By Andy Loigu

David Sbriscia of Warren Hills and Ryan Tatarka of Hackettstown were standout athletes during their high school days and both are now successful coaches at the varsity level in the area.

Sbriscia is leading the Blue Streaks to glorious things on the wrestling mats while Tatarka is guiding a local high school ice hockey team to a winning season.

When Warren Hills recently thumped Phillipsburg 35-15 in wrestling, it was the Blue Streaks’ first dual match win over the perennial power Stateliners since 1990. Not resting on their laurels, the Streaks have more mountaintops in their sights.

“Beating Phillipsburg was always a goal for this team,” Sbriscia stated. “Building off this win toward a sectional championship will be our goal moving forward. This team has the ability to win a state championship (something the Streaks have not achieved in a quarter of a century) and to get it done we need to keep improving every day.”

Earlier, Warren Hills had a historic performance in the traditional John Goles Tournament, which posthumously honors their former Hall of Fame coach who established the program’s legacy. “We were extremely satisfied with placing 14 wrestlers,” Sbriscia recalled. “We qualified 14 wrestlers into the finals for the first time in program history. The kids work extremely hard and their efforts have paid off.”

A 2006 Warren Hills graduate, coached by Jerett Hosbach, he was a two-time district champion and state qualifier by placing twice in Region One. He went on to wrestle with distinction at the college level with Ithaca. In football he was coached by Bob Lockhart and earned all-area honors from the media covering the area, including an Athlete of the Year nomination from The Star-Gazette.

Tatarka played football for Tony Villante and baseball for veteran skipper Gary Poyer. In football he averaged 15.6 yards per catch as a receiver on offense for Tony’s Tigers, and made 53 total tackles for Villante’s teams which were feared for their discombobulating blitzing. He earned Player of the Game honors in the Tigers’ traditional battle for the Beater Board against the Blue Streaks. In his senior year in baseball he hit for a .333 batting average.

He’s now the head coach of a three-school tri-op team in the Morris County Scholastic Ice Hockey League. The team is made up of players from Hackettstown, Hopatcong and Mount Olive and is known as MOHOHA. They face off against some quality varsity programs that have been on the scene for many years, such as West Morris, Randolph, Gill-St. Bernards and Mendham.

In March of 2021 the MOHOHA team reached the Haas Cup final at Mennen Arena in Morristown. This year, with about a month left on the schedule, MOHOHA is 12-3-2 overall and 6-0-1 in the Haas Division.

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Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.