OCR Text |
Show Page 10 toon by Keith Duncan We sold Region One baseball, said mild tempered Fred Thompson, coach of the Roy High Royals' baseball squad. People wont look down upon us anymore and figure we are the baseball scapegoat of the Class 4-- SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS We're here to stay' Utah is getting a second chance to give birth to another professional basketball team. The setting has mixed differences since the first team arrived in Utah, but generally the pretext to this second coming is much the same, or at least it appears that way. W'ere here to stay, announced a confident Harry Weltman, club president and general manager, to a local news conference last week in Salt Lake City. The Spirits of St. Louis, leaving their home because of financial losses and nonsupport from the fans, will be coming to Utah where six months ago the ABA Utah Stars folded for the same reasons. Weltman says St. Louis is not really a basketball town. He later said a study by club owners indicated pro basketball could succeed in Salt Lake City with adequate community involvement. For the defunct Utah Stars, it all began back on June 10, 1970, when owner Bill Daniels announced the L.A. Stars were to become the Utah Stars. He also made a promise, he made a pledge ... that Salt Lake City would become the Green Bay of professional basketball. When Daniels and Vince Boryla, his general manager, made the decision to relocate the newly obtained pro basketball franchise in Utah back in the spring of 1970, not even in their moments of greatest optimism did they envision the fantastic manner in which Beehive State residents would adopt the team as their own. Could it happen again in 1976-77- ? Success in sudden flurry To say the Stars were an instant success Hun would be an un- 69-3- all-tim- all-pr- o per-gam- e 1. d g Utah needs victories 1976-7- 7 Utah fans be looking forward too? They are used to the colorful red, white and blue ball and all the other offers the old Utah Stars gave to its faithful What Utah will need in a few victories, rather quite a few victories on the cage court. TTie defunct Spirits have several attractions for Utah fans. Moses Malone, Ron Boone, Randy Denton and Steve Green played here with Stars before Daniels sold them to St. Louis. Young Malone and playmaker Ron Boone were the favorites. The Spirits also have temperamental and Marvin Barnes to lure crowds into the Salt Palace next season. high-price- tournament. Box Elder and our team, were in every game until late and that is a giant step over the previous Coach season, relayed the Region One of the Year runnerup. tournament for Roy visited the Coach Thompson s the first time under his second finished He supervision. season as head coach in a fashionable on the Roy way and so did the seniors The general feeling is baseball squad. that Roy will be returning to the state tournament and the fortune derived therefrom may be worth their weight in here in gold. That was almost the case for six The Royals led Granger in Lancers the exploded until innings the sixth for five runs and the eventual Ken victory. Jim McMahon and an for outstanding combined Francis the outing, but errors in the sixth led Mike McCoy way to defeat. Speedster came alive in the state game with a crashing triple that bounced up against the Ken Price centerfield wall. The thing that tickled me pink, made me more happy than anything else, was being able to see these kids enjoy something that every team hopes for, but only 8 or 9 get. That is being able to enjoy the surrounding of a big in a park atmosphere, being able to sit over come name their dugout, hearing the Derks Field microphone, and all that other stuff young kids dream about. I dont think any of those kids were ever in even a dugout before we went to the state tourney. I was happy for them and proud of the way they performed. We didnt choke like Region One teams had in the past, said Coach Thompson. Roy lost in their second, 0 in eight innings to Granite High. Granite and Granger eventually excelled to be two of the final three teams left in the tournament. Greg Panfiloff and Ken Francis were the hurlers in the Farmecontest and together they r-Royal yielded only four hits. That is the least number of hits that the Granite team was held to over the regular pre-seaso- n, Panfiloff and playoffs. isnt complaining at second base and shortstop Juniors who contributed to the success were Mike Bennion, Kelly Checkettc, Neil Cox and Craig Hansen. .Sophomores Larry Guinn, Todd Vernon and Paul Zahn were instrumental this year and will be in the future Senior Pat Hanley stepped into action several occasions and was fortunate to collect several hits and play steady at all. Ward doesnt possess the arm to throw out batters, but hes got the head on .tv i CLAUDE PAYNE (left) and Orlando Gallegos (right) were recently selected by their teammates and the Royal MVPs season has the knack of performing to angel heights in On the track scene, he finished second in the state in the javelin and was very high in the GREG NICHOLS wrapped up his successful Roy discus competition. High career by competing in the state 4-- tourney. Here he attempts steal. Royals were not heavy hitters Its a proven fact that Roy was just If not a powerful hitting club in 1975-7t the Royals had been in CJOge jcmusi by Keith Duncan little more lethal weaponry at tne plate, players and one coach will this writer would have picked them to represent Roy High in the annual be playing for the state championship. North-Soutboys game Roys pitching strength was proven to be played June 7 at John Affleck with McMahon, Francis, Mike Budke Park in Ogden. Coach Fred Thompson and Panfiloff. w ill lead the North team, being selected head as the his coach fellow mentors by will and be McMahon back, though, the year before. Rick Stonehocker and better things could be in store for this Ken Francis, both seniors, have been talented youngster and Roy High in the to play. selected long run. Dee Burton, head coach at Layton Claude Payne and Orlando Gallegos High, along with Thompson, chose the were the top hitters for Roy and it 1976 North squad. Eight players seemed they could always come up with were selected from both Region One a hit just about anytime they really and Region Two. wanted it bad enough. McMahon was a Four pitchers were selected to but firecracker in the compete against the South and they are simmered off in his batting as the Quintana of Ogden; Fred Hale of Ray on. wore Rick schedule league Bountiful, Brent Neil, Box Elder; and Stonehocker, who was chosen as the relief specialist, Ken Francis of Roy. schools outstanding senior athlete, Two catchers were tabbed for the those with clutch would always come up North and they are DeVerl Hoskins more but hits, importantly supplied of Clearfield and Kelly Sheppard of consistently tough defense at the infield Bonneville positions. Rick Stonehocker Infield pdsitions will be filled by Todd Rgyjals send player h all-st- One would have to spend some time m finding an outfield that posed as much speed as Roys does Mike McCoy, Greg Nichols and Clair Davis were the regulars, but sophomore Kurt Bennington could usually substitute and supply both speed and respectable batting accords. There was a story within a story behind the plate for Roy High this past season. In the beginning, Coach Thompson was banking upon Mark Kartchner to secure catching duties While batting in the in- - Roy Ninth picked to repeat Team No. claim 1 to of the Roy 9th Ward as Stake 16th out No Ward's Champs by shutting 2 team in the season opener and then beating the 11th ward 17 4 three days later. The Ninth is back tougher than eer after winning the Intermountain area championship in Salt Lake City in 1973 Only three men are missing from last years champs who lost only one game all year. In other action, Lakeview looked strong in beating the 15th and 18tl wards 37-- and 25-- respectively Kevin Colahan blasted the only home run of the young season as he led his 11th ward team to a 23 2 rout over 9th ward No. 2. lay repeat RICK STONEHOCKER 6-- 16th No. 2. Best game of the evening featured the 15th Wards 11th Ward. Thompson lofted a home run to lead his teammates in a thriller. The brand-ne18th W'ard showed their old Lakeview style of winning by the 9th Ward in the finale. The 18th Ward has all but three of last years Lakeview champs on their team. But dont feel sorry for Lakeview. They are and drew a bye in the second round. Stake athletic directir is Ray Thiel of the 9th Ward His assistants are Ken Berry (16th), Ralph Wiggins (12th), Terry Mifflin (Lakeview) and Harold Kammeyer of the 12th Ward extra inning victory over the 19-1- 8 12-1- 0 situations, d tilts like this exciting showing in Weber Roy footbal game was enough to cause any fan to go nuts. They'll never forget the moments Rick led the Royal grid team to two touchdowns in the final minutes and hn in noted Rick s highly one the all-st- 0 eventual victory. Stonehocker shed his football gear and appeared in the Royals first basketball game against Bountiful to si oi e 33 points. If that wasn t ex-- i itement in pressure filled moments, then this writer would like to know what Ken Francis DEM is mu HELD OVER run blast the supplied Bonneville against team his so runs necessary amount of baseball could attend the 19?6Ricks thiee-ru- n ROBERT REDF0? home - H cufy e rncKi tn playoffs 8 any other Franc is doesn't perform in so he high sc bool sport but baseball, es something at spends a lot of time a1- K3lr PLUS -- V j - V Charlottes Web Matinees Only 1 p.m. All Seats 75 BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID 7:30 p.m. Sot.-Su- Th all-sta- getting rather good A n SAT. SUN. MAT. 4-- For the last two years, Ken Francis relief has been Roys outstanding off some showing be lalist hell spec and r in the of his artful pitching style Royals first by Bliss Fulmer The O'd men (19 years and over) of Roy North Stake played their second round of slow-pitc- h softball Thursday evening. The 12th ward made it two in a row by edging the 6th ward 16th (No. 1) won by forfeit over their other half Stonehocker lives through pressure For Rick Stonehocker, being selected to the all star game was only fitting. Stonev has the knack of coming through pressure-packe- in Roy North plays of Clearfield; Jeff Ogden, Viewmont, Robbie Taylor, Layton; Rick Stonehocker, Roy; Ken Carpenter, Ben Lomond; and Kurt Elbert, Logan Filling outfield positions will be Doug Bingham of Box Elder; Brad Cutler, Bear River; Jeff Hales, Weber; and Wally Beck of Bountiful. m belts hit state game. Rick was a senior. Rue especially 200-se- Agreement with the Salt Palace is around the corner, Walters hinted, since we have reached agreement in princ iple. Palace board Chairman Vira G. Woods, however, said the Spirits must not come under a clouded situation, referring h lhe legalities with the folded Stars owners. Weltman said he doesnt expect difficulties with Spirits players transferring to Salt Lake City, which has a small la k community thats what counted most in Roys late season drive toward the state tournament. and state playoff situations. Items still on agenda bin k doors, Mark caught a hard hit ball in his face and it took surgery to correct the damage. Senior, Jerry Ward stepped in 0 d still ahead for the new Utah franchise is a team name, a each and a contract w ith the 12, Salt Palace. Noneof f'ose, Walters has said, looms as indissoluble. All will be solved as seen by this writer but the big 1'ioblems might begin to rise to the surface when the new league schedule begins. Its just a wait and see situation v mic h no one can predict. 'lhe name, will probably be supplied through a contest, lough Walters said he would like it to be the Utah Stars ABA Coach Joe Mullaney ran the team to the end of last oason on a partial season contract, but apparently wont be 1 and Coach Thompson f n 1976. supplied'.a derstatement. Evidence that pro basketball fever hit Utah in a hurry came at the 1970-7- 1 seasons opening game on Oct. 14, 1970, when 9,185 fans watched the Stars defeat the Denver Rockets to start an eight-gam- e winning streak. The Stars went on to become the first major league team in any sport to win a title in its first year of operation. Overall for 102 regular season and playoff games during that incredible first season, the Stars posted a brilliant won-los- s 3 e record. In the process the Stars established a new attendance record for a first-yea- r franchise, attracting 262,342 fans to 42 openings, an average of 6,246 per game. Sellout crowds at seven of nine home playoff games swelled the total home attendance to 363,237, a average of 7,122 Remarkable for a city that critics shunned the thought of pro basketball living and striving in. They said it couldnt be done. Critics claimed that the area was too small to support a major league basketball team. Cynics scoffed and predicted a disaster on the premise that Salt Lake City was not a bona fide sports town. The critics and cynics were in error. There is a story behind the attendance story of 1970-7The record attendance was established in spite of a schedule w hich had the Stars with only two Saturday night dates in the Salt Palace for the entire year, and just five Fridays in a weekend-orientetown. Yet, it was the rugged, style of ABA ball that the Utah fan was looking for. It brought together the BYU back, the University of Utah supporter, as well as the Utah State and Weber State fans into one huge cheering section. Toss in the bands, the pretty girls, solid promotions ... along with that dazzling ABA red, white and blue ball, and you had the best show in the town. What will Thursday, May 27, 1976 Sun Chronicle Elite 7:1 5 CO-HI- T & 9:30 p.m. v 1:30, 3:30. 5:30 Graduation Late Show Fri.& Sat. 11:30 Franco Zeffirelli of Romeo JULIET Romoo & Jullrt 9:30 Evoningi 7:1 5 4 9:30 Sot. Sun. 5.00, 7:15 9:30 |