Four Grand Marshals, each with special contributions to the sport for more than a combined 100 years, will lead the annual Grand March of Finalists Saturday night (Feb. 21) before the championship bouts of the 67th Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Final Individual Wrestling Tournament.

Named Grand Marshals for 2004 are:

• Greg Cozzi, veteran wrestling official and former assistant coach at Franklin Park (East Leyden).
• Mike Manahan, veteran wrestling coach at Stanford (Olympia), long-time wrestling official, and former manager of the Dual Team State Meet.
• Mac McLaughlin, long-time multi-sport head coach at Joliet (Central and Township).
• Norman Parker, retired wrestling coach whose career spanned 30 years, and was state runner-up at 120 pounds in 1960.

Begun in 1975, the annual March of Finalists is conducted at the State Tournament by the IHSA in conjunction with the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association (IWCOA) and the Assembly Hall. Each year the grand marshals are honored for their contributions to the sport and to the young men who participate in it.

The marshals play an important role in the color and pageantry of the event. They lead the 56 individual finalists and their coaches in a foot-stomping, strobe flash popping, breathtaking Grand March around the Assembly Hall arena floor just prior to the championship bouts. The annual crowd in excess of 10,000 is witness to a spectacle of high school athletics seen nowhere else in America.

Here is a closer look at the 2004 Grand Marshals:

Greg Cozzi was assistant coach at East Leyden for 10 years beginning in 1970. During that time East Leyden won the state title in 1978. He also started officiating the sport back then and his career as an official has been impressive. He's worked the individual state tournament 15 times, and has been its head official 10 times. He has worked the dual team tournament seven times. Presently, he is both an IHSA wrestling rules interpreter and clinician. Elected to the IWCOA Hall of Fame in 1995, Greg was its official of the year in 1991. He has been National Federation Illinois wrestling official of the year in 1998 and 2000.

Mike Manahan started the Stanford (Olympia) wrestling program in 1972 and has coached the team for 32 years. His Olympia teams have earned three trophies in the dual team tournament, including 2nd in 2001. They have won 392 dual meets and have produced 58 state individual qualifiers and 18 place winners, including four state champions. He served as both manager and assistant manager of the state dual team tournament. In the meantime, he has been a wrestling official for 42 years, and has been the tournament director for the IESA State Tournament for nine years, and has served on the IHSA Wrestling Advisory Committee. He was IWCOA Coach of the Year in 2001 and was elected to its hall of fame in 1997. He served as IWCOA president twice, the last time in the 2002-03 school year.

Mac McLaughlin, dean of students at Joliet High School since 1977, has been the school's head wrestling coach since 1967. His teams have compiled a dual meet record of 519-182-10, and won the dual team title in 1985. He has coached 81 state individual tournament qualifiers, 31 of them place winners, including seven state champions. McLaughlin's coaching career at the school also has included being the head coach in football, boys track and field, girls softball and girls badminton. Mac has been a bench official at the state individual wrestling tournament since 1996. He was elected to the IWCOA Hall of Fame in 1991.

After finishing second at 120 pounds in the state tournament in 1960 for Highland Park, Norm Parker walked on at Iowa, became Big Ten champion at 123 in 1962 and at 130 in 1964 and captained the team his senior year. He returned to Illinois in 1965. He was assistant coach at Oak Lawn in 1965-67 and then became a head coach for Chicago Public League schools Lake View, Parker, King and Young. In 1979 he moved to Oak Park-River Forest where he served as assistant wrestling coach then head coach, retiring in 1994. Norm coach five state champions at Oak Park-River Forest.