James R. Gulesano joins Steven Zaso as the second inductee from the class of 1981. This man was one of the best athletes in the county in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. He was an outstanding 3-sport athlete in Cross Country, Basketball, and Baseball. On the Cross Country paths, he was one of the best runners in Section V. In the 1979 season, he finished in first place in every single race of the year except one. In that one particular race against York, he finished in 2nd place, only 6 seconds behind the winner. During that 1979 season, he was the winner of the Class C Alfred Invitational and also won the Livingston County Championship race. He also set the Mt. Morris 2.8 mile course record with a time of 14 minutes, 25 seconds. Additionally, he won a race at HFL and set the course record on a day where he accidently went off the path for a time period and actually ran too far. At the end of the 1979 fall season, the Mt. Morris coaching staff awarded this man as “The Most Outstanding Athlete of the Season.” On the basketball court, his first varsity season was in 1979, which was also the first year Hall of Famer Bob Privitera took over as varsity coach. During his senior year of 1980-81, he was the starting point guard and leading scorer of the Livingston County Championship basketball team. In that season, his scoring average was 16.4 points per game. This not only led the team, it ranked him #4 in the league. His top scoring game came against division rival Warsaw on December 12, 1980 where he poured in 32 points in route to a victory. He also had three games that year where he scored 28 points, one of which was a first round sectional game against Livonia. This team finished a perfect 12-0 in league games in route to the league title. Including sectional play, the 1980-81 team finished with a 16-5 record and lost a heart-breaking game in the Sectional Semi-finals in overtime to Avoca by 1 point. His signature behind the back layup he performed while being introduced before every home game was certainly a crowd favorite and something that younger athletes looked up to. On the baseball diamond, he was arguably the best leadoff hitter and shortstop in the league for three straight seasons. From his sophomore season on, he was always a hitting and base stealing threat at the top of the order. During the 1980 season, his .377 batting average and flawless defense helped lead the team to a 10-2 league record while winning the Livingston County championship. He followed up this season during his senior year in 1981 leading the team in batting average at .440 and stolen bases with 10. According to his classmate and fellow Hall of Famer Steven Zaso, “this man was one of the best leadoff hitters MMCS has ever seen…He set the tone every game…He took the fear out of facing their pitcher and was then a threat to steal. In basketball was as good a double threat point guard as anyone I played with in 3 years of Varsity hoops also.” Since his graduation from MMCS, this man has been one of the finest basketball officials around. He has officiated for over 25 years at the high school level and 15 years at the college level in the ECAC. He has also coached Little League baseball for several years.