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Vanessa Matthews today in Abu Dubai. At right, back in 2005, that’s Kimberly Topping and Adam Bania, the king and queen of homecoming.
My whole family is in education. I feel strongly that kids need role models.” In high school, Bania was well-rounded, and a member of an impressive array of extracurriculars. He was a three-sport varsity athlete, earning letters in baseball, football and basketball, and was also a member of the Keystone Club for the Boys & Girls Club of Clifton. He also participated in student government, as a president (sophomore class) and vice president (freshman class, and SCA as a junior and senior). He is also an Eagle Scout, a highly prestigious honor. After high school, Bania attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a B.S. in mathematics-economics, and went alternate route to become a teacher. He earned his Masters in Educational Leadership from Montclair State University, and was certified as a Teachers of Students with Disabilities, K-12, at William Paterson University. In addition to his teaching, Bania serves as a role model for students as an assistant football and baseball coach. He is also a co-owner (with fellow class of 2005 CHS grad Adam Satkowski) of A Squared Management, LLC, a facility maintenance and staffing company. Kimberly Topping Cheerleading was, and continues to be, a major part of Kimberly Topping’s life. Dedicated to the sport (and she’ll be quick to remind you it is, in fact, a sport) for as long as she can remember, she excelled on the mat at both the high school and college levels. Today, though her days of competing are behind her, she excels at 64 July 2015 • Clifton Merchant
teaching its finer points to the girls she coaches at West Orange High School. “After I was done cheering myself, the next step was to move on to coaching and be able to share my expertise and knowledge of the sport to allow these girls to have the experience I did,” Topping said. “It is very rewarding at this point. At the end of the day, I am teaching them something I love to do.” Topping was the Homecoming Queen for the CHS class of 2005, and was also a morning news anchor in the CHS C.A.S.T. program. She also cheered for the World Cup Shooting Stars, a nationally ranked club team based in Freehold. She continued her career at Rutgers, where she became a captain of the cheerleading squad as a senior, and earned a degree in broadcast journalism in 2009. During her college career, she won the 2009 UCA Girls Partner Stunt National Title (the first national title ever won by the Scarlet Knights cheerleading program). Later she coached at William Paterson University, and at Clifton High School as an assistant, before taking over the West Orange program two years ago. In addition to her coaching duties with the Mountaineers, Topping works for Rebel Athletic by day, as the Northeast Account Manager for the Dallas-based company.