Famed wrestling squad honored at ceremony

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Like those hard-fought wins that came via a pin, the honors keep piling up for Johnston High School’s first-ever true state championship wrestling team.

Saturday night, two coaches and 11 wrestlers from that championship squad were inducted into the prestigious Johnston High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

The 1998-99 Panthers, who former head coach Mark Zarrella reminded people were once nicknamed “The Untouchables,” will forever be remembered as giant killers, the team that ended Coventry High School’s miraculous run of 17 straight championships.

A total of 11 of the Panthers’ 14 weight class entries won medals back in that storied 1998-99 season.

“We had four individual state champions,” Zarrella said during an acceptance speech for his squad, while remembering the prolific performances of Ryan Franco, Ricky Melise, Anthony Mirabile and Jon Desmarais. “Mike Basilico and Ralph Abenante were state champ runners-up in their respective weight classes, too.”

But what really cemented the glorious state championship triumph back then was that three Panthers – Joe Regnault, Dan Dellecave and David Schiavulli – landed third-place medals, while Brandon Maine and Rob Parascandolo notched valuable team points via sixth-place finishes.

Saturday’s Athletic Hall of Fame Induction came on the heels of the team’s induction into the Rhode Island State Wrestling Hall of Fame back n the spring.

“We had a perfect mix of guys in this great team,” Zarrella said with a wide smile on his face amid more applause. “We had scholar-athletes, dirt bike racers, skate boarders and snow boarders, construction workers, artists, comedians, and we had guys who couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Yet, as Zarrella later mused: “We had guys showing up to practice smelling of kitchen oil or grease because they worked all night at a restaurant or plowing the streets. And we had kids showing up with perfectly manicured nails and eyebrows drinking a large ice French vanilla coffee extra-extra. We certainly had a perfect yet odd mix of guys.”

But the 1998-99 Panthers, who joined the 1963 baseball Panthers by winning the school’s first ever overall state championship in their sport, had student-athletes who had one common goal.

“All they wanted to do was be the best they could be,” Darrell said. “Not just the best, but the best they could possibly be.”

The Panthers talent level surfaced again last year, when six members of that state title troupe were inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame, thus probably making up the largest number of individual athletes inducted into any hall of fame from a single team statewide.

The team’s success, though, didn’t just happen. It went from having only five wrestlers in the program in 1994 to 46 in that storied 1998-99 season. The once-little known Panthers even had to use a Zarrella connection to get into the 56-team and highly competitive Lowell Invitational Tournament, which was back then the most prestigious schoolboy wrestling tourney in New England.

And like they did throughout their respective wrestling careers – which along the way included junior varsity state titles – the Panthers did what it took to make weight.

“Our guys suited up and ran, did jumping jacks and whatever it took to shed two pounds and make weight,” Zarrella remembered. “The kids didn’t mind being called unseeded no-names … we stunned everybody and wound up fourth in that tournament.”

The Hall of Fame Panther wrestlers are head coach Mark Zarrella, assistant coach Joe Falvo, Richard Melise, Anthony Mirabile, Robert Parascandolo, Ralph Abenante, Mike Basilico, James Bradford, James Bucci, Jared Calise, Dennis Campopiano, Anthony Cassisi, David Chanthaphouvong, Jonathan Cooke, Daniele Dellecave, Jonathan Desmarais, Greg DiSpigno, David Dolan, Allan Dunklee, Mike Fetta, Ryan Franco, Jeff Graham, Charles Grandchamp, Christopher Grieco, William Hawkins, Daniel Heywood, the late Richard Legault, Brandon Maine, Joseph Regnault, Karl Russo, Wayne Russo, David Schiavulli, Mike Scucces, Christopher Smaldone, Shane Starlin, Vito Tedesco, Travis Tedino, Matthew Winsor, Christopher Vito and Matthew Zito.

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