Lamirande, Langel made Howell's year in sports
BY TIM MORRIS Staff Writer
Joey Langel and Tim Lamirande shared the same homeroom at Howell High School.

TIM MORRIS Howell High School's Joey Langel (l) and Tim Lamirande are the News Transcript's senior Athletes of the Year. Both were crowned as state champions this past school year, Langel as a state wrestling champion at 112 pounds, and Lamirande as a member of the football team.

"We always supported each other," said Lamirande. "We'd congratulate each other whenever we did something."

Turns out, they were congratulating each other quite often during the 2007-08 school year as each made school history: Langel, for winning the NJSIAA state wrestling championship at 112 pounds, and Lamirande, as all-state quarterback, for leading Howell to its first football state championship.

In this, the Year of the Rebel in Freehold Regional District athletics, they accomplished the two most significant achievements of the year and are the News Transcript's senior Athletes of the Year.

Lamirande took Howell to its first-ever NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV state sectional title by putting on a flawless performance in the final played at Rutgers Stadium. Lamirande shredded the West Windsor-Plainsboro South defense at will, completing 16 of his 19 passes for 246 yards and four touchdowns as Howell rolled to a 46-13 victory. The Rebels finished the season 11-1 and ranked 14th in the state. They also won the Shore Conference Division title.

Langel broke what seemed to be a Rebel hex. Carlos Fontanez won the state title in 1965, but Howell had to share that title with Freehold Borough. Fontanez had won a state championship with Freehold Borough before moving to then- Southern Freehold Regional when its doors opened in the fall of 1964. Since Fontanez triumphed at 136 pounds, no Howell wrestler had been able to duplicate that feat. The likes of Zac Cunliffe (a four-time state place-winner with a county record 138 career wins), Art Beins, Nils Deacon and Langel's own teammates Cody Fobes and Harry Turner had all reached the final only to lose.

It was left to Langel, wrestling at 112 pounds, to complete the task this year - which he did impressively. He was never in serious trouble in any of his matches in Atlantic City, and he completely dominated his weight class throughout the season.

At this time last year, Lamirande and Langel were leaving no stone unturned as they looked forward to their senior seasons.

The Rebel football team was motivated by its failure the previous December. They had reached the state sectional final for the first time in school history and lost to Hunterdon Central. They wore wristbands during the season that read "complete the mission."

"Our goal was to get back to Rutgers and win it," said Lamirande. "We worked so hard, and it paid off."

No one on the team was more motivated than Lamirande. He was the backup to another all-state quarterback, Sean O'Reilly, during that playoff run, and as a senior, he knew he had but one shot to prove himself, and he was going to make the most of it.

Lamirande started the season spectacularly enough in a win over Colts Neck. But late in the first half of the team's second game against Manalapan, Lamirande injured his left wrist after being tackled. It turned out that it was broken.

"It was frustrating," he recalled. "I didn't know how long I'd be out. I was thinking about the worst possible scenario [out for the season].

"It was bad, I had waited patiently for my turn to play," he added.

Lamirande had the players and coaches in his corner.

"Everyone was so supportive," he noted, "my teammates, our coaches. When I got home, there were 20 e-mails for me. That was big."

Lamirande didn't have to worry about the worst-case scenario. The break wasn't as serious as first thought, and he was back on the football field with a cast on his left wrist in two weeks.

Howell was able to survive without Lamirande, keeping its goal within reach.

The Rebels would go 8-1 in the regular season and win the Constitution Division, their first since 1985.

Now it was on to the state playoffs, and the road to Rutgers had to go through Howell.

The Rebels eked one out against division rival Colts Neck and then destroyed Montgomery, 49-20, in the semifinals, with Lamirande passing for 355 yards and five touchdowns.

It was back to Rutgers and some payback. With Lamirande playing flawlessly, completing 16 of his 19 passes for 247 yards and four more touchdowns, and even scoring on a one-yard keeper, Howell left no doubt who the deserving state champion was, and few had seen a quarterback perform at such a high level.

"There was so much satisfaction [winning the first state title]," said Lamirande. "It felt great because it had never been done before."

In Howell Pop Warner, Lamirande had earned the nickname "T-Money" for the simple reason that he won. He led the Jr. Pee Wees to a championship, and most of the players on that team were on the field at Rutgers. It had been their goal, Lamirande said, to win a championship in high school.

Nothing seemed to change from Pop Warner to Howell High School with regard to Lamirande's leadership and clutch play. Rebel coach Cory Davies saw it.

"He's the leader," said Davies. "The kids look up to him and respect him."

Lamirande was "T-Money" setting school records for single-season passing yards (2,356) and touchdowns (25). He completed 179 of his 281 passes for a .637 completion percentage. He'll continue his career at Wesley College in Delaware, a Division III national power.

The same work ethic that carried Lamirande and the football team to a state title returned the favor to Langel, who wrestled as often as he could in the summer and maintained his conditioning. Then came the Super 32 preseason tournament in North Carolina, the biggest in the country, where he stepped up one weight class and still won. It was his victory here, Langel said, that made him believe he could win the state championship.

When the wrestling season began for the Rebels in Delaware at the Battle at the Beach, Langel was ready, and so were the Rebels. What followed was a historic season for a tradition-rich program.

Howell would win the Battle at the Beach and the Roselle Park tournaments in the preseason. They would win their third straight Shore Conference A North Division title and advance to the Shore Conference Tournament final for the first time in 20 years, beating defending champion Jackson Memorial along the way. They would go 25- 4 and earn the highest ranking in school history, No. 5 in the state.

Langel was doing his part for the team, and when the road to Atlantic City began, he was in peak form. He won his second District 21 title and was voted the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler. He claimed his first Region VI crown the next week and was off toAC as the top seed at 112 pounds.

It's never easy being the one with the bull's-eye on your back, but Langel handled the pressure and the competition like a true champion. He beat Ocean Township's Mike Berardesco, 6-2, in the final to break the Howell finals hex. Before he had taken the mat for his match, his teammate Turner had lost the heavyweight final, his only loss of the season, which only served to put more pressure on Langel.

He overcame it all to finally bring a state wrestling title back to Howell.

"It was a great feeling," Langel recalled.

Rebel head coach John Gagliano praised Langel's work ethic all year, but added that his state champion, who was 42-1, had something else working for him.

"He has the most amazing hips," he said. "Kids just couldn't catch him, they couldn't finish against him. He was difficult to score against."

Langel's season did not end with his state title. He went on to win the National High School Coaches Association National Championship at 112 pounds in Virginia Beach, Va., at the end of March and garner numerous All-American honors. His 128 career victories are second best in school history.

Both Lamirande and Langel know what their achievements meant to their respective programs, the school and the community.

Lamirande was impressed by how supportive (one of the many Rebel fans who painted themselves blue was Langel) everyone was.

"It was special," said Lamirande. "People came together and were behind the team. We had such great support."

Lamirande pointed out that the state championship will spark more interest in football at the school and inspire more people to want to play for the team. All that had been missing was a season like '07, and now that the Rebels have shown it can be done, more will want to make their contribution.

Tradition, though, belongs to the wrestling program, which has now joined the best in the state. The wrestlers have built a base of support because of their success, and Langel noted that the Rebels feed off the fan support (Lamirande was among those).

Langel, who will be wrestling for Rutgers University, pointed out that he achieved his state championship off the shoulders of all those who had preceded him.

"We had a lot of great wrestlers before," he said. "It [state title] is everything we worked for, starting with the Predators [wrestling club]."

Langel said he is proud that he ranks up there with the best wrestlers the school has produced. He has cleared the path for future Rebel state championships.

Both Lamirande and Langel are aware of the responsibility that goes with their achievement. Langel said he looked up to Cunliffe when he was growing up and knows that there are young wrestlers looking up to him. Lamirande is aware that there are Pop Warner players who want to be him. For both, it's important to conduct themselves on and off the field with class.

One more thing about their championship seasons: both are pleased for their coaches.

"Coach Davies is such a good coach, this got the monkey off his back," said Lamirande.

The only thing missing from Gagliano's résumé at Howell had been having coached a state champion, and now he has that, thanks to Langel.

"He's shown that he's a great coach," Langel said of Gagliano. "It's [state champion] what every coach wants."

There's no question that the 2007-08 athletic season in the Freehold Regional District belongs to the Rebels of Howell. The remarkable season of accomplishment culminated, of course, with the state football championship and a wrestling national champion. But there were so many other crowning moments.

Rich Yuro's boys soccer team won a pair of titles. They defended their Shore Conference A North Division crown and captured the Shore Conference Tournament for the first time in school history. They were led by Duke University-bound Kyle Bethel.

The girls gymnastics team led by Ashtyn Foley and Brianna Ecklof repeated as A North Division championships and went undefeated in dual meets for the second consecutive year.

The girls cross country team coach by John Hein won the Freehold Regional District championship, and Lindsey Lambert won the individual title.

Wrestling dominated in the winter as the Rebels were ranked No. 5 in the state. Langel, Cody Fobes (130) and Turner won NJSIAA District 21 titles. Langel and Turner added Region VI gold before heading to AC. Both wrestlers went 42-1.

The girls basketball team shared the A North title and won the Bayshore Holiday Tournament. Bill Gallacher's team was led by the senior leadership of Denise Crudup and Michelle Blum.

Howell's girls bowling team is a true dynasty, and their season deserves special mention. They won seven championships, including the Central Jersey State sectional, Shore Conference B Central Division, Monmouth County and Freehold District.

"Our 2002 [state champion] team was better, but this was the best team that worked together," Howell head coach Dave Clampffer said.

Credit for that went to seniors Meghan Kelly and Brittney Budra, and their leadership. On their watch they kept the Rebels' winning streak alive. Howell's girls have won eight consecutive Shore Conference Division titles. This winter, the girls posted a 44-1 record.

Budra (195) and Kelly (194) had the team's highest scoring averages. Katie Raffele, another senior veteran leader, was sixth at the state championships and Kelly was 11th.

The boys did fine themselves on the bowling alleys. They won the B Central title with a 37-8 record as well as the Monmouth County and Central Jersey State sectional titles as well. Lou DiGirolamo made school history authoring the first perfect 300. He was second in the state sectional and had the high game (277) and series (718) at the county championships.

In the spring, the Rebels' volleyball and golf teams added banners, winning A North. It was the second straight title for coach Jim Huebner's volleyball team that was sparked by Adam Feehan.

Tim Hogan's golf team also won the District Tournament led by sophomore Corey Carrick.