roger.pape Site Admin
Joined: 17 Mar 2009 Posts: 414 Location: Liverpool, NY
|
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 6:03 pm Post subject: The CMSC Starting Five |
|
|
(Originally posted January 20, 2009)
Now that we're in the middle of another basketball season, I had to reminisce about basketball in Concordia. Basketball was one of the favorite activities during the winter. Of course, that extended through most of the year for many of us youngsters. The Evert brothers spent many a day practicing and in pick-up games on the old dirt court in the parking lot behind St. Paul's Church. They went on to be great guards at Concordia High.
One remembers the intense rivalry between the Orioles of Concordia High and the Blue Jays of St. Paul's College High. The Orioles usually won, but we Blue Jays did have some good days. Then there was the All-Concordia Tournament, hosted by St. Paul's College with the teams from St. Paul MN, Seward NE, and Winfield KS. (How did St. John's, Winfield fit that name? I guess they needed another team for a foursome.)
The signatures of a Coach Wahlers team at St. Paul's were the two-handed set shot, the underhand freethrow, and the zone defense that he drilled into us. I remember one game in the Concordia High invitational tournament between St. Paul's and (I believe) Knob Noster. Shortly after the game began, the opposing coach was unhappy with the zone defense and told his team to hold the ball until the Blue Jays shifted out of the zone. Coach Wahlers refused to change, so the other team just stood there with the ball. (There was no shot clock.) The crowd booed as the game continued without movement. After a brief flurry in the last minute, the other team won by a score of something like 13 to 12. While I enjoyed playing basketball, I was never a great player. In my senior high school year (Tertia), Coach Wahlers asked me not to try out for the team. He said he wanted the boys that were continuing on to Junior College to gain more playing experience.
But the primary subjects of this blog are the Mules of Central Missouri State College, Warrensburg. Who remembers the year that the entire starting five for the basketball team were from Concordia? Phil Henry told me that my dad, as mayor, got up at halftime of one game and gave a speech honoring the team. Who can recall the names of the players? There probably was a Kammeyer or two and probably a Cassing. LaVerne, you should remember because I believe you were attending CMSC at that time. |
|