Belleville Township High School East - Yearbook (Belleville, IL)

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THE StUOiHJM In each and every one of us is an animalistic desire. A de¬ sire to dominate another animal both physically and mentally. Modern society will not permit one to take out his frustrations upon another human being. Nowhere will society permit you to dominate another human, only in the world of sports. Football enables you to relieve your pent-up tensions by physically whipping your opponent. In each phase of the game there is violence. No one can quite understand the sa¬ tisfaction of whipping another person unless you are involved in the game. The game is eleven men with different aims striving for a common goal. DEFENSIVE LINEMAN It gives me a feeling of authority to crack an offensive back trying to run through my territory and not have him get up but to lie there, painfully, dazed at the intessity of the impact with which we collided. Finally, his eyes clear and he looks up at your number as you stand over him, and you know that he will regret seeing ti again. OFFENSICE LINEMAN My job is to punish the man across the line from me and put him out of the game - he and every other player they stick across from me. I am responsible for seeing the back reach his goal. DEFFENSIVE BACK A long run or pass can break a close game wide-open my responsibility is to prevent the other team from achieving this. I have an assignment on every play to cover a design¬ ated area of the field, I just protect this area any way I can. The most effective way known to me is to punish every in¬ dividual opponent who ventures into my territory. OFFENSIVE BACK The only possible way to win a game is to put points on the scoreboard. It is my responsibilty to see we get those points. I do everything I possibly can to reach the goal line. My ultimate goal is to see that everytime we maintain posses¬ sion of the football the offensive team doesn ' t come off the field until we ' ve scored. It ' s quite a challenge with eleven men on the other side of the ball, thier sole purpose is to stop me. I have my ten teammates to help me reach my goal and the game just comes down to who are the better men. The Common Goal of the Team. VICTORY: Victory through teamwork! Any person who gut¬ ted out 4 long yrs. of football will tell you there is nothing quite as satisfying as being together with the team, cele¬ brating victories, and enduring the defeats, not alone but together. The Belleville East Lancers, a past powerhouse in high school football, will soon be taking off the tag of Indepen¬ dent and join the tough Southwestern Conference. The Con¬ ference will be expanding to nine teams. Along with East, Lincoln and Cahokia also will be trying their luck for the first time. The other teams in the Conference are Alton, East St. Louis, Collinsville, Granite City, Belleville West, and Edwardsville. CAN FOOTBALL LAMCER5 AlflKE AT AN 5 Elf C ? The question now arises; Can the Lancers stay with the hard hitting teams of the SWC? The stadiums of the Conference have long been known as places to see a good hard hitting football game. This statement is proven by the fact that the number one teams in the area for the past two years have been members of the Conference. In 1970, the Alton Redbirds were number one. East played Alton in the final game of the season, and Alton squeaked by 22-20 in one of the most exciting games of the season. In 1971, the East St. Louis Flyers had the distinction of being number one. East did not play the Flyers. The strength of the SWC is also shown by the number of for¬ mer players from teams now in the Conference. When a college recruiter comes into the area he makes it a point to see the top SWC prospects in action. Some of these players are Bill Mauser of Missouri, formerly of Belleville West, Morriss Bradswhaw of Ohio State, who played high school ball at Edwardsville, and Gale Murphy from Drake, a graduate of Alton. Another former player now in the college ranks is former All- Stater, Tom Lang, from Belleville East. Tom is a soph¬ omore at Georgia Tech. , and although he hasn ' t played regularly he did manage to score five touchdowns and pick up a good amount of yardage. Greg Johnson is a player who has gone beyond the College ranks. Often called Grape Juice he was chosen in the re¬ cent pre-draft by the AFV Champion, Miami Dolphins. Greg played quarterback for the University of Wisconsin and be¬ fore that was a star at Lincoln. It is quite evident that the Lancers will have their work out if they expect to finish on top of the Conference but if past performance means anything they should be in great shape. Over their six year history they have posted an outstanding 47-10-2 record. In 1969, the Lancers were the number one team in the area while compiling a perfect 10-0 record. They have never finished below the . 500 perc ntage. In 1966 (the Lancer ' s first year of existence) they played to a 5-3-1 record with only sophomores and juniors. They have had an 8-2 record three times, which included the 1971 sea¬ son. The only team to beat East twice is Hazelwood whom the Lancers will paly in the first game of the coming season. The Lansers record against teams in the SWC is just as im¬ pressive. Overall they have compiled a 16-5 record. They have had their best success against Cahokia with a perfect 4-0 slate while Alton is the toughest team for Wast with a 1-1 record. Next season the Lancers will be playing Collins¬ ville and E. St. Louis for the first time. An oddity in East ' s schedule for the ' 72 season will be the playing of city rivals West and Althoff on successive weekends. Another first will take the Lancers to Parson ' s Field to take on Lincoln H. S. If there will be a weakness in the Lancer ' s lineup due to 14