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Show Spotlight on Spurls By Don Robinson We can add to last week's column, congratulations to the Monticcllo Buckaroos for their performance at the State Class B Tourney where they ended up second. ', " That's quite a record for the place team in the Southern Division, but " J'-'"-T-' ""t it isn't surprising. The Buckaroos r?yz " ' 'j' "I are gaining a reputation as a "mo-I "mo-I ', -fv;" ney team." That is, they really f jf- come through when the chips are '"jf'f jhf': I on the table. The coaches call it Y'--i"i'- ?; ; ' ' ' :-j "tourney wise." Little North Sum-LXXjiiiui'AiJ Sum-LXXjiiiui'AiJ rnitt and Tabiona do the same thing year after year. It's a combination of effort, tradition, experience, plain guts and good coaching along with some individual ingredients that gets that result. No small amount of coaching is involved in Monticello's success. Ray Odette gets an incredible amount of mileage mile-age out of 150 pound tackles and 6-1 basketball centers. There's a lot of difference in winning games in your own back yard and winning games when all the marbles are at stake and you are 250 miles from home. San Juan and Monticello to the credit of the whole region did just that. , It may be some time before Moab can threaten the prominence of Uintah and Union in wrestling, but a start is being made locally. Coaches Ron Pierce of the junior high and Gene Leonard of the high "school are currently working with over 50 youngsters from the 4th, 5 th and 6th grades at the junior high. A half dozen of the better T-Birds and Red Devil grapplers are also helping. The program is getting an enthusiastic response. That many kids, or more, competed on the junior high school level this season so lack of numbers in the future should not pose a problem. Coach Del Ford of the Moab track team has a problem prob-lem with numbers. Moab has finished no worse than fourth in the state in the past four years and three times were above that rank. They did it with both quantity and quality. This year, they have some quality, but not enough men to actually field a competitive team for the big meets. Last year, I wrote a column pointing out the importance of one fifth place finish in meets such as the Mesa Invitational where a half point can mean the difference. The following week, Moab entered every kid who wanted to try in the meet. They picked up some surprising (to them) points. The final score: Moab 43 2 to San Juan 43. Some people won't compete if they are guaranteed first place. Some won't come out because they are not first team. Fortunately some kids love ,to compete at any level and they are the ones who give you the strength to win even more than the aces. |