IHSA

Boys Wrestling Grand Marshals — 2008-09

Four grand marshals, who have combined to contribute more than 120 years to the sport of wrestling, will lead the annual Grand March of Finalists Saturday night before the championship bouts of the 72nd IHSA Individual Wrestling State Final Tournament.

First held 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 and women 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 2009 Grand Marshals:

Niall Collins coached high school wrestling in Illinois for 30 years, compiling 286 career dual meet victories during his 23 seasons as the head coach at Chicago (St. Patrick) and Oak Park (O.P.-River Forest). Collins’ coaching career included one individual state champion, five state place-winners, 25 state final qualifiers and an Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association (IWCOA) Scholastic Wrestler of the Year.

Collins involvement with the Illinois Wrestling Federation and IWCOA throughout his career would lead to his school’s hosting a combined 15 Illinois Wrestling Federation Greco State Championships and two Illinois Wrestling Federation State Freestyle Championships. The IWCOA and St. Patrick’s High School Hall of Fame member has refereed Illinois Wrestling Federation Championships for 25 years and been named an IWCOA Friend of Wrestling. He has also spent time as a wrestling coach for the Illinois Wrestling Federation Cadets and served on the National Team staff. Each winter, Oak Park-River Forest hosts a tournament named in the memory of his late wife, Susan Collins.

A 1972 graduate of East Leyden High School, Mark Gervais continued his wrestling career at Northeast Missouri State, before staying on to coach three All-Americans and win an MIAA Conference championship during a three-year coaching stint at his ala mater. Grevais would go on to serve as an assistant coach to Ronny Clinton at Eastern Illinois University, where he earned a Master’s Degree in Sports Administration.

Gervais arrived at Chicago (Marist) in 1982 and would begin a 25-year stretch that included 511 dual meet victories as the school’s head coach during the 1983-84 season. Gervais’s coaching career included eight individual state champions, 10 individual runners-up, 50 other place-winners and 100 state final qualifiers. His teams won 24 consecutive East Suburban Catholic Conference titles, 11 regionals and six sectionals. Marist would win the team state title under Gervais in 1987 and combine to finish second or third on four other occasions.
The Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association (IWCOA) Hall of Fame Member and 1987 IWCOA Coach of the Year is currently the Chair of the Physical Education and Health department at Marist, where he coaches freshman wrestling and bass fishing.

Bob Jones followed his high school wrestling career at Eisenhower High School, where he was a state qualifier in 1962, by enlisting in the United States Marine Corp. Jones would wrestle for and coach the Marine Corp wrestling team coach while he was stationed in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. He was training for the Olympic trials in 1966 when his unit was shipped to Vietnam, where he would earn the Purple Heart for wounds sustained in battle.

After being honorably discharged from the Marine Corp, Jones became a volunteer coach at Clinton High School, where he was a part of the school’s 22-0 squad in 1969, in addition to helping start the Decatur YMCA Wrestling Club. Jones became a wrestling official in 1968 and would go on to officiate 34 regionals, 31 sectionals, 16 individual state finals and four dual team state finals. The Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association (IWCOA) Hall of Fame Member has also refereed over 80 postseason events for the IKFW since 1971 and presided over three state finals for the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) before retiring from officiating in 2006.

Tony Licocci enjoyed an exceptional career at Sterling (Newman Central Catholic) before taking his talents to Illinois State University, where he would win a football conference championship in 1950 and wrestle for two seasons.
During the 1961-62 season, he began the first of what would be a 28-year run as an IHSA wrestling official. Licocci would go on to officiate 25 regionals, 22 sectionals, eight individual state finals and three dual team state finals during that timeframe. He also worked as a floor official at the state finals on 14 other occasions. Along the way, Licocci and his son Tom would become the first father-son tandem in state history to officiate a regional together.

Licocci, who has been inducted into the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association (IWCOA), Illinois State and Sterling Newman Hall of Fames, spent the last 26 years of a 34-year teaching career at Rock Falls Township High School before retiring in 1986.