MAYS LANDING - Atlantic Cape Community College recognized Nicholas Asselta and his wife Nancy Small Asselta with Athletics Recognition of Excellence Awards for their significant contributions to the College’s Athletics program Saturday, Jan. 24 on the Mays Landing campus.
During a reception held in Carême’s, the college’s student-run gourmet restaurant, Atlantic Cape Athletic Director Jamal Edwards presented the Asseltas with commemorative plaques inscribed with “in recognition of your support and leadership to Atlantic Cape Community College and its athletic programs.”
Craig Matthews Nicholas Asselta, who was raised in Vineland and graduated from Vineland High School, Cumberland County College and the Frederick Milita.
Asselta acknowledged former Atlantic Cape archery Head Coach and Athletic Director Dr. Helen Bolnick, who founded the college’s archery program in 1972, retired in 2008 and passed away in 2018.
“Dr. Helen Bolnick was the very first female athletic director of Region 19 and she was just a groundbreaking individual. She gave me my opportunity here to coach at 29 years old. She took a chance on me,” Asselta said.
He also recognized his former assistant coaches Roger Robinson and Bobby Royal, who later became the head coach of the men’s basketball team before assuming the role of athletic director before retiring in 2012 after 38 years at the college.
Asselta credited many of his former players and coaches, thanking them for helping build him into the man he became him during his time at Atlantic Cape.
“My tree, my coaching tree, I like to think, is important to me. My wife asked me, ‘What's a tree?’ I told her that a tree is someone that spawns off of you and does something similar that you've kind of mentored,” he said. “I didn't coach a long time, but I used that opportunity that I learned in coaching to parlay that into more of a business and then politics. Everybody needs a tree and everybody needs to create that tree because that's what this is all about.”
Asselta entered public service when he was elected in 1993 election to the Vineland Board of Education. In January 1995, he was sworn into the General Assembly to fill an unexpired term. Later that November, he won his first of four terms representing District 1 in the General Assembly. In 2003 he was elected to the New Jersey Senate and served as state senator until 2008.
Nancy Small Asselta attended and graduated from Mainland High School where she discovered her love of cheerleading. After earning her associate degree from Atlantic Cape (formerly Atlantic Community College) in 1975 she attended the University of Tennessee and earned her bachelor’s degree in Interior Design. She returned to Atlantic Cape as a cheerleading coach from 1978-1981.
She currently owns and operates Small Asselta Interior Design, LLC.
“I was so fulfilled with my experience at ACC and I loved every minute of it. I went from a small jewel of a county college to a huge university, and I have never experienced the level of dedication and caring as I did from the professors here," she said. "The open personal and warm atmosphere created by the layout of the buildings surrounding the beautiful campus. Atlantic Cape was so conducive to learning and the exchange of ideas.
“ACC provided so many opportunities for me. It brought me friendships, and since students from both Atlantic and Cape May counties attended the college, I met and built so many deep and lasting friendships with people, many of which I wouldn't even have had the chance to meet if I hadn't gone to Atlantic Cape. I had the unexpected opportunity to be a tutor for several subjects, which was very rewarding. I was very active in the music department as a vocalist in the Atlantic Choral Arts Society and a performer in a theater company. I am so humbled to receive this award and I will always be a proud alumna and an enthusiastic cheerleader.”
