Defending state champions Saint Joseph of Metuchen (boys) and Howell (girls) headline the field of 27 high school bowling teams competing in the season-opening Marisa Tufaro Classic, which will be held Saturday at Majestic Lanes in Woodbridge.

All proceeds from the event, at which toys will be collected for donation to pediatric patients and children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area, benefit The Marisa Tufaro Foundation.

The tournament will be conducted in a best-of-three game team format followed by baker format best-of-five competition for the top four teams in each division to determine the champion.

Awards for boys and girls will be presented to the team champions and runners-up in each division, as well as to the three bowlers with the highest individual game and the three bowlers who roll the highest series in each division. Jim Gano of Crown Trophy of Flemington is generously donating the awards.

The Marisa Tufaro Classic, which was conducted in 2018 and 2019, is making its triumphant return.

The wildly successful event, which Woodbridge head coach Amanda Small founded and continues to run with support from her high school and school district, fundraised more than $6,000 and generated more than a thousand toys for donation its first two years.

South Brunswick, Edison, Old Bridge, Sayreville, Carteret, South Plainfield, J.P. Stevens and host Woodbridge will represent the Greater Middlesex Conference with boys and girls entries in the tournament.

Incumbent All-Greater Middlesex Conference selections Jamaya Myers (Sayreville), Savannah Gomez (Old Bridge), Rosemarie Leonard (Woodbridge), Jonathan Applewhite (two-time defending conference tournament individual champion from Carteret), Will Cunningham (Saint Joseph), Kai Strothers (Saint Joseph), Devon Kiessling (Saint Joseph), and EJ Chin (Saint Joseph) will be among the top bowlers showcased.

Bayonne and Howell are also bringing boys and girls teams. The defending South Jersey Group II champion Barnegat girls squad featuring Jamie White and Taralynn Charland will compete, while Toms River East and Seton Hall Prep join Saint Joseph with boys entries.

Howell’s Jake Diaz, the reigning Shore Conference Tournament individual champion, and Seton Hall Prep’s KC Campbell, a two-time state tournament qualifier, are among the top boys competitors.

Toms River East returns a quartet of talented bowlers including senior Matt Baxter who helped the team finish third behind champion Jackson Memorial and runner-up Scotch Plains-Fanwood in last year’s stacked Group III tournament.

Toms River East and incumbent Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament runner-up South Brunswick are among the teams expected to challenge Saint Joseph.

Saint Joseph finished the 2022-23 campaign with an unblemished 20-0 record that included winning the Central Jersey Group I, Greater Middlesex Conference, Central Jersey Winter Classic, and Joe Romer Memorial tournaments.

The Falcons return all but one bowler and for the second consecutive year two talented freshmen will bolster their lineup. They are Joey and Jeffrey Lamoreaux, the twin sons of highly respected private coach Debbie Stein, who has worked with and personally trained several former state champions and helped groom some of Saint Joseph’s past and present bowlers.

Last season, current sophomores Cunningham and Strothers finished first and second in the entire state among regular-season average leaders. Both are incumbent first-team All-State selections.

Strothers is the reigning state champion, having defeated teammate Kiessling in the NJSIAA Individual Tournament stepladder final. Incredibly, the two were the last bowlers competing from a field of more than 2,900 peers who participated in the sport statewide last season.

Seniors Chin and Alex Kozak also return to a program that never lost a game, match or tournament after placing third in last year’s season-opening Westfield Blue Devil Classic.

“You could tell they were not happy about it,” Saint Joseph coach Rusty Thomsen said of the third-place finish. “They were so upset they were determined not to lose again.”

J.P. Stevens coach John Canova, whose flagship bowler is Charlie Hyman-Cruz, noted what Saint Joseph accomplished during last year’s run is unprecedented.

“When you go undefeated and not lose one game the entire season, in any sport that’s the literal definition of perfection,” Canova said, noting the Marisa Tufaro Classic will be a good barometer for all the tournament entrants.

“I know the stronger teams in the GMC want to compete against the stronger teams in the state because down the road come February, that’s who you are expecting to see,” Canova said. “Here’s where we are in December. Do we match up?”

On the girls side, Howell, Barnegat and Brick all ended last season among the Top 10 teams in NJ.com’s final rankings. Howell returns juniors Kayleigh Germadnig and Madison Lewis, while Brick brings back senior Kristi Nardiello. Brick was the Group II runner-up last winter to undefeated Brick Memorial.

Old Bridge and Woodbridge, who squared off in last year’s Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final, are among the league’s top girls teams in the Marisa Tufaro Classic.

Established in its namesake’s loving memory six years ago, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has donated more than $300,000 to fulfill its mission of assisting pediatric patients and children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area.

The nonprofit has also spearheaded multiple initiatives resulting in the collection of thousands of toys, nonperishable food items, winter coats, baby supplies, school supplies, and other items for donation upon which it has placed no monetary value.

In addition, the foundation has awarded 42 college academic scholarships totaling $29,500 in Marisa’s name to high school seniors and an additional 20 scholarships for elementary and middle school students to attend a weeklong summer art camp at Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum.

Born with a complex cardiac defect, Marisa Tufaro lived with a medical condition that restricted her from some physical activity, but never prevented her from bowling.

Marisa, who died in 2017 at the age of 13 from a rare form of cancer following six open-heart surgeries and a heart transplant, enjoyed her time at Stelton Lanes in Piscataway and at Milford Lanes in Delaware during family vacations.

Despite being hospitalized for more than two years and attending hundreds of doctors appointments, Marisa was an Edison Township Public Schools honor roll student involved in myriad extracurricular activities.

She is the inspiration behind the Marisa Tufaro Classic.