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Basketball - East
East High goes back
to 1955 and our first basketball season was 1956-57. The coaches that
first year were Mr. Les Eathorne as head coach, Mr. Bob Eliason Junior
Varsity and Mr. LeRoy Spitzer Frosh. Over the years there have been few
coaching changes. Mr. Eliason went into the service and was replaced by
Mr. Lawrence Sampson, who has had 9 successful years as our J.V. coach.
Mr. Spitzer retired to his vocal singing duties and was replaced by Mr.
Art McCarty as Frosh coach. Bariches' Bombers took form in 1959 and Mr.
Larry Barich and Mr. McCarty moved on to greener pastures and were
replaced by Mr. Jim Hassett and Mr. Eric Thorson who run our Frosh teams
at the present time.
East basketball is
a unique combination of scrambled confusion, organized harassment, basic
fundamentals, and hard work. West, our honored foe was the power in
state basketball when East began in 1955. West played a control game and
a hard-nosed man to man defense. East needed a basketball personality
and we developed it with the aid of the incredible Bakken--our first and
brightest Knight. Impossible to control--Bakken stalked the ball like a
cat after a mouse! Soon it seemed better to join him and his fun than to
not help and watch him run his heart out. He never graciously
relinquished the ball and since his time our teams feel that until the
ball is over the midline that the press is part of our offense because
we are closer to our basket than they are to theirs! For 9 years we have
lived and died with the press. When we are successful it is a sight to
see, but when it fails--ah yes!
This book
(information on teams from 1957-1965) is mainly the work of Gordy Duda!
He was a manager, fan and school leader. Basketball secretaries Linda
Etten, Sandy Snow, Judy Probst and Nancy Searle typed computed and put
it together. Each year we can now add a couple of pages and a history of
East Basketball can be kept.
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