A dinner at O’Connor’s Restaurant brought band members and their parents together to honor the award recipients for the past season.
By: Mary Ellen Zangara
Manville High School Band Director Shaun Lindner knew his musicians had had a good year, winning lots of awards in competitions, but until he prepared for the May 21 annual awards dinner, he didn’t really realize how good a year it was.
"When you look at it on paper, it is not as impressive," he said at the dinner. "I brought all the trophies here, and I really didn’t realize how many there were until I had to unload them from my car."
The dinner at O’Connor’s Restaurant in Somerset brought the band members and their parents together to honor the award recipients for the past season.
Mr. Lindner began by praising the band and noting that it played at 26 events this year.
"Everything up there is everything that they’ve won from this year alone," he said, pointing to the collection of trophies displayed at the dinner. "They have done a really great job this year. In all, the kids have won 15 first-place trophies, that’s just this year. The band has never done that before."
He noted the band was the highest scoring Group 1 band in New Jersey.
"With that score, that is the highest score that Manville has ever won before, so they have done a great job this year," said Mr. Lindner.
The awards included varsity letters and special awards that the students themselves voted on.
Mr. Lindner and senior drum major Catina Santoro presented the participation awards to seventh-graders Tyler Alpizar, Katelyn Breese, Ian Defalco, Electa Olmsted and William Marshall; eighth-graders Ashley Kelco, Keegan Forke, Rebecca Gianotto, Clara Hung, Nick Kita, Emily Sellar and Brandon Togneri; ninth-graders Amina Gaskin, Megan Gizzi, Drina Hartmann and Amber Hussey; 10th-graders Tony Aichele, Bonnie Burris, Kim Chacon, John Cortelyou, Kate Harodetsky, Natasha Marchick and Tim Santoro, 11-graders Matt Kita, Alex Holland, Amanda Hussey, Jason Pfoutz and Chris Weber; and seniors Stephany Ferrebee, Louis Franzoso, Ryan Lipot and Catina Santoro.
Varsity letters were presented to freshmen Vincent Bickar, Russell Grimm, Paul Gruzska, Dave Janovsky, David Olmsted, Dylan Painter, Jessica Rapone and Elizabeth Toporowski.
The presentations of the seven specialty awards included the Rookie of the Year to Drina Hartmann, Best Marching Award to Stephany Ferrebee, Most Valuable Player to Ryan Lipot, Drum Major Award to Catina Santoro, Most Improved Player to Russell Grimm, Color Guard member of the Year to Amanda Hussey an the Music Award to Jason Pfoutz.
The band has competed in five competitions this year taking home many trophies for its performances. The band recently took third place at the Boston Performance Tour and received a bronze plaque to add to its collection of awards.
Some of the other accomplishments include playing at the MHS football games, the Manville tree-lighting ceremony, the winter and spring concerts, the St. Patrick’s Day and Memorial Day parades, the MHS 50th anniversary dinner dance, and the last performance of the year will be at MHS graduation June 20.

