They Chose The Mascot. Now They Celebrate Holmdel High's 50 Years.

HOLMDEL, NJ — Michael Pomarico could not have borne the thought of seeing his kids play for any other New Jersey team other than the Holmdel Hornets.

Sure, most parents would appreciate seeing their son or daughter take in their footsteps, but for Pomarico it was more than that: He helped pick out the school colors and mascot 50 years ago, along with the rest of the founding class.

"We — meaning my class — have a special bond with the high school," he told Patch. "We got to pick the school colors, the school mascot, a lot of programs that were established in the school, the type of student government... Everything that was created for this new thing called Holmdel High School."

The 66-year-old is the driving force behind the three-day-long 50th-anniversary celebration of Holmdel High school, which will start on Friday at the Bob Roggy Field. He's also had the help of fellow alumn Frank Csulak putting the event together.

During the extended halftime of the Holmdel Hornets vs. Jackson Memorial Jaguars football game, there will be a ceremony honoring the first and second freshman classes.

When Holmdel High School was founded back in 1970, it started out with only one class, as opposed to all four grades. Before that, Holmdel students would be sent to the Red Bank Regional High School.

"So my class was the first freshman of Holmdel High School. There was nobody above us," Pomarico said. "Then we became the first sophomores. Then we became the first juniors. Then we became the first seniors."

The class initially came up with a different idea for their school mascot. They wanted to be the Hellcats, but the administration told them to pick something else.

"You gotta go back to 1970, the innocent world we lived in," Pomarico pointed out. "If you know the history of the hornet in Holmdel it does have more of a special meaning. They used to call this area in Marlboro and Holmdel the hornet's nest. When the enemy (during the revolutionary war) was trying to attack they would stumble upon a hornet's nest and it would chase them away."

The idea for the Hellcats mascot was also connected to war history. It was named after a fighter plane called Hellcat.

Paul Zoubek, 65, got to serve as president of the student body for four years, starting also in 1970.

"Because Holmdel never had its own high school, It really drew the community together," he said. "We got to have the unique experience of four years of being, if you will, the seniors of the school and start the school from scratch, which was very exciting."

Zoubek said Holmdel High School quickly became an important center in Holmdel, seeing as the town is very spread out between north and south.

Although he moved out of Holmdel years ago, he will also attend the anniversary.

On Saturday, the celebration will continue with a private tour of Bell Works at 10 a.m. for class members whose parents worked in the formerly known Bell Labs. According to Pomarico, that was the case for quite a large portion of students at the time.

At 1 p.m. there will be a tour of the newly renovated Holmdel High School building. Then at 7 p.m. the main event will start, with both the 1970 and 1971 classes.

Pomarico said the founding freshman class was only of 144 people. He's been able to account for 121 of them, including 14 who have passed away. Only about two or three still live in Holmdel, according to Pomarico.

"Everybody sort of scattered around the country," he said . "Some people live in neighboring towns."

As of Tuesday, 57 students from the first freshman class (graduated in 1974) and 45 from the second had signed up for the anniversary celebration. A total of 12 original teachers will also attend, including the founding school principal Richard White.

Pomarico himself moved out of Holmdel for a few years but went right back after getting married.

"I wanted to raise a family in Holmdel. I have a son and a daughter and I wanted them to go to Holmdel High School because I would have had a hard time if they went to another school like Red Bank or Keyport," he said. "It was my team so I wanted my children to experience life in Holmdel, which has been extraordinary."

Back in 2006, while his son and daughter were in high school, Pomarico got involved in another school event. He helped put together an interview-style town hall with some of the founding members of Holmdel High School.

The alumn wanted to document the history of the High School so that those memories would not be lost. The event was filmed and a copy of the DVD was given to the school library.

Pomarico is no stranger to the small screen, having spent most of his career working for ABC Television. He was the director of the soap opera "All My Children" for the last 15 years of its run.

The Holmdel High School anniversary ceremony had originally been planned for October of 2020, but those plans were derailed by COVID-19.

On Sunday, the alumni will get together for a send-off with coffee and bagels at 10 a.m.

"My fellow committee members and I are excited to see old friends, administrators and teachers 'Coming Home Again' to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of this premier New Jersey School we were fortunate enough to help build," Pomarico said.