Wrestling: Wanamaker set to guide Warren Hills

We're just past the halfway point through another calendar year, and Warren Hills has the program's next leader in place for the 2023-24 season.

Longtime assistant coach and former wrestler KC Wanamaker was approved as the Blue Streaks' ninth head coach during a Board of Education meeting on Tuesday evening.

This move comes nearly two weeks after North Hunterdon landed Dave Bell, who previously guided national power Bergen Catholic. Bell was unanimously approved as the Lions' ninth head coach in program history at a BOE meeting on June 27.

"Above anything else, it's about the kids," Wanamaker said via phone interview on Tuesday afternoon. "We will put the kids at the center of everything we do." 

Wanamaker (far middle left) and Hills celebrate a sectional title

Warren Hills started its search when Dave Sbriscia resigned after five seasons on June 2. As first reported by Open Mike, Sbriscia was recently named the first head women's wrestling coach at Centenary University in Hackettstown. 

The Cyclones' inaugural season will be 2024-25. 

Wanamaker, a 2012 Warren Hills graduate (60 career victories and one-time Region 1 qualifier) and former wrestler at King's College, emerged as the Streaks' choice during a a second round of interviews conducted early last week. According to sources, fellow Streaks assistant coach Zach Fisher and former Paramus head coach Steve Klass were also in the mix.

The first round of interviews also included current Streaks head football coach Marcus Gurdineer, who was a wrestler during his high school days at Minisink Valley in Slate Hill, N.Y. 

Fisher, a former Phillipsburg standout, who also has served as a head coach in both boys cross country and track and field at Warren Hills, is employed by the district as a Social Studies teacher. Wanamaker does not work in the district, but he works from his home near the middle school. 

Wanamaker

Wanamaker, 29, said that Fisher, who is in the building, will stay on staff, which should make for a seamless transition. Both are currently with the team at a camp hosted by the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Wanamaker also said that Gurdineer will be part of the coaching staff, and that he would love for former Streaks state champion Marty White to also return.

"Zach and I are really close friends. We're going to do this together as a team," Wanamaker said during a break at camp. "He'll lead a lot of things and I will lead things. We're better together than apart. Zach and I are smaller guys so Marcus can help with the upperweights."

Klass, a former two-time PIAA Class AA state placewinner at Wilson Area High School in the Lehigh Valley, has served as an assistant on legendary coach Dave Crowell's staff at Nazareth (Pa.) for the past five years. 

Klass, a science teacher at Paramus and Easton (Pa.) resident, placed fourth (125 pounds in 1992) and second (135 in '93) in Pennsylvania during Crowell's tenure at Wilson. Klass, who went on to wrestle and graduate from Bucknell University, was also a candidate at Warren Hills when Sbriscia was hired as head coach in the spring of 2018. 

Klass previously coached at Wilson, Seton Hall Prep and Paramus, which became a major force in New Jersey during his 10 seasons at the Bergen County school. The Spartans made six sectional finals appearances and captured the North 1, Group 3 title in 2015 (finishing as the Group 3 runner-up and beating Sparta, 29-24, in the sectional final) during Klass' nine seasons at the helm. 

Hills won the Caldwell Tournament title in 2022.

Paramus also won a sectional title in 2012, the program's sixth overall and first since 1999. The 2016 also won a sectional championship that season after Klass' dismissal on Jan. 26 for using an ineligible wrestler. 

Under Sbriscia, Hills went 78-23 overall (earning the program's 800th victory in 2023) and enjoyed a bit of a rebirth with its back-to-back North 2, Group 3 sectional championship runs -- falling short to Delsea in 2022 and '23 in the quest for the Warren County school's third Group 3 title and first since 1997. 

Warren Hills (18-4) is coming off one its most successful seasons (the program's 87th overall) in which it captured the program's seventh sectional title overall and just its third since going back-to-back for the only other time in 1997 and '98. The Streaks ranked No. 13 (fifth among public schools) in the final New Jersey Wrestling Writers Association Top 20.

The Streaks return five key wrestlers for 2023-24, including Region 3 runners-up Charlie Piccione (32-9 at 113) and Tyler Redfield (27-8 at 120), both juniors. Josh Lee (33-9), a senior with 63 career wins, finished third in Region 3 at 126 pounds. Augie Szamreta (25-13 at 106) and Davey Rhinehart (29-9 at 113 and 132), both sophomores, were Region 3 qualifiers.