Northampton Area High School - Amptennian Yearbook (Northampton, PA)

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but Champions! Sfop pulling my leg! On Friday, January 30, perhaps The mosT imporTanT sporTs evenT oT The I958-59 winTer season in The Le- high Valley was held. Before The Lehigh VaIley's larg- esT scholasTic wresTIing crowd in hisTory - more Than IOOO aT NorThampTon - The KonI4reTe Kids ended AlIenTown's unbeaTen wresTIing sTring aT 4I, I8-I5. The KonkreTe Kids' Tive seniors in The middIeweighT evenTs swepT consecuTive decisions To overcome a I2- 3 deTiciT aTTer Tive bouTs. John TopTer, in aT heavy- weighT. held his opponenT To a decision To preserve The vicTory. The Tollowing weelc, The Kids IeTT no douloT as To The ouTcome oT The maTch, as They deTeaTed Emmaus 43-5, sweeping The TirsT Ten maTches. 'Again aT WhiTehaIl, The maTch remained inTeresT- ing unTiI The Kids' sTrong finish snowed under The Zephyrs, 40-IO. Winding up The league season, The Kids deTeaTed NazareTh 29-I I. SuranoTslcy coIlecTed his I3Th pin in I4 maTches. Rissmiller also chalked up a pin. Sieger Tinished The season 8-O-I and GonTar Tinished 9-O. boTh being undeTeaTed in league play. The Jay Vees, di- recTed by Lou Wolf, Tinished second in The league wiTh seven wins, one loss, and one Tie. IndependenT-wise, They won one and Tied one. Now came The Time Tor The DisTricT II champion- ships. IT was also Time Tor a comple+e collapse oT The page one hu KonI4reTe Kids. I-low iT can be explained is s+iII a mys- Tery. The downTaII was long in coming, louT when iT came. iT came wiTh a vengeance. There is one Thing ThaT perhaps aTTrilouTed To The collapse. The KonIcreTe Kids had Tew, if any. individual sTars. RaTher, They were a well-loalanced Team wiTh Tew wealc spoTs. DisT- ricTs is a TesT oT individual eTTorT, where The TarTher along a conTesTanT advances. The more he helps his Team. Only Sieger and GonTar were Top-raTed in The league. Sieger was upseT in The semi-Tinals, and Gon- Tar. hampered by a pulled muscle in his shoulder, was dumped in The Tinals. The Kids Tinished TourTh in disT- ricTs, wiTh AIlenTown winning. Summary NorThampTon OpponenT Pennsbury --, 29 I3 BeThIehem .. ,... 23 I9 Phillipsburg .v.,,,,. 33 IO Wilson Borough ,,,, 26 I9 I-Iill School ...., I3 28 EasTon .......... 33 IO SouThern Lehigh ,,,, 58 O AIlenTown -,-,,, I8 I5 Emmaus ,,,.. 43 5 WhiTehaII -,- 40 IO NazareTh ,H 29 I I WaITz me around again, MaTilda Chuss Takes on disTricT champ Todora from NazareTh. ndred Thirfy-Three -

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I- fatigued, bones and muscles sore, WRESTLHXIG IT The Lehigh Valley lnTerscholasTic WresTling League could give an award Tor The surprise Team oT The year, The prize Tor The l958-59 season would have To go To The grapplers oT NAJHS. Since The KonkreTe Kid grunT 'n' groaners had losT seven sTarTers Through graduaTion, They were noT even expecTed To be serious challengers in The annual race Tor The league Trophy. BuT The magic wand oT Coach Harry Wall, along wiTh a liTTle luck. a Tew surprises, and a Tew well-Timed pray- ers To The gods oT wresTling, Turned a supposed bunch of also-rans inTo The league champions, iusT as The pro- verbial pumpkin was Turned inTo a gilded coach. The l958-59 version of The KonkreTe Kids was unveiled againsT The Pennsbury grapplers December 9. Coming Trom a lO-2 deTiciT aTTer Three bouTs, The KonkreTe Kids rallied To win 7 oT The nexT 8 con- TesTs. Final score: 29-I3. Two nighTs laTer The Kids opened Their Lehigh Val- ley League season wiTh The Befhlehem Hurricanes. The Kids won only Tour oT eleven maTches, BeThlehem win- ning Tive and Two being draws, buT They managed To cop Three pins in Their Tour wins. The NorThampTon winners were Larry SuranoTsky, Freddie HeTTelTinger. Mike GonTar, and Tom Chuss. The Tinal score was 23-I9. NexT came Phillipsburg. NorTham Ton overwhelmed The STaTeliners by Taking Tour ouT oT The Tinal Tive bouTs. No, WucTa- iT doesn'T come off. page one hundred . Qu l was all Tied up in knoTs aTTer ThaT maTch, says John. Over The ChrisTmas holidays. The Kid grapplers re- ceived a holiday Trom school, buT noT Trom wresTling. They Traveled To HaverTord College and wrapped up The ChrisTmas Tourney aT ThaT spoT. AccumulaTing Twice as many poinTs as Their nearesT compeTiTor, The Kids Turnished Tive individual champions - Suranofsky. Heffelfinger, GonTar, Vogel, Chuss - and one runner- up - Adolph Ebner. The nexT vicTim was Wilson Borough, by a 26-l9 score. The Kids won six ouT oT The TirsT eighT bouTs. Dave Frey, subsTiTuTing Tor lrv Rissmiller, sick, pinned his man in Tour minuTes To spearhead The vicTory. Three days laTer. The KonkreTe Kids Traveled To PoTTsville Tor an exhibiTion maTch wiTh The Hill School. perennial EasTern UniTed STaTes prep school wresTling champs. The bouT ended wiTh The Kids on The shorT end oT a 28-I3 score, buT This Time The Tigures don'T Tell 'The True sTory. No less Than six NorThampTon boys losT decisions by spreads oT less Than Three poinTs. SuranoTsky. Sieger, and Chuss were The only NorTh- ampTon winners. January I5 came The TirsT oT The Two crucial maTches oT The league season. NorThampTon came Through wiTh a Tlare, winning a 33-IO decision from The EasTon Red Rovers. Trailing 8-5, The Kids rallied To win seven sTraighT bouTs. A breaTher came up nexT, as The KonkreTe Kids sTeamrollered over SouThern Lehigh 58-O. ThirTy-Two

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Sluggers, pitchers, fielders, and - Champions! NAJI-IS Opp. April I Cafasauqua 5 0 3 Coplay I4 9 7 F'arI4land I2 9 9 Allenfown 7 4 I3 Whifehall IO 7 I8 Slafingfon IO O 22 Lehiqhfon 8 4 25 Sfroudsburg 9 5 29 Cafasauqua I6 5 May 2 Emmaus 9 3 Palmerfon I3 4 Whifehall 5 4 From Iefl' 'ro righf are firsf row: D. Reenoclc, L. Shimoslcie, D. Vogel, W. Oplinger, W. Beidleman, J. 9 Marchak. second row: J. Kochenash, D. Vogel, M. Vefovifz, G. Kohler, S. Herschman, L. Lakafosh. I3 fhird row: T. Davis, B. McCarfy, B. Brownmiller, R. Silfies, T. Tanczos. fourfh row: G. Balfz, E. Daumer, M. Lisefslci, coach, W. Hummel, and D. Silfies. BASEBALL If was a raw day in March when Coach Milce Lisefslci gave his hopefuls fheir firsf once over, and if seemed fhen already fhaf fhe Kids would again be challengers for fhe league championship. I-le had Iosf only four regulars from fhe feam Ihaf finished second in I958. From fhe very sfarf, fhere was no doubf as fo fhe accuracy of MiI4e's esfimafe, The performance of his Kids. or fheir infenfions. The opener. an exhibifion game wifh Cafasauqua, was a shufouf for fhe Rough Riders. The same 'rreafmenf followed in swiff succession for Parkland, Coplay, Allenfown, and Whifehall. When fhe league season sfarfed, fhere was Iiffle difference. The Kids crushed Slafingfon IO-O in fhe opener. The resf were carbon copies: 'Ihere was no sfopping fhe Norfhampfon iuggernauf. The inevifalole happened, and fhe pennanl' came home fo Norfhampfon. If was a glad day for Mike, Norfhamp- fon, and fhe Kids - all champs! If was even more glad for Don Vogel - he found himself scoufed by fhe maior leagues. Bill Beidleman warms up before his opening game no-hiffer. Don Vogel pufs anofher one info orbil. Oplinger and Kohler olaligingly pose for an 'acfion sho'l'. page one hundred fhirfy-four