Ep. 377 – Building a NJ Wrestling Dynasty with Coach Gerry Tabbachino of Southern Regional - Airey Bros.'s Radio

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Airy Brose Radio. Be there or b
Square because it's all killer, no filler. This is Jerry
Tappuccino and you are listening to Airy Brothers Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Ladies and gentlemen, Haddie and Aaloha, welcome to another episode
of Aeri Brose Radio. Tonight, we're stepping back on the
mat to go belly to belly with legendary Short Conference
wrestling coach from Southern Regional Jerry Tappuccino. He's a New
Jersey icon who helped build a legacy of Southern Regional
wrestling into a powerhouse not only at the Short Conference

(00:42):
but in the state of New Jersey. But before we
get rolling, y'all know the drill smash that like button.
Make sure you are subscribed, drop a comment, everyview, review
and share helps us grow and get back to the
sports we love. Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, and
Apple Podcast. As always, this episode is fueled by Black
Sheep Endurance Coaching and let's not forget while we're here,

(01:04):
Ladies and gentlemen, We're here to shine a light on
the programs and coaches we wish we had access to
growing up. If you were somebody you know as looking
for the right fit at the next level. Please share
this episode with them. On to tonight's guests. As I mentioned,
Coach Tappaccino is joining us a couple of his highlights
from his career. He's a Hall of Fame coach, inducted

(01:25):
into both the Southern Regional Athletic Hall of Fame and
the Jersey Shore Interscholastic Wrestling Association Hall of Fame. He's
inducted into the class of twenty seventeen. He's a Sure
Conference trailblazer, guided Southern Regional Wrestling through its rise from
the late eighties into the two thousands. He's award winning leader,
honored with the prestigious ab Dolph Kramer Award for lifetime contribution,

(01:50):
and he's also a member of the All Decade Coaching Team,
recognized by the Asbury Park Press for his impact across
multiple decades in New Jersey wrestling. Without further ado, it
is an honor pleasure. We're excited to have you with us.
It's great to see you, coach. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate what you guys
are doing both locally and throughout the whole state. Your
support for wrestling, and you know your opening comments about
people moving on after the high school level and continuing
to find places to compete. What you guys are doing
is just really genuinely great for the sport.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Thank you, We appreciate that, Coach. Probably the most important
thing we're going to ask you all night. We ask
all our Jersey guests this. We might we're not sure
what we get from. We know you're a nor Jersey guy,
but you've been down in Ocean County for a long time.
Is it port Roller Taylor Ham?

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Probably neither, and I don't know that I go for
either one of them, but either one would work. Not
my favorite, but either one works.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Okay, all right, all right, So, Coach, one of the
things we like to do is we like to create
through line so that our guests know we came to
know each other with our guests, but also let our
fans know. So we go way back to Southern Regional.
We have long, long ties with you. Both our mother

(03:12):
and our uncle were coworkers of yours for a very
very long time. Our uncle Jack actually worked in the
same department as you, doing things with industrial arts. But
also one other thing is a little story I have
a few highlights or memories for my high school career.
You know, I'm almost fifty years old now, so things

(03:35):
escaped me. Jimmy remembers a lot, probably more about my
high school career than I do. But it was my
senior year. I was down in Atlantic City and I
was getting ready for one of my wrestle back matches,
and I think maybe I was walking to the mat
or whatever, and we were going in opposite directions. And
for the people that are listening from the short conference,
they know that you used to always carry around a

(03:56):
spray bottle of water with you and if I wasn't
locked in or I was in another world or whatever,
but as we walked by with one another, you squirted
me a few times in the face with that water.
Kind of woke me up and brought me back to
life a little bit. So it's like I said, I
don't have a lot of memories of things I did
in high school, but that one is something that has

(04:16):
stuck with me since nineteen ninety four. So we go
way back, and it is it's honor to chat with
you and catch up with you tonight.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Well, yeah, it's great. Like I said, do you hear
you guys, and that bottle was kind of my little
six shooter on the side. Yeah, she got was squared.
It was for a good reason.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah, so I thought, Yeah, And Coach you were someone
who was always held in high regard in our family,
in our house and anytime you know we were gonna
be at a tournament, make sure if you see Coach Tapucin,
I'll make sure you shake his hand.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
Make sure you you let them know say hi. And
like Rich said, you worked with our uncle Jack.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
And our aunt Joan holds you in high regard and
she loves you dearly, and you're just someone who we've
always had high, high respect for. So thank you for
joining us tonight. One thing that Rich and I have
wanted to ask you since probably about twenty thirteen, we
listened to a stand up comedian named Joey Diaz. He

(05:12):
has a podcast and he's from north.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
Bergen and here we go.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
He always you don't gets into stories about growing up
in north Bergen, and one day me and Rich were listening.
We were in separate locations, we weren't listening together, but
we probably text each other at the same time because
he was talking about growing up in north Bergen and
the wrestling coach, Coach Tappuccino, your father, how hard knows

(05:38):
he was, and how you didn't mess with the wrestlers
in north Bergen. So the question I have off of
that is did you grow up with Joey Dias?

Speaker 4 (05:45):
Were you a little bit older than him? Do you
know who he is?

Speaker 1 (05:48):
I I'm older. It's my brother, not my father, it's
my older brother that was the coach. I just want
to back up a little bit to your family. Your
family is just a barrel full of extremely good people,
and they made it good for a lot of their friends.
They made it good for themselves, and they made it

(06:08):
great for a lot of young student athletes throughout the schools.
Your mom, your uncle, Jack, your aunts, you know. So
I just want to clear the air on that one.
They were very very easy people to care about and
think about.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Sorry I didn't give you space to that's such yeah,
but thank you for going back there.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
And as far as joe Diaz goes, I never really
I didn't really know the guy. I was out of
town when he was in town. I have a brother
who is nine years older than me, and he was
actually my high school wrestling coach also, So I came
through a high school program where my older brother nine
year difference, was my head high school wrestling coach, and

(06:49):
my next brother, who was seven years older, was the
assistant wrestling coach in that school. So yeah, I mean
a lot of things that I dragged out with me
were things that I took from them, and I was very,
very lucky. I said to you earlier that I had
a two year stay at Bergenfield High School and I
coached there under a guy named Roy Marata. And you know,

(07:14):
between having those three high school coaches, I took a
lot of their ammunition and I tried to pick what
I thought was the strength of it and dragged it
ninety two miles south with me, and some of it worked.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
So we want to talk about going ninety two miles south.
But you mentioned having both your brothers as your high
school coaches.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
How did you get into wrestling?

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Well, when I was growing up, you know, unlike today,
there was where I grew up anyway, there was no
wreck program. So I started hanging out at the high
school a little bit, you know, in the sixth grade
is when I kind of just started watching the kids
practice and I guess you would have called me like
the team manager, you know, every little chunk, a little
wiping up that had to be done or whatever. So

(07:57):
I'd go watch it as a sixth grader, and as
a seventh grader, I tried practicing with them a little bit.
Eighth grade, you know, continuing to pop in and out.
Now I was playing like town league basketball at the
same time going to wrestling practice at the high school.
And then when I got in ninth grade, you know,
it became a legitimate thing, and it became a you know,

(08:18):
came the activity that I chose to pursue in high school.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Where did you go to college?

Speaker 1 (08:26):
I did one year at a Ocean County I'm sorry,
Burden County Community College, and one year at Millersville, and
really didn't not too proud of the way I went
through college. I gave up on it too early and
took a year off of college and I started working
for General Motors. Second year off again with General Motors.

(08:47):
Then I started going back part time to Montclair at night,
and I finished up after about I don't know, a
grand total of maybe six calendar years. I got my
degree from Montclair, you.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Know, Jimmy sched.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Well, he beat me by a decade ridge.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah, it took a while, but we got it done.

Speaker 4 (09:07):
Coach.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
So, I know, having a brother as a coach can
can be can be brutal at times. You know, there
were some times where Rich would throw me through a
wall or door or something like that. How was your
experience having your brothers as your coaches, and not just
your coaches, but your coaches at your school.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Well, you know, one thing that I did have going
for me there was my two brothers are a pretty
different personality. So the guy you were talking about earlier
on with with the DS situation, he was, you know,
he was pretty straightforward. There wasn't a whole lot of
in between, and it was he ran a pretty hard
tight ship. The middle guy was also ran a very

(09:49):
tight ship, don't get me wrong, but he had a
little bit more of you know, when you were when
you were ready to drop and you were ready to
go down, the other guy was one guy was telling
you get up and do more, and the other guy
was kind of helping you out and saying, go ahead,
you can do more than this. Keep moving. They kind
of complimented each other very well. They had a little
bit of difference in their read on kids and certain kids,

(10:10):
just like I think it happens in every practice room today.
Even certain kids appeal to certain coaches in a different way.
And you know, these kids feel more comfortable with a
personality of certain coaches, and that's something the kid will
take to the coach and the coach will take to
the kid. And I think, you know, it's important that

(10:32):
everybody lets that happen because as you know, as we
well know, wrestling practice, wrestling competition is not easy, and
you got to put a kid in a good environment
where he's coming into that practice. Nobody wants to practice
every day, but you know, you got to get in
that room and you got to lift that spirit up
a little bit and get the best out of it
that you can every day. So having different personalities to

(10:53):
bounce your frustrations, your gratitudes off of that's a good thing.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
So did you kind of take from both of your
brothers into your coaching philosophy when you.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, I was a big believer and anybody I saw,
whether it was at you know, whether it was at
a clinic or you know, just out of workout. As
I said to you, it was my two brothers. I
had a guy in college and they med coach Jackie.
He did it. Was a really good guy to follow,
and I tried to use some of his thoughts on wrestling.

(11:25):
And guy coach with at Bergenfield guy named Roy Mrauta,
who was really like he had a good blend with kids.
You know, you could kids would kids would go to
battle for him, you know. And I learned a lot
from him, and you know, you know, even I'll bring
it all the way down to the shore. And I
didn't know him at the time. I consider him a

(11:45):
friend right now, But at the time, I didn't know
who John DeMarco was. And uh I went to John
had actually come up North Jersey to do a clinic
up in Bergenfield, and I was friendly with the man
who ran the clinic, and I I didn't even know
who John was, to be honest with you, and I
was watching John do a clinic and I was kind

(12:05):
of I was engulfed by the way he ran the
clinic and his technique at the time, and how he
was approaching a kid. So, you know, without John even
knowing it, you know, I stole a little bit of
his soup.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Too, And so you mentioned thirty eight years ago. You
made the track ninety two miles down south. How did
the job at Southern Regional come about? Was it a
teaching and a coaching job that came the opportunity?

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah? Actually I had This job I had at Bergenfield
was a one year promise. I was filling in for
somebody who was in a car accident, and it wound
up being a two year keep. So after two years there,
I knew I was kind of on my way out.
My wife was getting ready to give birth to our

(12:53):
first daughter, and I was looking for a teaching job.
And I was just down here, uh over a weekend
with my middle brother, and I picked up a local newspaper.
I saw the job posted. I made a phone call
applied That same day they brought me in for an interview.
I really shouldn't say I applied. They called me in

(13:16):
on the phone they offered me the job. I knew nothing,
nothing at all. I didn't know where Southern Regional even was.
I you know, I had no track on Southern Regional
wrestling at all. I had no track on what, you know,
what the makeup of the school was. I went in,
they interviewed me, They offered me the job that afternoon

(13:38):
and I accepted in you know, September fifth. I was
on their back doorstep.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Was it a bit of a culture shop being from
North Jersey and Northeast.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Yeah, it was. It was, it was, and the philosophy,
you know, Where it really really hit me was the
first week or so in the practice room. You know,
I was teaching in an alternate program, so I really
didn't have much communication in the building. It was a
brand new program that the school was offering, and I

(14:09):
was working in that section of the school, but I
really didn't get the full feeling of it or the
full grip of it until I got into the wrestling there.
So they had an opening for an assistant coach. I
applied for it, you know, and that was obviously before
the day of email and so forth. So they called

(14:30):
me in and I met with the athletic director, who
was Kim Cole at the time, and a couple of
days went by, and I think they were weighing out
the battle between me and one other candidate for the job,
and I kind of felt like I might have been
getting lost in the shuffle there because I was not
in the building. But it worked out that I did

(14:51):
get the job, and so come November I was going
to be an assistant coach on high school level, primarily
grade nine. I was going to be the freshman coach.
And when I started really never got much of a
chance to meet with the kids other than the you know,
the preseason meeting. There wasn't much going on in the

(15:13):
way of preseason working workouts. So, you know, we got
started the first couple of days and I just I
remember a kid asking a question in the practice room
and I can't really ever forget this. Well, we're going
to be able to take off practice tomorrow because the
surf is going to be real good. Now, you know,

(15:34):
I never surfed in my life. I have a hard
time swimming, never mind serving. So you know, I liked
it was bizarre to me to hear something like that,
because the three three guys I mentioned before was so
brutal about being in practice and pursuing every second of
practice like it was a never ending detail, you know,

(15:54):
So that was kind of like brain rattling to me.
That was the first thing I I you know, I
look at the kids and say, what do you mean
you just want to go surfer? What do you do.
We're in restlling seas from now, you know. But that
was a little bit of a culture shock for me.
And it was also at a time where Southern was
in a little bit of a lull. You know. You
go all the way back into the sixties and Southern

(16:15):
was a very solid program, recognized program in the state,
and then there was a bit of a drop off,
and you know, everybody was trying to get those seeds
back in the ground and get it grown again, you know,
And so the whole I would say, the attitude, the
mentality kind of needed to be shifted in a different direction.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
I would also say that in addition to the surfing,
did you also have to field some questions about having
being off for like opening day of deer hunting season two?

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yep, that was another one, you know, the deer hunting season.
And I'm not a hunter. A lot of my good
friends are, but I'm not personally, you know, I just
came from the school. You know. We had a coach
that used to say this, you know, the only the
only reason you can miss practice is if something happens
very badly to someone in your family, or you get

(17:06):
hit by a car and it has to be a
full sized car. That's kind of where was the running
quote in our practice rooms.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
And there was a rumor too, Ben McBrien was pretty
pretty good at the surfing. Yeah, there's a rumor that
there would be times that you guys would be driving
up and down Long Beach Island to maybe get him
out of the water so he could get the practice
or get the wig ends Is that? Is that a
true rumor?

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Ben was? Ben was a pretty reliable guy, you know
he was. I know he loved surfing, but I don't
really have memories of ever having the drag Ben in
the practice room. I know there's days he probably no
you know, I don't think anybody wants to be there
every single back. You know, at some point you get
a little worn out. You need that break. But Ben

(17:54):
was a hard nosed guy on the matt I enjoyed
coaching him because he competed. You know, when that whistle blew,
he would beat yep coach.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
What year did you start as an assistant at Southern?

Speaker 1 (18:05):
You remember, I want to say my first year at
Southern was eighty five, eighty six.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
And what year did you take the program over.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Eighty I was two years as an assistant, and in
my third year, which I believe was eighty eight eighty nine,
I got the head coaching job. In that summer, they
called me in and they offered me the head position.
The assistant the head coach at the time was looking

(18:35):
to resign. He was a technology guy, and that's when,
you know, the computer was just breaking into the public
schools and the Southern Regional was just starting the program
and he wanted to dedicate his time to that. I
just happened to be standing in a good place at
a good time.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
So you said that the sixties, they were pretty good,
and then there was a little bit of a lull
in the seven in the eighties, and I know, I
mean when we had Coach roy On, I told him
I saw more Southern matches than I did Burrow matches
growing up because my mom and we always used to
go to the Short Conference, and I always remember Southern
in the final four of the Short Conference.

Speaker 4 (19:15):
There was never a year I.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
Don't remember you guys weren't in the Short Conference. When
did you guys start building and start getting to a
place where you felt comfortable with being successful?

Speaker 1 (19:26):
So, like I would say, we kind of we kind
of broke the ice my first year as a head coach.
I can't I can't say this for sure, but I'm
pretty comfortable saying that. I don't even believe we were
ranked in like the top fourteen of the short conference.
I think we were ranked like eleven or twelve out

(19:47):
of fourteen teams in Ocean County, And you know, I
kind of thought we were going to move I didn't
know how fast we were going to move, but I
thought we were going to move up because I looked
at what we had and the kids were doing what
they were asked to do. They were participating, they were
making the efforts at the coaching staffs they were asking

(20:08):
them to make. So I believe my first year we
went seven wins and eleven losses. We helped the schedule
a little bit for the second year, and it wasn't
much better in the way of winning and losing, but
we won seven and we lost ten matches. We were
wrestling minus two kids. We were forfeiting two weight classes
on a regular basis, and we were losing a lot

(20:30):
of matches close, you know, and the kids who were
wrestling were competing. We were just you know, giving away
twelve in most matches. And then the third year, you know,
we broke we broke the barn doors open. We went
eighteen and two, and we broke the top twenty in
the state. So we went from you know, being unranked
in the Sure Conference to I believe that year we

(20:51):
wound up being like seventeen or eighteen in the state,
which was a pretty good accomplishment, you know at that time.
You look at that today, I think Southern would be disappointed,
but you know, at that time it was a big
step forward for us. We made the semi final of
the Shore Conference tournament. We lost to Manalapin, and I'll
take the blame for that. I made a very bad

(21:12):
decision in a weight class shift moving to kid around,
and I think it probably cost us the match. We
wanted to have that opportunity to wrestle Brick Memorial, who
was going to be the team in the finals, and
they had beaten us in a duel meet earlier that
year by five came down to the last bout, So
you know, when we knew we were competing with that
level of the program. You know, I'm not saying we

(21:36):
were all the way there yet, but if you were
competing with Brick Memorial in those days. You know, if
you could keep them honest, you know, you had a
pretty good team.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
And I think it was in correct me if I'm wrong,
it was either ninety or ninety one. You guys had
four region jamps and maybe five in the finals.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
We had four champs in a third, yeah, that was
in That was in the ninety ninety one season. Yeah,
and two of those kids, two of those champs were
not district champs. You know, one kid came out in
the third place, Freddy Nola came out of third place
in the district. And John Lombardo was a district runner

(22:14):
up and he won a match in the finals against
the boy who beat him in a district final. So, yeah,
we had four champs and Eddie Bronsdorff was a.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Third and he was a champ the year before though,
wasn't he prior?

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah, he was a region champ. Yeah. So that was
a really nice push for the program. The program got
a lot of we got a lot of ink from
the Asbury Park Press on that, and you know, it
started started turning some eyes towards us. You could see
our crowd was starting to improve. You know, we were
in the old gym at that point, which was a
nice gym the wrestling because it filled very easy. But

(22:50):
you know, when I first started, I would say average
spectator was around two hundred people. In that third year,
people were starting to get curious and starting to come in,
and that number was pressed on a thousand on a
home match that was pretty neat.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
I got pinned in that gym in nineteen ninety three.
I think it was by Mike Sattin in the South. So, yeah,
I was beating the ten two. I think you are.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
That's right. We talk about that every now and then.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, you may sweats from that night.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
Yeah, yeah, that was not a good car drive home.

Speaker 4 (23:21):
Rich. I'll let you know that best.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
You mentioned that third year, you guys are eighteenth in
the state, and now that would be something that the
Southern fans might not be too happy about. What do
you think the key to Southern being so good for
all these years?

Speaker 1 (23:40):
If I if I could, you know, if I break
this down into individual people, we're going to be here
till Wednesday night. There are so many people involved in this.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
You know.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
First of all, there's been you know, a great transition,
I believe. Yeah, all the assistant coaches worked with the
head coach. The head coaches went back and became assistant coaches.
But there were so many good assistant coaches working there
that were working there when I was the head coach.
You know, Eric Wilhelm was like he was like a

(24:15):
left hand for me, man, you know, I mean we
were taking kids home at night before the night before
a match to make sure that you know, they were
eating properly, that they weren't overeating where they you know,
when were they in a good place to sleep, you know.
And he had his little contingency of guys that used
to go home with him, and I had a small
contingency of guys that would go home with me. And

(24:37):
you know, it was at a time there were no
cameras in the schools and you know, there was no
motion sensors and we'd be sleeping in the school with
the kids to make sure they didn't go home and eat.
And you know, it was there was so even in
that early part, like it was just having assistant coaches
that were so dedicated to what we had there.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
You know.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
Another guy was Carrie Harror and a guy named Mike
Shelley coached with us and you know, Brett Bakley came
on much later. He was a guy that left the program.
But you know, you go then with John Stout became
the head coach. I told John, gonna stay with you
just for one year and just kind of help you out,
you know, just sort of first year is not as rocky.

(25:16):
You know, I had done thirteen as a head John
was now going to be the head coach. Well, that
one year turned into sixteen, and you know, so and
then John of course did his term, and you know,
the program at that point was, you know, the greatest
show on Earth in the shore was Southern Versus Jackson.
I mean, you know, it was whether you liked Southern,

(25:36):
I like Jackson. You had to love what you were watching.
It didn't matter, you know. And John did his run,
and Dan Roy got hired by John as an assistant,
and then Dan took over. And when I first started,
there really were no kids. There was a small amount
I shouldn't say no, but certainly a handful of kids
who had done some wrestling in the youth league. Really

(26:00):
wasn't like what we see today. Then these four guys,
Bob Smith, Steve Jones, Jim Sutter, senior and Huck Saunders
started up this wrec program, Stafford Wrestling, and that's where
you know, you get into it. Later we were starting
to see the results when we started talking, when we
start talking about ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven, that's

(26:21):
when those kids were starting to surface. You know. So
the high school there's been a not just for wrestling,
but there's been a tremendous, tremendous athletic support from I
think I've weathered through four or five different administrations. Every
one of those administrations has been pro athletics. Whether it

(26:44):
doesn't matter what'sport, but pro athletics from people at the top,
superintendents all the way down, you know, to the vite,
through the principles, to the vice principles, and to the faculty.
I mean, you know, you go to a you go
to a machinist, teachers sitting in the stands watching the match,
they'll talk to you like you weren't there tonight before

(27:05):
and tell you everything that was going on.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
You know.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
So the place is kind of unique in that way.
And right now, you know, excuse me, right now, it's
just you know, uh, it's just incredible how many people
are involved in the program. Uh, parents support local business owners.

(27:28):
It's just really Ah, I kind of feel like it's
the modern day Phillipsburgh Paulsborough. You know years ago that
that was the the whole lessons of Phillipsburgh and Paulsborough.
You know, if I could just tell you a quick story, Uh,

(27:48):
I was when I got into Southern my first year.
I don't want to give you a reason why, but
I was looking to relocate before the season started, and uh,
there was an opening in Phillipsburg for which back then
they called it mechanical drawing teacher. And I went up
there and I met with the man in charge, and

(28:11):
they did offer me the teaching position. And I asked, then,
is there something I can do to get involved with
the wrestling program, And without any hesitation, I mean there
was no hesitation, the answer was no. And I said, well,
you know, I'll do any level rec program, junior high
school anything. I said, you know, a volunteer I'm not

(28:32):
looking for, and no, we don't need you. And his
reasoning was, and I get it. They had eight former
state champions waiting for coaching positions. And I'm driving, awhile
I'm saying you know, that's kind of like my point
here is there's so much community involvement in this. It's
so important when you go in the stores and you know,

(28:55):
you're see in pictures that are wrestling teams up in
the little local stores and all, and that's what's going
on right now at Southern. You know, everybody's walking around
town with sweatshirt on. Everybody's walking around town with a
T shirt on or a hat on, you know, and
people they know who the kids are. You know, people
talk wrestling with your food an hour if you want
to hear it for an hour, you know. And so yeah,

(29:16):
that's the boom as far as I can see it.
And I also you know, people have different opinions on this,
but you know, you go back to that Kevin Costner movie,
if you build it, they will come. Well, they're coming.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah, So you know, that's something Jimmy and I talk
about often when we talk about wrestling, we talk about Southern,
We talk about the community. And been a part of
probably five or six different high schools, and then none
of them have come even close to the level of support,

(29:54):
like you said, from the community, through the faculty, through
the administration, all way up to the board of Education
and the superintendent is and I'm talking different states too.
Nothing comes even close in comparison to what the people
have at Southern Regional with the athletics and the community

(30:14):
and just the involvement and the passion that they have
for the for the programs and just support of the kids.
It's unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
You know, if I could add one more thing to that.
There's also this this ingredient called your junior high school
or your middle school as some people call it. And
I just can't tell you how appreciative I am, and
how appreciative I think people who are in the know
are of the guys that run the middle school program,

(30:43):
Kelly Fishman, Josh Law. You know, they're both former Southern wrestlers.
So like everywhere down the line, they got assistant coaches
Danny Hall and Luke Lano, and you know Zach and
Matt Wilhelmer coming in on a regular base. I know
I'm leaving names out, and I apologize, but you know,
these are all guys that grew up from the rec

(31:03):
program through the high school program, went and did their
thing in college. Most of them went through a college
wrestling program. They're all back helping out now, and you know,
it's just important to people, and people are when they
don't when they don't have a good match, people are
upset about, genuinely upset about, you know. So, yeah, I
don't want to leave out those middle school guys because

(31:24):
I think those two guys are two the best there are.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
Yeah, there's a lot of continuity, like you said, from
the Stafford Wrestling Club through the middle school up to
the high school coaches. And you know, Dan was mentioning
how you have rec nights and stuff where you kind
of highlight the rec program and those sorts of things,
and so those kids get to see that as they're
coming up through the through the youth program. You know,
they put those kids in such high regard and they

(31:50):
just look forward to putting that black and gold single
on when they get to the high school level. And
I just don't think that some programs have that kind
of overall involvement from you know, elementary school all the
way up to the high school. That continuity is tough
to beat.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Yeah, I you know, even you know, John is no
longer you know, on paper coaching, but he's working with
kids after hours. You know, John Stout and you know
what he did for the program in between Dan and
I really exchanged it to a whole, to a whole
another level. You know. I kind of used like I
was the foundation. John was the walls and dance putting

(32:31):
on the roof man. And that's kind of how I
look at it right now.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
Yeah, you also mentioned you mentioned John, but another stout
that was a big early involvement in the program was
his brother, Brian.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
He was. He was a tough cookie, and I'm assuming
he was your first day champion.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
He was school's first day champion. Yep.

Speaker 3 (32:53):
Coach talking talking about when John took over, you were
just gonna stay for a year, and then you wound
up staying for sixteen. How did your role change as
an assistant coach?

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Well, I'll be honest with you, I don't feel like
my mentality or my energy in the practice room changed
at all. The one thing I did like about it
and John and I left about this all the time.
You know, he always he always says it to me
sarcastically in a joking way. You know, there's a lot
more to being a head coach than there is to

(33:26):
be an assistant coach. The head coach is the guy
who deals with a lot of the grief. The head
coach is the guy when something's not right, when some
duck is out of order, He's the guy that's got
to fix it. You know, when you're in that practice
room and your sole function is the practice room. It
makes the job for some a lot more fun, for

(33:48):
some a lot easier. Made it easier for me, It
made it more fun for me. I don't know that
I could have done sixteen more years as a head coach,
but I was able to do sixteen more as an
assistant coach. And John and I laugh about that all
the time. We have a good relationship and it's kind
of a running joke between us about what I did
to him. But I'm stepping out, you know. But yeah,

(34:12):
I mean, I don't think you change who you are
too much personality wise. I think you're you're details of
how you pursue practice or how you pursue a kid
individually may change a little bit. It gives you an
opportunity to attach yourself to a kid who's having a

(34:33):
problem somewhere in a certain position during a match, or
he's not having success or an upcoming beout. You know
where you've watched the opponent rustle several times and you've
got to make up two or three points to beat
him the next time. And it allows you to focus
in on that. Where as a head coach, not that
you can't do that, but you know, you're kind of

(34:53):
overseeing the whole room. You're making sure and that everybody's
got their left leg where it's supposed to be, hands
on top of the head, you know, and there's you
got to have a little bit bigger, bigger view of
the practice room.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
You mentioned before some of those matches with Jackson, and
you also mentioned that you couldn't mention all the names
of the people that helped you in the program be
as good as it is. Do you have any years
or periods of time that kind of stand out to
you as the peak or man?

Speaker 4 (35:21):
We're running on all cylinders.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
I felt like we got you know, this is gonna
sound a little bit offbeat man, but in that in
that team in ninety one, the team that had the
four regional champions, the guys, I said that kind of
broke the ice. We had eleven seniors on that team
and we emptied out pretty hard, needless to say, And

(35:51):
you know, everybody was like, all right, there are one
and done. You know it's over. There were one and done,
and we came back the next year. It was a
little bit of a drop off, but we came back.
I think we were thirteen and six the following year.
I think we wound up being like ranked four or five,
I'm sorry, five or six in the Short Conference at

(36:12):
the end of the year. And I thought that group
of kids probably you know, nobody would even remember that team,
but I thought they were a great group of overachievers.
You know, they just won. They really won quite a bit,
just simply on you know, they had a little bit
more going into the last sixty seconds of the match
than most of the guys they were wrestling. That was

(36:35):
kind of a nice year, although it's not a decorated year.
The decorated year, of course, was winning the Short Conference
tournament in ninety seven and then again in ninety eight.
That team, those teams were talented. The matches with Jackson
came later in the early you know, in the early
O three Z fours. Then of course in five we

(36:58):
wound up beating Phillips in the overall Group four state
championship with John as the head coach. That was that
was huge for our program. You know, that was a great,
great achievement for us, and you know, it put us
right there. I mean it put us right there. We
were now there we were with Phillipsburg. We had beaten
Highland Regional along the way. You know, it was set.

(37:22):
It set us, you know, right at the top of
the mountain with those other teams.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
As that story you told us that one against Phillipsburg
feel pretty good.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
Well, yeah, that was great. That was it was a
long time coming. But they shall ACKed us twice when
I was a head coach, so it was something I'm sorry.
In ninety seven, Yeah, they shall ACKed us. I think
we won about maybe three bouts final score fifty three
to nine or something like that Group four championship match overall,
and yeah, they whacked us up pretty good. So, uh,

(37:53):
you know that was a little tough to swallow. But
you know, after a while it came around and I
think right now they're chasing us. I don't think we're
chasing them anymore.

Speaker 4 (38:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
I know that probably wasn't a highlight for you in
ninety seven, but I remember being in the gym for
that and and being you know, fourth fifth grade and
that just being unreal to me, the amount of people
that they brought down for that and just kind of
how they walked out and kind of took control of
the gymnasium.

Speaker 4 (38:24):
That was like eye opening.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
But you also in ninety eight, you got them back
in the state final if I'm correct, right, Rich Gilner
beat their guy head on.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
Yeah, Rich beat their guy in the state final. That
was a nice win. You know, Rich was another guy
just what a competitor man, I mean, just loved to compete,
and if you didn't have a tank, you couldn't beat them.
You had to have a tank that could go eight minutes,
never mind six. And because he was you know, he

(38:52):
just competed, yep, And that was a good win for
him individually, and it was a good win for all program.
You know, it was beating the peber guy they were
king at that point.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Yeah, Coach. One of the other things talking about was
just the competition that Southern always sought out. You know,
come down towards the latter part of the season, towards
district and regions, and you'd have some guys that had
some losses on the records and then they would make
runs either through district regions down in Atlantic City with

(39:25):
some blemishes, and that was always something that was Jimmy
and I would always talk about, as you know, you
guys were going to things like power Rade and some
of these other tournaments and having these tough competitions. We
talked with Dan about it too, where you know, you're
not doing your job as a coach if you're not
trying to get your kids losses early on in the season.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
Yeah, I mean, you know, we're not looking to make miracles,
but it's good to take. You know, I'm not good
to take a loss. But if a loss does occur
early in the year, don't look at it as the
end of the earth. Look at it as what do
I gotta do in case we run into each other again?
What have I got to do to improve my position
or my skills in a certain position. And I personally

(40:06):
felt like from a coaching strategy a coaching point of view,
one of the greatest wins in wrestling individually and a
dual meet is when you know you knock somebody off
and beat you earlier in the year, where somebody who
on paper is supposed to be better than you, you know,
and I think right now, with the technology that's out there,

(40:27):
it's pretty easy to sit back and watch just about
anybody wrestle. You can get a key in on just
about anybody you want to say. You know, we didn't
have that luxury when we started. We had the big
camera on the shoulder and you know, we jumped in
in the van and went to watch somebody wrestle and
taped them, and you know, went back and analyzed and

(40:50):
what do we got to do here? And what do
we got to do here? And what do we got
to do here? And when you got a positive result
from that, when you you know, maybe you lost to
the guy in a duel, and and maybe you knock
them off in the districts or the regions, or maybe
even later in the season you wrestled somewhere in the
short conference tournament, whatever it may be, that's a really
a great feeling. That's a great feeling for the athlete,

(41:10):
and that's a great feeling for the coach. It's a
great feeling you know that you were able to pick
up on somebody's weakness, alert your athlete to that, and
then work on how we're going to you know, how
we're going to respond to that weakness and how we're
going to take it, you know, and use it for
our advantage. So I always thought that was something we
did pretty well. We watched a lot of kids from

(41:31):
a lot of schools wrestle, and you know, if we
saw something that we thought was something we could capitalize on,
that was three days in a row of practice on
that one position.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Maybe you know, it seems like now in twenty twenty five,
there's a lot of friendly rivalries coaches or you know,
whether it's because they grew up wrestling together or whatnot,
they seem to be a little bit more friendly. And
maybe it was just as as a high schooler, it
seems like coaches were maybe not as nice towards one another.

(42:03):
Were you all friendly back then? Was that the thing?
Or was it a little bit more tense than It's.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
Kind of It's funny he asked that question because I
liked a really lot. Like when I first came down
here and I got the head job two years later,
there were so many guys down here coaching wise, that
I I really, I really liked, And again I don't
want to leave names out, but you know, there were
just so there were so many guys that were just
good coaches. And the beauty of it was that in

(42:32):
that two hour period of battle, there was there was
no like it was. You know, it was it was
a throat against throat. We're going after you, you're going
after ours. But you know, after it was all said
and done, go out the match was over. You go
out to the center to match, shake hands, and you

(42:52):
know it was pretty lighthearted. And you know, I always
think of, now, we just lost Dennis Deanrea. You know,
he was wanted the you know, just wanted a great guy.
I mean, I remember my first year coaching, he and
I he had the brit Memorial junior varsity team up
in North Bergen at a thirty team sub varsity tournament

(43:13):
and we were up there with about nine or ten kids,
and I wound up. I didn't really know him, you know,
so I didn't really haven't nothing onto the map yet.
Of course brick Memorial was on the map. They were,
you know, they were the north point of the map.
And he came up to me, started talking to me,
you know, and we developed a relationship right from there.

(43:36):
We respected each other. Tony Caravella, you know, ed Gilmour
from Varro, Patty Lynch, Tromp's you know again coach read
over an East, Mike Boldy and North. You know, there
was a whole bunch of really good guys coaching. But
when it was time for game on, it was game on, man,
and the game was over. Game was over. But you know,
everybody kind of understood each other's language.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
Okay, you also said head coach of thirteen years. You
didn't necessarily think you could have seen yourself as a
head coach for another sixteen But I think it was
this was the first year in Toms of East history
that Warren Reed wasn't the head coach of the wrestling program.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
That's correct. Yeah, yeah, that's you know. So, I don't
know when that school was pushed together, but I would
imagine he had to be forty years or more as
a head coach, because I mean, I've been at Southern
now for thirty eight and that place was certainly in existence.
I know that Warren was an assistant at Toms River

(44:38):
South and around nineteen I think seventy seven seventy eight
under John DeMarco, so he may have gotten over to
East and early as the early eighties. Yeah, and he's
been there only one and only coach up until this season.
And you know he's a unique guy. I mean, he
loves the sport, he loves the kids he coaches, and

(44:59):
you know there's a reason why he's a National Hall
of Fame coach.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
And he can whistle without using his fingers. Yep, yeah,
I can never figure out how to do that.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
It's easy.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
I couldn't figure out. I can do it real good
with my fingers.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
But coach, was there a coach that you competed against?
It took a little bit more joy and beating than
any other coach.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
Uh No, okay, no, good answers.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
No, there really wasn't. I mean, it wasn't me against
the coach. You know. Frank macgerry was another guy you know,
coached over at least he that they weren't in a South.
But you know, we go over and you know, Frank
and I banged a little bit of heads between. I
don't know what the weights were then one O three
in heavyweight, but you know, we see each other day

(45:48):
we left, we talked about different things, and you know,
it's got two hour period of combat. Once it's over, man,
it's over. Let's go figure out what we did wrong
and fix.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Them, which I got two more for coach, if you
don't have any before we get into the final four.
You were a an assistant coach when Frank Monaro was
on the team. He's NCAA champ, full time NCAA All
American and Olympian.

Speaker 4 (46:13):
Did you did you think when he was.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
At Southern that he had all the right things to
do what he did after he left Southern? Uh?

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Yeah. I remember my first first meeting of Frank. We
were running a summer workout. He had just moved over
from Middletown North to Southern and he was in the
practice room working out, and uh, I didn't know him,
he didn't know me. I didn't know him. And I remember,
you know, watching him warm up a little bit. And
we had some heavy hitters. We had Luke Landa on

(46:44):
that team, and Robbie Hickman and Sean Quinn. You know,
we had some kids who could wrestle. Uh. They were
all about the same size and they were working out
and we're taking a little break and I went up
to Frank and I, you know, introduced myself to him.
I said, what's your goal? Man? I said, what do
you got scheduled for March. Where are you going to be?
Because he had lost two rounds in a row at

(47:05):
the state tournament his freshman year. He went over too,
and I think one of his losses was actually the
Darien Cauldwell And I said to him, you know you,
what are you thinking here? Man? I mean like, well,
what is your goal going into this season? Have you
have you thought about that yet? Have you looked yourself
out at that one yet? And he goes yeah. He
kind of shrugged his shoulders a little bit and he

(47:26):
said to me, yeah, you know, I'd like to be, like,
you know, somewhere in the top three or Fourida State.
I said, well, that's a shame, man, because why would
you want to cheat yourself? I said, if you have
a goal right now being less than a state champion,
you're cheating yourself. And that was something he has said
to me, repeated that to me, I don't know, three

(47:48):
four or five times since that night, you know, since
that So did I think he could get to the
level he got to? Is he? That was your question? Yeah?
I did. I did. I thought he was. I thought
he had that much much passion for the sport. I
thought he had that much in the way of physical tools,
and you know, we always tried to work on a
mental part of it with him, which he certainly then developed.

(48:10):
And you know he got that a little bit at Southern,
a lot more at Benn State. And yeah, I'm not shocked.
You know, he was what two inches away from a
bronze medal. If he could have dropped that outside need
two more inches, He's got a bronze medal. Yeah, no,
I'm not shocked by that.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
Yeah, I'll never forget. We used to drill. I think
he used to just grab me to get someone to
work hard. But he'd always tell him, hey, grab Aria,
he'll work hard with you. But I always remember he'd
be like.

Speaker 4 (48:42):
You're ever're gonna be in the state finals.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
You know you're gonna win at twelve, I'm gonna win
at twenty five minutes.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
Look at him like, I don't know about that, dude.
I don't know about that dude.

Speaker 3 (48:50):
He always just had that belief in himself, So it
was awesome to watch him do what he did. The
other question a half for you forty years and two
have kids changed?

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Yeah, yeah, well society has changed, so the culture has changed.
That's what makes people change, you know. You know, the
way you grow up is such a part of your expectations.
So I don't think I could ever I could ever
say I was as tough as my father. You know,

(49:25):
my father lived at a much tougher time than I did.
I had a lot of things he didn't have, you know,
and as generations move on, our lives are getting easier
and easy. Look at us right now, we're talking to
each other from hundreds of miles apart in a screen.
Did you ever think that was going to be? I never.
Did you know this interview would have been right now
through a newspaper article or something. I don't know. Yeah,

(49:47):
So it's the culture's change. I think what you're seeing athletically,
and not only in wrestling, you're seeing kids who are
specializing in a sport. And I think the kids who
are still genuinely into it are probably at a level

(50:08):
right now that exceeds any moment when I was coaching.
You look at what's just happened in the US national tournaments.
You got high school kids beat national champions. I mean
that's something twenty years ago. I just, you know, I
don't know that that happened yet, you know, there was
a carry cola twenty years ago. But for the most part,

(50:28):
you know, you just watched four or five high school
guys beat college All Americans and college national champions. Yeah.
So there's a definite change in kids. This communication that
we have a cellular phone. It makes our lives easier.
Everything that makes our lives easier changes our lives. So, yeah,

(50:50):
things change, and I think they kind of change in
almost five to seven year increments.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
Yeah, coach, last one I got for you make you
a better dad? And on the flip side of that
to being a dad, make you a better coach?

Speaker 1 (51:06):
Did coaching make me a better dad? Hard question to
really answer. I have three girls. None of them ever wrestled.
I lost a lot of time with them when they
were young because that was right during the heart of
my head coaching, except for one who was a little
bit younger than the other two, and she was while

(51:26):
I was still assistant coaching. So did I lose time
with them? I probably did. I'm fortunate that I had
a wife who took care of them and I wasn't
really as necessary. If you know, she took care of
the business. Did it make me a better coach. I

(51:50):
don't know that it did because in those days, you know,
in all the years I coached wrestling, I think we
had a grand total of two girls in the room.
Now wrestling is part of wrestling is you know, is
a girls sport. So I really can't I can't say
much about it today. But like I never anticipated that
my daughters were going to be wrestlers. Uh, you know,

(52:10):
it was a one in a million shot at that
point and during that time when I was coaching. It's
it's a completely different situation today. So did it make
me a better coach? I don't think so. I really don't.
I knew how how I was going to do what
I was going to do. I knew what my expectations

(52:30):
of my assistant coaches were, and as you know, I
mentioned Eric Wilhelm before. I was blessed with so many
good assistant coaches through the years, John Stout, you know,
a guy named Carrie harr And, and I'm I'm Robbie
Blit did a short step with us. I mean, I
know I'm forgetting people and I'm sorry about that. But uh,

(52:51):
you know, I knew what I wanted to do, and
I knew how I thought it needed to be done.
Did I make mistakes? Tell you, I made a lot
of mistakes. If I could think back and change some
of the decisions that I made, if I could relive
the hands of time, would I do everything the same way? No,
I wouldn't hold on to a lot of what I did,
but I wouldn't do everything the same way.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
A lot. I got one more. If you could go
back at a time machine when you took over as
a head coach of Southern Region, would you give yourself
any advice?

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Would I give myself any advice? Yeah? I think I
think I needed to be a little bit more patient
in certain situations. Like I had a very tight rule book,
and if you couldn't abide by that rule book, it
usually meant Southern reason wrestling probably wasn't for you. I got,

(53:44):
you know, a lot of criticism for that over the years,
and I heard a lot of it from good people,
good solid people.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
You know.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Uh, you know, you gotta open your flexibility up a
little bit. I think everybody's put in a differ. I
was put in a situation where I was trying to
dig out of a hole, you know, and I had
to kind of make some changes that not everybody liked,

(54:12):
but I felt in the long run that was going
to be what benefited the whole program. You guys are
well aware we were pretty big at Southern Regional moving
lineups around. You know, we were always jockeying guys from
one way class and that wasn't always the best decision
for the individual, but if on my mind, I felt
like that gave us a better opportunity to win the

(54:34):
match as a team that was going to be done.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
Coach, is there anything as a younger coach or during
your career that you look back on and it kind
of makes a cringe.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
Yeah? Yeah, I mean some choices and some decisions. Is
that what you mean from the coaching side.

Speaker 3 (54:57):
Yeah, just because I know stuff I did when I
was a younger coach. To look back, I'm like, I
can't believe you did that.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
Yeah, And I'm not talking small things like you know there,
you know, choice of position, that's that's you know, you
can't help that that didn't go to where you wanted
it to go. But I feel like there were certain
kids that I probably had cut too much weight. Uh,
there were certain situations with kids where I probably should
have been a little bit more forgiving. I don't regret it,
I honestly don't. I don't know how how well they

(55:25):
would vote today. Uh but yeah, I mean I think
back and I know that every coach has some ghosts
behind them and uh, you know, being able to recognize
them down the road and uh trying to fix them later.
Uh yeah, I did. I had some, you know, some
situations that I wish I could relive, and I think

(55:47):
they would have benefited the athlete as well as the
team in general. I made some mistake. I made some mistakes. Yep, absolutely,
thank you for sharing that with us.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
I think I think anyone who lives has made some mistakes,
So I appreciate your honesty.

Speaker 4 (56:00):
Yeah, final floor, rich, let's do it. Coach. Are you
a coffee drinker?

Speaker 1 (56:05):
I'm sorry?

Speaker 4 (56:06):
Are you a coffee drinker?

Speaker 1 (56:08):
Yeah? I am.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
How do you brew your coffee? And how do you
take it?

Speaker 1 (56:11):
Put this little cup in a pot, pull down a lever.
She makes the coffee just to touch your milk, and
that's it.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
All right, Respect that you're getting a wild wall coffee anymore?

Speaker 1 (56:23):
No, no, no. Two cups before I leave the house
every morning, and one in school during the day and
that's it for the day. Three three cups?

Speaker 2 (56:33):
Yeah, all right, coach. Do you have any daily practices
rituals you do on a regular basis to show up
as the strongest version of Jerry Tappuccino?

Speaker 1 (56:41):
I'm sorry one more time.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
Do you have any daily practices or rituals that you
do on a regular basis to show up as the
strongest version of yourself?

Speaker 1 (56:52):
I don't think so. I'm pretty like, you know, groundhog Day,
just get up and do the same thing every day.
I'm groundhog ed.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
Yeah, okay, coach.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
What are you listening to right now?

Speaker 4 (57:05):
Music?

Speaker 3 (57:05):
Podcasts, audio books? Are you reading anything?

Speaker 1 (57:11):
The only I read about two things. I read about
woodworking and I read about repairing cars. Those are the
two things that I read. Not very big on technology skills.
I told you earlier that my daughter is sitting right
behind me right now because she set this whole thing up,
and she's in front of me actually, and she's staying

(57:32):
here just in case something goes bad and she'll be
able to correct that. I could not have done this
by myself. Souter skills are somewhere between zero and none.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
What kind of music did Jerry Tabaccino, Get.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
Down Old Country, Western Old Country, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard,
Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Yeah did that come down with did you believe it
or not?

Speaker 1 (58:00):
When I was a kid growing up, you know, and
we'd get it. I was a group of us would
jump into my car to go somewhere, and you know
eight tracks, you guys remember eight tracks? Yeah, yeah, they
were your time. Okay, so the track and they would
be a whaling Jennings eight track and my friends would
rip it out and throw it outside the car, out

(58:20):
the window of the car. I was the only one
that listened to it. Okay, Yeah, I like it.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
Excellent, coach. Last, what we got for your legwehearted one
to close it out? Could be food. Maybe it's a beverage.
Do you have a guilty pleasure?

Speaker 1 (58:34):
Ice ice cream?

Speaker 2 (58:35):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (58:36):
Ice cream? Vanilla ice cream. I used to do a
whole lot of it. Started going to a heart doctor
at fifty five and he cut me down. Two cups
a month, used to be two cups a day.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
All right, all right, any particular brand, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
I like Briars. I like that Turkey Hill brand. You
know they're good.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
Yeah, Okay, do a little chocolate saucer anything, or just
straightening out.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Just take half a teaspoon of cold milk and chop
it all up and drop it in there.

Speaker 3 (59:07):
That's okay, all right, rich I will tell you one thing.
We've talked to New York Times bestsellers, We've talked to
the host of television shows.

Speaker 4 (59:18):
I mean, this tops the cake.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Man.

Speaker 4 (59:20):
This was amazing, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Yeah, it's excellent to reconnect with you, coach, see you again.
It's been a long time coming, but honoring a pleasure
to have you with us this evening and dig a
little bit deeper into your story in the in the
backstory of the legacy that is Southern Regional Wrestling.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
Yeah, it's it's been a good run. You know. I
landed here accidentally, but it worked out pretty darn good.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Yeah everybody, Yeah, all right, ladies and gentlemen. That is
Coach Sherry Tabaccino.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
I just want to say one thing if I can,
if I you know, I know I left somebody's name
out somewhere, but I apologize to whoever that might be.
It's just a lot to deliver, and you know, in
a short message, Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
We appreciate you sharing with this coach and it's great
to see, as you said, and thank you for all
you've done for for us, for the family, and for
Southern Regional. It's been an honor and a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
Yeah, you guys got a great family man.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Thank you up the bottle. All right, ladies and gentlemen,
that's coach Jerry Tabacino from Southern Regional. Thank you for
joining us this evening. We will be back on Wednesday evening.
We will be joined by the head coach of CBA,
Billy Astronault will be joining us to dive into Mammouth
County Wrestling, Sure Conference Wrestling and hear about all that

(01:00:42):
the cults have going on. So we will see you
on Wednesday night. We do appreciate you tuning in tonight.
Thank you.

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Ep. 377 – Building a NJ Wrestling Dynasty with Coach Gerry Tabbachino of Southern Regional

Episode Transcript

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 377 – Building a NJ Wrestling Dynasty with Coach Gerry Tabbachino of Southern Regional