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EN GARDE! Fencing’s First Family Supports its Sport For nearly 60 years the Cetrulo name has been synonymous with fencing at Newark Academy. A recent gift of $50,000 by Larry Cetrulo ’67 demonstrates his intentions to keep it that way. The Cetrulo family helped found the program when brothers Gerald ’59 and Curtis ’63 enrolled in the sixth and fifth grades, respectively, at Newark Academy’s First Street campus in 1953. The brothers were joined by their cousins, Paul Tortorella, Mike Loprete ’59 and Bobby Caprio ’53, who was captain of both the Minuteman football and basketball teams. The Cetrulo brothers’ father, Dr. Gerald I. Cetrulo, was the coach for NA’s newly formed fencing club. Olympic bronze medalist Dean Cetrulo coached the NA team from 1957 to 1968 and no less than seven members of the Cetrulo family have starred on Minuteman teams throughout the years. In 1997, the family assured its role in the fencing program’s future by making a $100,000 gift to create the Cetrulo Family Fencing Facility at Newark Academy. At the time, that gift was among the largest capital improvement gifts NA athletics had ever received. Thanks to its outstanding facility and long-standing commitment to the sport of fencing, Newark Academy’s program continues to be one of the most successful fencing programs in the state. Earlier this year, the NA boys squad won the Prep State Championship. The girls team finished a respectable fourth in the Prep tournament. Larry Cetrulo’s gift is providing needed upgrades to NA’s fencing facility through the purchase of two aluminum fencing strips and two new electronic scoring devices. The aluminum strips are “state-of-the-art”
according to NA Director of Athletics Ed Manigan. “These strips are used in all state tournament competitions because they provide much more accurate evaluation of touches. It is great that we can have these in our own facility because our fencers will be accustomed to competing on them all the time instead of having to adjust when they get to state-level competition.”
“ ” This gift makes a significant difference to our program and it ensures that we will continue to be considered one of the most powerful fencing squads in New Jersey.
Additionally, Larry’s gift will outfit the teams with customized pants for competitions, featuring the NA Minuteman logo.
“We are so grateful to Larry for his support,” Manigan said. “This gift makes a significant difference to our program and it ensures that we will continue to be considered one of the most powerful fencing squads in New Jersey.” Larry Cetrulo was a three-sport athlete at NA (fencing, football and baseball) and is a member of the Newark Academy Athletic Hall of Fame. He served as captain for both the fencing and football teams as a senior before going to Harvard where he continued all three sports, captained the Crimson fencing team and was named three times to the fencing All-America teams. In 1966 Larry was only the third fencer inducted into the Harvard Athletic Hall of Fame. Today Larry is a founding partner of the Boston law firm Cetrulo & Capone LLP and is Chair of the firm’s Toxic Tort Practice Group.
OUTREACH spring 2012