Lamirande, Langel made Howell's year in sports
BY TIM MORRIS Staff Writer
Joey Langel and Tim Lamirande shared the same homeroom at Howell High School.

TIM MORRIS Howell High School's Joey Langel (l) and Tim Lamirande are the Tri-Town News' senior Athletes of the Year. Both were crowned as state champions this past school year, Langel as a state wrestling champion at 112 pounds, and Lamirande as a member of the football team.

"We always supported each other," said Lamirande. "We'd congratulate each other whenever we did something."

Turns out, they were congratulating each other quite often during the 2007-08 school year as each made school history: Langel, for winning the NJSIAA state wrestling championship at 112 pounds, and Lamirande, as all-state quarterback, for leading Howell to its first football state championship.

In this, the Year of the Rebel in Freehold Regional District athletics, they accomplished the two most significant achievements of the year and are the Tri-Town News' senior Athletes of the Year.

Lamirande took Howell to its first-ever NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV state sectional title by putting on a flawless performance in the final played at Rutgers Stadium. Lamirande shredded the West Windsor-Plainsboro South defense at will, completing 16 of his 19 passes for 246 yards and four touchdowns as Howell rolled to a 46-13 victory. The Rebels finished the season 11-1 and ranked 14th in the state. They also won the Shore Conference Division title.

Langel broke what seemed to be a Rebel hex. Carlos Fontanez won the state title in 1965, but Howell had to share that title with Freehold Borough. Fontanez had won a state championship with Freehold Borough before moving to then- Southern Freehold Regional when its doors opened in the fall of 1964. Since Fontanez triumphed at 136 pounds, no Howell wrestler had been able to duplicate that feat. The likes of Zac Cunliffe (a fourtime state place-winner with a county record 138 career wins), Art Beins, Nils Deacon and Langel's own teammates Cody Fobes and Harry Turner had all reached the final only to lose.

It was left to Langel, wrestling at 112 pounds, to complete the task this year - which he did impressively. He was never in serious trouble in any of his matches in Atlantic City, and he completely dominated his weight class throughout the season.

At this time last year, Lamirande and Langel were leaving no stone unturned as they looked forward to their senior seasons.

The Rebel football team was motivated by its failure the previous December. They had reached the state sectional final for the first time in school history and lost to Hunterdon Central. They wore wristbands during the season that read "complete the mission."

No one on the team was more motivated than Lamirande. He was the backup to another all-state quarterback, Sean O'Reilly, during that playoff run, and as a senior, he knew he had but one shot to prove himself, and he was going to make the most of it.

Lamirande started the season spectacularly enough in a win over Colts Neck. But late in the first half of the team's second game against Manalapan, Lamirande injured his left wrist after being tackled. It turned out that it was broken.

"It was frustrating," he recalled. "I didn't know how long I'd be out. I was thinking about the worst possible scenario [out for the season].

"It was bad, I had waited patiently for my turn to play," he added. "Everyone was so supportive," he noted, "my teammates, our coaches. When I got home, there were 20 emails for me. That was big."

Lamirande didn't have to worry about the worst-case scenario. The break wasn't as serious as first thought, and he was back on the football field with a cast on his left wrist in two weeks.

Howell was able to survive without Lamirande, keeping its goal within reach.

The Rebels would go 8-1 in the regular season and win the Constitution Division, their first since 1985.

Now it was on to the state playoffs, and the road to Rutgers had to go through Howell.

The Rebels eked one out against division rival Colts Neck and then destroyed Montgomery, 49-20, in the semifinals, with Lamirande passing for 355 yards and five touchdowns.

It was back to Rutgers and some payback. With Lamirande playing flawlessly, completing 16 of his 19 passes for 247 yards and four more touchdowns, and even scoring on a one-yard keeper, Howell left no doubt who the deserving state champion was, and few had seen a quarterback perform at such a high level.

"There was so much satisfaction [winning the first state title]," said Lamirande. "It felt great because it had never been done before."

"He's the leader," said Davies. "The kids look up to him and respect him."

Lamirande was "T-Money" setting school records for single-season passing yards (2,356) and touchdowns (25). He completed 179 of his 281 passes for a .637 completion percentage. He'll continue his career at Wesley College in Delaware, a Division III national power.

The same work ethic that carried Lamirande and the football team to a state title returned the favor to Langel, who wrestled as often as he could in the summer and maintained his conditioning. Then came the Super 32 preseason tournament in North Carolina, the biggest in the country, where he stepped up one weight class and still won. It was his victory here, Langel said, that made him believe he could win the state championship.

When the wrestling season began for the Rebels in Delaware at the Battle at the Beach, Langel was ready, and so were the Rebels. What followed was a historic season for a tradition-rich program.

Howell would win the Battle at the Beach and the Roselle Park tournaments in the preseason. They would win their third straight Shore Conference A North Division title and advance to the Shore Conference Tournament final for the first time in 20 years, beating defending champion Jackson Memorial along the way. They would go 25- 4 and earn the highest ranking in school history, No. 5 in the state.

Langel was doing his part for the team, and when the road to Atlantic City began, he was in peak form. He won his second District 21 title and was voted the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler. He claimed his first Region VI crown the next week and was off toAC as the top seed at 112 pounds.

It's never easy being the one with the bull's-eye on your back, but Langel handled the pressure and the competition like a true champion. He beat Ocean Township's Mike Berardesco, 6-2, in the final to break the Howell finals hex. Before he had taken the mat for his match, his teammate Turner had lost the heavyweight final, his only loss of the season, which only served to put more pressure on Langel.

He overcame it all to finally bring a state wrestling title back to Howell.

"It was a great feeling," Langel recalled.

Rebel head coach John Gagliano praised Langel's work ethic all year, but added that his state champion, who was 42-1, had something else working for him.

"He has the most amazing hips," he said. "Kids just couldn't catch him, they couldn't finish against him. He was difficult to score against."

Lamirande was impressed by how supportive (one of the many Rebel fans who painted themselves blue was Langel) everyone was.

"It was special," said Lamirande. "People came together and were behind the team. We had such great support."

Lamirande pointed out that the state championship will spark more interest in football at the school and inspire more people to want to play for the team. All that had been missing was a season like '07, and now that the Rebels have shown it can be done, more will want to make their contribution.

Tradition, though, belongs to the wrestling program, which has now joined the best in the state. The wrestlers have built a base of support because of their success, and Langel noted that the Rebels feed off the fan support (Lamirande was among those).

Langel, who will be wrestling for Rutgers University, pointed out that he achieved his state championship off the shoulders of all those who had preceded him.

"We had a lot of great wrestlers before," he said. "It [state title] is everything we worked for, starting with the Predators [wrestling club]."

Both Lamirande and Langel are aware of the responsibility that goes with their achievement. Langel said he looked up to Cunliffe when he was growing up and knows that there are young wrestlers looking up to him. Lamirande is aware that there are Pop Warner players who want to be him. For both, it's important to conduct themselves on and off the field with class.