Ranchester High School - Rustler Yearbook (Ranchester, WY)

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A REVIEW OF THE BASKETBALL SEASON The Ranchester Rustlers enjoyed a reasonably successful basketball season this year, winning twenty of the thirty games they played. They played their first game of the season at the Clearmont tournament on Decem- ber 10th. In the first round they defeated Buffalo 29 to 14. This win moved them nto the semi-finals against Clearmont in what was probably the best game of the tour- nament. Clearmont had to come from behind in the last quarter to take a 23 to 17 vic- tory. In the consolation play the Rustlers topped Arvada 26 to 10 and moved on to take third place as they breezed by Dayton 38 to 17. The Rustlers corraled the Big Horn Rams as thev took their first conference game 26 to 21. In their next game the Rustlers (and I doubt if many people thought they deserved the name after this game) went down to their most humiliating defeat of the year. An inspired Dayton team led by Jimmy Mock defeated them in a one-sided game 39 to 27. The Alumni showed the Rustlers a few new tricks when they took a 30 to 26 decision from them during Christmas vacation. The Rustlers started off on the wrong foot in their first game of the New Year by letting the Clearmont Panthers claw through their defenses to take a 32 to 28 victory in a game that had everyone biting their nails. H’m, seems to me Ranchester’s not doing so well, lost four out of eight so far. Well, maybe they'll do better in the next paragraph. The Rustlers had to come from behind to topple the Dayton Elks at Dayton on the 12th of January. Going into the fourth quarter Dayton led 30 to 25 but the Rustlers managed to score 11 points in the last quarter, while holding the Elks scoreless. Arvada was the Rustlers' next victim, leaving the floor on the short end of a 40 to 26 count. The Busby Indians came down to try the Rustlers on January 18th. Things went along smoothly during the first quarter for the Rustlers as they piled up a 22 to 2 lead. The Indians had had a sly smile on their faces all this time and during a time out Bobby Lyman was heard to exclaim. “I think those darn Indians are just fooling around.” Everybody laughed and someone patted him on the back and reassured him the game was in the bag. About this time Busby opened up, and with the aid of some tricky pass- ing and fancy shooting scalped the Rustlers 48 to 45. On the 21st of January, the Rustlers turned in what was probably their best per- formance of the year, when they skinned the strong Upton Bobcat team 44 to 26. Ran- chester controlled the ball throughout the entire game; they worked their plays with near perfection and rarely missed a shot. The Rustlers branded the Rozet Mustangs with a 36 to 22 defeat for their next victory. Then taking a three-day trip through Rozet. Upton and Moorcroft, again corraled the Mustangs with a 39 to 12 victory. The next night they lost a heartbreaker to Upton 27 to 26; although the game was rough, very few fouls were called. In the last game of the trip the Moorcroft Wolves were roped and tied down with a 38 to 19 defeat. The Rustlers traveled to Big Horn on the 1st of February and after a hard fight penned the Rams up for the night 36 to 26. Hulett had the misfortune of meeting the Rustlers in a bad mood and suffered a 44 to 23 defeat. This marked the eighth conference win for Ranchester. For their next game the team traveled into Montana to meet Lodge Grass. Playing without the aid of Dale Schilling, regular forward, and not having any teamwork, they went down to defeat by the lop-sided score of 40 to 21. The Moorcroft Wolves were next to fall before the Rustlers' attack, on the 11th of February, by a score of 44 to 17. The Lodge Grass Indians came skulking out of Montana with tomahawks in hand and returned with a 36 to 31 victory a few days after the Moorcroft game. On the 18th of February, one of the largest crowds ever to witness a basketball game here saw the Clearmont Panthers earn a 43 to 39 victory from the Rustlers. The game was one of the hardest fought of the season and the result was ever in doubt until the final gun sounded. In their last conference game of the season the Rustlers downed an improved Arvada team by a score of 14 to 32. Then in their final game before the district tournament the Rustlers topped the Sheridan Colts with a 42 to 41 victory. 19

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CLASS PJLAY STUNT NIGHT STUDENT COUNCIL 18

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REVIEW OF TOURNAMENTS At 10 o’clock on Thursday morning, March 13, Ranchester played their first game in the Powder River District Tournament at Casper. The game was with Big Horn and was close throughout. Although the Rustlers managed to eke out 32 to 30 win, they looked very poor. The game featured bad passing, fouling and general poor playing. Both Kramer and Tschirgi of Ranchester and Van- denberg of Big Horn fouled out. This win moved Ranchester into the semi-finals along with Upton. Although the Rustlers played a better brand of ball in this game they showed little spirit until the final three minutes when they were trailing eight points. At this point Upton went into a stall and for the first time the Rustlers showed some real fight. Stealing the ball time after time they narrowed Upton’s lead to one point. With 17 seconds remaining Norris of Upton fouled Tschirgi giving him one shot. “Say,” said someone in the crowd, “this could send the game into overtime.” “What,” exclaimed his friend who had seen Tschirgi shoot before. “He can’t even see the bas- ket, let alone hit it.” But this writer thinks he must have had a general idea of where it was because he did hit the backboard! The next game for the Rustlers was in consolation play when they won an easy victory from the Moor- croft Wolves 48 to 24. This win enabled them to play Big Horn for third place. As it turned out the game was nearly a repetition of the first with the Rustlers coming out on top 31 to 30. Although the Rustlers did not play the ball of which they are capable, several players were named on the honor squads of various papers. In the SHERIDAN PRESS. Douglas McLean was named as first team guard. Dale Schilling as second team forward, and Bob Lyman and Tschirgi received honorable mention. The Casper Tribune named Bob Lyman as first team guard and Dick Kramer and Arnold Tschirgi received honorable mention. McLean was second highest scorer in the tournament with forty points. The Rustlers journeyed to Laramie on the fifteenth of March for the state tournament. In their first game they met the Mountain View Buffaloes who were rated as one of the four top teams in the B division and who eventually ended up with third place. The Buffaloes put up a zone defense which the Rustlers hadn't the opportunity of working against. This got them off to a slow start and they never managed to head the Buffaloes, who won 30 to 27. The next and last game for the Rustlers was against Shoshoni who won handily 37 to 21. Although the score wouldn't indicate it. the Rustlers played a fair game but could not connect with the basket as time after time they missed close in and lay up shots. McLean topped Rustler scorers with 25 points for the tournament. STATISTICS AND COMMENTS ON PLAYERS AND NEXT YEARS TEAM The Rustlers scored 12C8 points in 30 gamess for an average of 42.2 points per game while holding their opponents to 814 points for an average of 27.1 points per game. Douglas McLean was the Rustler’s highest scorer with 310 points. Arnold Tschirgi committed the most fouls. 84. and missed the most free-throws. 57. Following are some adjectives that have been Reed—steady and dependable Schilling—consistent and ready Lyman—snappy and agile Kramer—alert and clean Portwood—powerful and enduring Fiedor—persistent and speedy sed in describing individual players: Fackcnthall—enduring and accurate Kawulok—steady and dependable Tszhirgi—slow but sure Melton—obedient and persistent McLean—aggresive and accurate McStay—clear visioned and fighting “THE JUNIOR RUSTLERS The Junior Rustlers had a poor season this year. We only made one triumph the whole season but this was better than the football team did. We played Dayton, Big Horn, Monarch, Busby, Holy Name, Lodge Grass and Wood- land Park during the season. In spite of the defeats, we feel we all improver and we of the eighth grade are anxious to get onto the high school team next year. Our fastest game was when we played Big Horn. From the start it was very close. The score at the half was 3 to 6 in favor of Big Horn; at the third quarter it was 9 to 7, Big Horn’s favor. With 22 seconds to go, a free throw was made and the final score was 10 to 11 in favor of Ranchester. Due to financial difficulties, we didn’t participate in the tournament at Buffalo. —By David Hallowell and Don Kramer 20