellence and have been an inspiration to your teammates As you move on to new adventures we will always always remember the impact you had on our cheer family thank you for your hard work and the Legacy that you leave behind our two MVPs for cheer are Captain bana Gonzalez and Captain Nicole [Applause] [Music] MAA congatulations [Music] thank you coach next up is coach galleta [Applause] [Music] wrestling all right congratulations seniors hope we had a great four years I know he didn't start well 2020 was pretty miserable all we missed most of the season I think we were on the MCH for about two weeks and they shut us down three times actually uh what are you going to do right uh there
048is one kid who actually has four years of experience on a wrestling team his freshman year was pretty I'd say not as memorable where he went four and five and from that moment out he just turned it on all right uh what can I ask about this year's season we have seven seniors here that not all Wrestle over four years that's almost my entire lower weight lower weight classes yes uh my six MJ please stand up MJ Martinez 106 Adam Tamimi 113 right ma SEL [Applause] 126 we got Jack sea [Applause] 144 Adam Kar he's still things is 138 Amed Matari 138 [Applause] 132 and during the season my lightest weight glass Jarvis Rodriguez all right season wouldn't be possible without my three managers Luna Mia and [Music] Maddie we worked overtime all time showed
049up to practice every once in a while but your every [Music] match they B well as well uh all the tournaments they taped everything uh every single match they were always there was biggest Che leaders that we had on the team oh for gotot we have one more Che manager Jack sea who was out for the entire season last year so he became our manager learned a lot and then show the trade to the girls this year all right uh we went 20 and 5 this year if you could see this guys that wasn't the highlight of the season yet if you saw these guys if you look at them it's pretty scr but when they step on this when they step on the map they are beasts absolutely beasts starting with MJ Martinez I
050mean we go down to Adam amama another Adam I mean if you get into a fight you want these guys to be behind you hold up hold up Adam we are glad you graduated you have a lot of fans here don't ruin it okay so start a season pretty well we won our own tournament every single year we hosted we just beginig fundraiser that's the only fundraiser we actually do throughout the season our alumni come back and help out the season Tom helps out and it's a great event we open up the season every single year I only invite teams that I know we can beat all right to feel confidence okay that's opening season all right so from that moment on we go right into big tournaments went to nationally uh National Tournament this
051year been a lot of east teams from all over the US uh and we had n take fifth place in that tournament which is pretty high we brought five kids and four of them will be back next year which we still going to have to replace our lower weights but this group of kids were County champions for the first time since 1987 [Applause] they won big North tournament which is a big dual North tournament out of all the public schools in North Jersey and we were the best nor Jersey team with this group of kids awesome job and I see is that a referee over there no a ruby dressed up reminds me of represent the reminds me of a bad experience but really important experience for my team from last year in the state
052finals where we lost to pcti on a really bad F we was live televised live even with the commentators and everybody I talked to afterwards that we got robbed but it did got another one right there you got rob it actually served as a really good experience for the kids and you know you have to go through lows to get to the highs and this year we won in the last match of of the state championships and what a great group of kids like I said these kids are beast they're going to do well in life because nothing keeps them down all right my MVP this year is going to be n Seline joh congratulations could have wrestled in college he chose not to he was going to seat in the hall uh over 100
053wins even though we almost missed the entire first freshman year which is unheard of uh he's got a medals from every event he ever went to got this districts counties regions uh First Team all leagues First Team all County place and regions and a state qualifier awesome job thank [Applause] you thank you coach all right we're now uh we cycled out of the winter season and we're going to get into spring going to ask coach Rivera come up and talk about the baseball [Applause] [Music] team okay first I want to congratulate all the seniors uh we want to thank you for everything you've done for the last four years and you all of you may clip them very proud um I'm a clion guy I played here um I know how it feels you got
054a great graduate you guys are going to do great things so I wish you the best of luck in all your endeavors I want to thank you for everything you've done I want to give a special thank out uh thanks to my baseball players and Senior managers first my managers I see you over there uh Madison Greenfield and m a g for everything you've done this season appreciate you our other senior uh baseball players Miguel czecho naiv deran Angel Geraldo keano gimenez Ryan mccornack NTI Saleem and Jack Seiko I want to thank them for everything they've done for the last four years now for our senior MVP um this player was a three-year Varsity player two-year starter um this season he was all league First Team all County second team um he's going to continue
055playing um at the next level at a junior college in Maryland it's a division one Junior College uh it's called Gary College um he was our captain and he's going to be truly missed our senior MVP is n [Applause] all right next up coach fet boy lacrosse yeah [Music] good evening first like to thank uh all the senior athletes for all of your hard work over the last four years um especially my four seniors Matthew Jimenez ad Del goodier William Mansfield and Paul Kars um our seniors you they do a lot for us we only have four um the dedic ation the hard work the sportsmanship everything that they put in really is a testament to our team even though we didn't have the season that we would hope for and would like um it's
056no short to their effort and hard work um for what they are walking away with and it's going to help them with the rest of their lives um a special shout out to our senior MVP um second hardest job on the lacrosse field face off man um everything starts at The X for the face off um it's a lot of hard work um you could equate it to wrestling getting nice and low working hard um this player was always able to make it a 50/50 ground ball you know give us a chance to get that ball get it to the other side of the field um and make things happen so our senior MVP Matthew himz [Applause] [Music] all right next up is coach griskin girls recross okay I can't thank these group of seniors
057I have for their dedication and helping build a foundation for the program and on top of it they were excellent Role Models this year for all the underclassmen and believe it or not all those underclassmen do live up to the group of seniors I had for lacrosse seniors are Carly stoker ailia Kettle k r Zeta Murphy Casey wellins and Amanda Pudo my senior MVP will be attending Monclair State University to to play lacrosse Carly [Applause] [Music] stoker all right next up coach Falone in softball [Music] good evening everyone before I uh begin I would like to first ask all my assistant coaches if please stand up coaches thank you for help next man please ask my senior please stand up senior please stand up come on sh uh this year we we struggled a little
058bit but uh one thing is that they never quit W up uh finishing third in their league a couple counties and we just uh the state the number one team so uh like I said we struggle a little bit but girls always always kep on fighting and that's what it's all about this is the most difficult part of my the job for me trying to select a senior MVP I wish I had seven of them but I can so today's senior MVP goes to me and Joor [Music] all right next up we're going to ask coach whitward to come up again boys tennis okay our our boys tennis team this year um had a a pretty successful year for us uh we finished 10 and seven uh fifth in the county which if you know
059anything about boys tennis it's dominated by the Wayne schools um and P County Tech uh but we had a pretty good year we competed well got some guys in the semi-finals this year my seniors for boys tennis um most of them a couple of them especially took some convincing a couple converted soccer players I convinced to play a few years ago um and within a week usually I tell them give it a week or two and if you don't love it you don't have to come back um and they always come back and they really do seem to enjoy it to my boys tennis seniors are patham Gandhi Marcel Murphy Ethan hoe J sha Desai Nelson Estrada um and of course my manager Mana fim who came to every match to help us record scores
060and and do anything we needed uh my MVP this year is a player who I knew I could count on uh I've never had to arrange my lineup based on AP testing like I did this year there were so many kids doing AP test and I had five seniors in my lineup um but I this kid communicated really well um and with someone I knew would be at everything and if he couldn't make something I knew well ahead of time so my MVP this year is Marcelo Murphy [Applause] all right guys just sit tight we're almost we're almost uh through this portion next up is boys outdoor track going ask coach pontis to come up again [Applause] [Music] thank you hello again and as we are rapidly approaching the end of awards it's a pleasure
061pleasure again to see so many people that don't know how good you are you know you're all good athletes you know you've worked hard you believed in each other you supported each other but the greatest thing about being a teacher and a coach is you get to see the future and the young women and young men in this room give me so much hope of of all of our future how great the world is going to be when you folks are in charge and I I truly mean that our voice outdoor track team maintained something that they didn't even know existed and that was we've never had a losing season and they made sure that they didn't have a losing season by working hard together by believing in each other and it was a struggle
062but life as you're all going to learn is the struggle that you've learned to overcome by being teammates together all of you our outstanding senior boy Alexandra Ry [Applause] [Music] thanks coach up next going to ask coach West to come up again to talk about the girls out through track I get this mic to work this time yell all right the girls team team had also had a winning record of three and2 we place third in league six and counties our seniors consisted of Lyla Flores Denise duil Victoria green dbor R Mo Jada Witter Sierra fisbeck GI Delgado MJ Martinez I just want to shout out a couple of those seniors that don't necessarily get recognized uh Denise d stand up please she basically learned poo this season and um we're still in season we
063haven't we haven't meet tomorrow our states are tomorrow and Saturday so we're still going um and also I would like to mention uh Lyla Flores for evance stand up [Music] [Applause] please the reason why I'm calling them out especially uh Denise and lilas because like I said sometimes they don't get recognized and they should because they've dedicated their the last four years of their life to track and field and they've literally done anything that we've asked them to do without complaining which is a rare thing to happen nowadays um my MVP is like the MVP of all MVPs I've been coaching track since 2007 and all right easy there and um I can honestly say there's only one deor Mo we're going to put some respect on your name because it's not Deborah it's dorah
064she is the jack of all trades she long jumps triple jumps high jumps 100 hurdles 400 hurdles she can throw the shot she can throw the disc she can be a relay she scored more points at the county championships than five other teams four of them combined she scored almost half the points of the girls team she just found out yest today that she's the allaround first team All Around All County uh there's not I cannot go on long enough and tell you all the things that she does she's literally the president of every you are you're the president of every extracurricular activity in the high school she plays every instrument and like I said she's going to Yale University my MVP our MVP DOR thank you coach West G to ask uh coach Rodriguez
065to come up next for boys [Applause] volleyball thank you thank you good evening everyone uh first off start by uh thanking Mr mlei uh Lori uh our training staff our support staff our live stream crew um our Administration thank you so much uh Mr Rober toy the board thank you so much for all the support that you guys give not only uh obviously volleyball team but our Athletics uh program um by the way if you can't understand me it's probably cuz my English is no very good-looking but uh Mark said that there'll be subtitles and captions uh on the live stream later on so you can rewatch it later um just kidding it's probably the mic all right obviously our coaching staff our assistant coaches uh coach alverado and Coach fil who's not here tonight
066our managers uh now to our seniors and the team uh this is by far the best boys team that I've been I've had the honor of coaching uh my three years coaching here at Clifton High School um they really embodi the definition of a a team uh which was um why I believe they're having such a great year um they have a 21 and six records so far uh we're playing tomorrow in the state state semifinals against uh Bridgewater we had 10 seniors this year only six of them are here tonight um I'm going to start with uh Axel barera Jason laki um we have Nathaniel fisbeck who made second Team all County um he will be playing next year at University we have Lao bares who made first Teo [Music] County Adrian nth who
067made first te All County and David Bia um I really wish I could give all of them on MVP again I wish I could give an MVP to each one of them uh unfortunately that's not possible obviously um I couldn't make the decision myself cuz I I didn't think it was possible so I left it up to the team to vote uh it was a really close one and our senior MVP is Adrien NE [Applause] [Music] all right last but certainly not least coach sinu and girls flag [Applause] football uh obviously Save The Best For Last um first and foremost I would like to thank Mr Maly our athletic director um he has been so supportive of the girls SL football program you guys have waited this long just give me three minutes um Mr
068Ley has been so supportive and honestly we wouldn't be where we are without him so thank you very much um in case you haven't heard of girls flag football we the group that you can find out on the fields 5 days week at uh 5:59 a.m. cuz 6:00 practice starts at 5:59 except for Nicole um so my seniors are truly the hardest working girls that I could have asked for um practicing 5 days week at 6: a.m. definitely is isn't easy and I couldn't have asked for any more from them so super proud of the group that we had this year these ladies um finished eight two this year we swept our division and we were crowned to the American League champions so congratulations so class of 2024 flag football seniors manager Ashley Rodriguez Captain
069Carly stoker Jaslyn vizcano Madison Greenfield Zana Murphy qb1 Captain Kiara koi Sierra fisbeck Amanda Pudo and our senior MVP who never missed a preseason training in two years work tirelessly on and off the field to make our entire program successful LED our team defensively this season with 49 tackles as well as whatever I threw at her offensively senior Captain Nicole [Applause] [Music] all right before we get to the portion of theight where we find out who our senior male and female athletes of the year are um just want to take a second to again thank uh you seniors for being such an awesome awesome group of kids being such a wonderful audience tonight I mean the respect that you've shown for for the last two hours um how polite you were out there getting your
070food how polite you were when you were in here eating the food and that's you you embody Clifton and just know that you come from a school district that values hard work that rewards hard work um not many school districts I've been doing this for a long time did not many school districts do something like this for their senior athletes not many at all you know you're talking about pizza parties in in in in the auditorium as a senior gift uh so thank you know our board Dr [Applause] Roi but you know it's not many not many people get rewarded like that um not many coaches will say the things that they've said and actually believe it and and live it it's amazing how you've picked up on their hard work and dedication they've brought
071the best out of you as not only athletes but as people so just know that you're taking you're you're coming from a great place and no matter where you go whether it's College trade school military just off to the off to the workforce uh just know that you're coming from a great place and you have you have a solid solid foundation so let's thank the coaches the athletic trainers the support staff once again [Applause] you many of you have also taken uh advantage of the strength and conditioning programs that that we've offered here uh not many places have that uh this year we also added uh some some some morning training uh female athletic trainer uh female strength and conditioning coach so we're doing some really cool things and we're reaping the benefit by your
072success the amount of you who are going to go on to play college sports is remarkable so we're very very proud of it so that being said knowing that we're in such a room of elite athletes Elite students uh we listen to a lot of your accomplishments on the field on the track on the court but also more importantly in the classroom and in your clubs and in your community so to be an athlete of the year in this class of 2024 that started with Co really started you know crappy right there's no other way to put it it was it was it was a miserable miserable time to see where we are right now today everybody's having a great night everybody's dressed to the nines we're supported by our high school administration by our
073school district so your coaching staff so let's give them a round of applause one more time so ladies first we're going to start with our female athlete of the year um her coach coaches have have talked at Great length about her Great accomplishments on the track it's really phenomenal what she's done what she does in the school I had her a member of um athletic management club and her commitment to to Athletics and academics is unparalleled we'd have some really cool speakers coming in and she would say sorry Mr mle I have I have a test I have to and you know that that's her and that's probably why she's going to Yale one of the many reasons why she's going to Yale and that's something that that we all take a lot of pride
074in when our athletes go when our community members go to Ivy League places um it's very very impressive so going to ask dorah am Moab to come on up one more [Applause] so on the boys side we also heard about so many impressive athletic Feats you know over the over the past four years so again this was a very difficult decision to be made um I've had I've had the pleasure of seeing just about everybody compete uh I've seen this athlete compete uh quite some quite very many times over the past four years and his growth not only as a person and as an athlete but as a leader has been nothing short of inspiring he's brought a lot of Pride to Clifton brought a lot of Pride to his program um this year's athlete
075of the year is vital DS [Applause] sry off voice all right so again thank you all for attending I hope you enjoyed your night and the best of luck with graduation [Music] hold on don't leave before dessert there is dessert e e