Dan DePalma at the Giants ticker-tape parade on Tuesday

It looks as if the Giants are pleased with Dan DePalma’s help in getting the team prepared for its Super Bowl victory. ESPN is reporting that the Giants have re-signed DePalma and eight other players on their practice squad as free agents.

In addition to DePalma, ESPN says the other players are running back Andre Brown, quarterback Ryan Perrilloux, defensive back Brandon Bing, offensive lineman Selvish Capers, defensive tackle Dwayne Hendricks, tight end Christian Hopkins, wide receiver Isaiah Stanback and defensive end Adrian Tracy.

Trailing the Rough Riders 19-16 at halftime, the Hillbillies outscored the ‘riders 15-11 in the third quarter to pull ahead 31-30. In an eight-minute span in the fourth quarter, the teams exploded for 35 combined points, but it was the offense of seniors Emily Aaron and Julieanne Mascera that enabled Verona to pull out a much needed 50-46 win.

Mascera led the Hillbillies scoring with 15 points and Aaron added 12. Seniors Michelle Frungillo and Amanda Cummings combined for 10 points. Junior Amanda Langan, sophomore Julie Rosenberg and freshman Sarah O’Neil accounted for 10 points.

The 4-8 Verona Hillbillies face off against Montclair Kimberly Academy today at home, with a 4 p.m. start.

This past week against Livingston, Nutley, Columbia and Golda Och Academy, Farrell scored 65 points, with nine 3 pointers. Farrell put up 12 points in the most recent 44-33 Verona victory against Golda Och, which seems almost like slacking when you compare it to the 23 points he scored against Columbia on February 4, the 21 points he scored on Nutley and the 26 points he got in the 58-44 win over Montclair Immaculate. In the 12 games he has played this season, Farrell has piled up 169 points and hauled down 23 rebounds. For this, Brian Farrell is this week’s Verona Sports Boosters Senior Athlete of the Week.

When not dressed in maroon and white, Farrell plays for the highly competitive NJ Crusaders AAU basketball team. He is being recruited to play basketball by Drew University, the University of Scranton,
Ithaca College, Hartwick College, Connecticut College, and Randolph-Macon University, where Verona High School graduate Tim Lawrence is an assistant coach.  In the spring, Farrell will trade basketball sneakers–briefly–for tennis sneakers. As a sophomore, he was part of a doubles team that clinched a key match in Verona’s state sectionals victory.

During the 2011-2012 school year, the Verona Sports Boosters will be recognizing a different senior athlete at Verona High School every week. The Boosters support male and female athletes in all VHS sports through a variety of fundraisers and recognition events.

On Saturday the girls’ team fell to the Tornadoes of Orange High School 49-43. Emily Aaron and Julieanne Mascera scored 13 points each. The team’s record fell to 3-10. The girls travel to Newark today for a 4 p.m. start against West Side High School.

Dan DePalma with Verona cousin David Karpinski at the Timex Performance Center where the Giants practice.

The world looks very different when seen from the field after your son’s team wins the Super Bowl. Just ask Diane DePalma.

We reached her on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis just after she and her husband had caught up with their son,  Dan DePalma, a member of the practice squad for the team that just won the biggest game in football. After Ahmad Bradshaw scored what would turn out to be the winning touchdown in the 21-17 game, family members started to make their way to the field. Diane DePalma says she didn’t even see the Patriots’ final effort but she did hear the noise. “We heard the cheers and we knew things were going our way,” she said.

And somehow, in all the chaos on the field, the DePalmas found their son and gave him a big hug. “He said, ‘Mom, I’m getting a Super Bowl ring’,” Diane DePalma said.

Indeed.

Cummings has played in 11 games for the Hillbilly girls’ basketball team this season, and she has come away with points in all but two. In Verona’s victory over Cedar Grove last week, Cummings put up six points of the 30-28 final score.

Basketball isn’t the only sport she has played at Verona High School, where she has also been a fairly consistent presence on the honor rolls, too. Co-Captain Cummings was a key part of the defense for the Verona girls soccer team that went all the way to the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 1, Group 1 title. Along the way, she had a hand in nine shutouts.

During the 2011-2012 school year, the Verona Sports Boosters will be recognizing a different senior athlete at Verona High School every week. The Boosters support male and female athletes in all VHS sports through a variety of fundraisers and recognition events.

In the previous game against Belleville, Verona went a perfect 16 for 16 from the charity stripe and they were pretty much perfect last night again by netting 12 free throws. After the score was knotted at 12 apiece after one quarter, Verona went in to the locker room trailing by just two points 27-25.

However, all season long Verona has come out of the gates strong in the second half and last night was no different as the boys pulled ahead 41-34 heading in to the final quarter of play. An action-packed fourth frame saw both squads trade buckets, but in the end the 13-4 Hillbillies were able to pull out a big 63-55 win against the 13-3 Lancers.

The four Hillbillies that led in scoring were Brian Farrell (20), Alex Kaslander (17), Anthony Huber (13) and Packy Malanga (10). Next up for the Hillbillies is a  4 p.m. Thursday home matchup against Nutley High School before they move on to the next round of the Essex County Tournament in a 2 p.m. start at Columbia High School this Saturday afternoon.

The Verona girls team suffered a tough loss 35-34 at the hands of the Bloomfield Bengals yesterday in Verona. Senior Julieanne Mascera led both teams in scoring by netting 14 points included a three-pointer from long range. Seniors Amanda Cummings and Michelle Frungillo combined for six points while sophomore Julie Rosenberg had seven and Emily Aaron had six. Next up for the 3-8 Hillbillies is a Saturday noon game at Orange High School.

Dan DePalma with Verona cousin David Karpinski at the Timex Performance Center where the Giants practice.

When he was a kid playing for the Verona Eagles and Verona High School Hillbillies, Dan DePalma was a huge fan of the Giants. But he never, ever imagined that he would be a huge fan playing for the Giants and traveling with the Giants to a huge game–the Super Bowl.

And yet, on Monday afternoon that was exactly where he was: On the ground in Indianapolis, getting ready to help the Giants take on–scratch, make that defeat–the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. “I’m playing for my childhood team,” he said in an interview Sunday night. “This is a dream come true.”

A dream with a lot of hard work behind it, which DePalma readily acknowledges.  “I had a goal to make it to the NFL,” he said. “The mind is a very powerful weapon if you put it to work.”

This week, he will be using his mind to get inside the minds of Patriots’ receivers Wes Welker and Julian Edelman. As a member of the Giants’ practice squad, it is DePalma’s task to imitate both players to help his teammates to learn how to foil them. “We’re trying to eliminate the surprise,” he says, “and the more we do that, the better. You only get one shot at this,” he says of the big game, “and I want to make sure that I have done everything I can for my team.”

Come Sunday, DePalma will have the closest view of the Giants of anybody from Verona–but he won’t be the only Veronan in Lucas Oil Stadium. The Giants have invited his parents to be among the family members attending the game. “My parents are extremely excited and proud,” he says. “I’m glad they can experience the game with me. The Giants are a great organization to do this for our families.”

And for those in Verona who helped him along the way and who’ll be watching the game, DePalma has this message: “I will make you proud.”

Home page photo by Marianne O’Leary via Flickr

UPDATE: Indianapolis station RTV6 caught a few seconds of DePalma dancing the salsa on Super Bowl Media Day on Tuesday. Much different motion than our video of DePalma at the Jets-Eagles game.

Frank Greco (Photo by Adrian Amador)

Frank Greco and Joe Festa both came away with first-place wins in the Essex County Wrestling Championship at Codey Arena on Saturday. Paul Scully took second place at 113 pounds, while Tom Cundari took third place at 145 pounds.

Greco’s match kept spectators on the edge of their seats through four overtimes. In the end, the Hillbilly junior, wrestling at 182, came away with a 6-5 victory over Kevin Matlon of Seton Hall Prep. Festa, who wrestles at 220, snatched a 7-5 victory from top-seeded Anthony Angelone of West Orange High School.

Joe Festa (Photo by Adrian Amador)

Verona came in seventh among the 24 teams competing, with an overall score of 111. Nutley High School led the match with its first first-place finish in the Essex County Wrestling Championship, 42 points ahead of the second-place team from West Orange.

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(Slide show photos by Sherre Festa)

Down 14-11 after the first period, the Maroon and White went into the locker room trailing 22-20 at the half. Verona throughout the season has come out firing in the second half and Friday night was no different. The teams traded buckets in the thirrd quarter before Verona exploded for 18 fourth-quarter points, leaving the Bucs behind on their way to a second-round match-up yet to be determined.

Sophomore Alex Kaslander poured in 14 points while senior captains Packy Malanga and Brian Farrell netted 13 each. Next up for the Hillbillies is a Tuesday contest against Newark Arts High School.
Photos © Heidi Huze. All rights reserved.