The VHS  Male Athlete of the Year , Mark Riggio, was awarded his trophy at the Senior Sports dinner by last year’s recipient, Frank Ferrari. 

Riggio was captain of both the football and wrestling teams his senior year, and led the football team to their second consecutive state championship title. He also led the wrestling team to their conference championship title his senior year.

Riggio recognized Frank Ferrari as being a role model to him his whole life. “Frank has always been a good friend of mine and I’ve always striven to be as good of an athlete as he is, so to have received the award from him really made it special.”

Riggio’s high school athletic career started in the fall of 2012 when he played on the special teams unit of the varsity football team. His first high school touchdown was in his freshman year, against Montclair Kimberley Academy. The same year he wrestled in the 145 lb weight class and wracked up a grand total of nine wins.

His sophomore year he scored a total of seven touchdowns and added 25 to the total number of wrestling wins. At this point in his career, it became clear that reaching 100 wins was achievable by his senior year, and this became his new goal.

Junior year was another successful year for the athlete. He scored 12 touchdowns and finished the season with 35 wrestling wins.

Senior year was a record breaking year for Riggio, and in addition to being fifth in the state for scoring in football, he earned his 100th wrestling win, which is a huge accomplishment for any high school wrestler.  Riggio also made the trip to Atlantic City to wrestle in the final round of the state tournament in both his junior and senior year.

Riggio is not the first in his family line to have received this award. His cousin Frankie Greco also received it his senior year.  “It’s been a dream of mine since I’ve heard about the award freshman year when my cousin [Frank Greco] received it.”