Herculaneum High School - Blackcat Yearbook (Herculaneum, MO)

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Freshmen B-Ball Row 1--L TO R--Don Thomas, Robert Dobbs, Curtis Shelton, Kenny Hill, Ray Beckett, Todd Donald, Lonnie Boyd ROW 2--Coach Franklin, Bubby Rose, Brian Sims, Jeff Brinkley, Brad Caby, Chad Neavill, Alan Jackson, Steve Naeger, Steve Thorp, Brian Stotler--Manager Y luv , dw 'S fe- -fs ew

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Under the direction of Mr. Bill Stotler, the 1975-76 Blackcats comprised a very impressive, and successful season, which seems to have inspired the basketball fans around Herculaneum High School. Six very talented seniors, and five dedicated juniors would develop into a team that would take both the conference and regionalrchampionships, and would be victorious in 23 of those 28 contests. On November 24, the 'blackcats showed the county a preview of the coming events by defeating Leadwood, decisively, 85-71, in the season's opener. The Hillsboro Invitational was next, and after two impressive victories, the Cats found themselves in the finals, facing their year-long rivals, the Hillsboro Hawks. The evenly matched teams battled for 32 minutes of play, to a 73-71 decision, that favored Hillsboro. December was good to the Blackcats, as victory after victory, proved the Cats to be a superior contendor. Such was the December 12 game, when the Blackcatsievened it up with the Hawks, beating them in the first conference game of the season, by a wide margin, 73-52. As 1976 rolled around, the Cats prepared themselves for their second trip to the Jeffco Classic. Through determined and inspirational play, the Cats were victorious in the first two frames of the tournament, but finals, again brought on a rematch with the Hawks. After a furious and hard fought battle, the Cats accepted a frustrating second place trophy. . . 55-52. ' Following a damaging conference loss to Northwest, 63-68, the Cats mounted a ten game win streak, which included victories over St. Pius, Crystal City, Windsor, DeSoto, and Festus, to keep the Cats in a tie for the conference title. For the second consecutive year, I-lerky entered the Festus Invitational tournament, and came away with the championship trophy,-1The final game of the tournament could not have befenlimore exciting if it had come from the pen of Clair?Bee. With only two seconds remaining to be played,31grQlQfSfq5j,Pius had a one point lead and the ball out of It seemed hopeless for the Cats, but the game yet! The inbounds pass was intercepted byQfa,'.Blackcat and shoveled toward the basket into the of No. 42, who went up for the shot as theghorn sounded. The referee signaled that the shot emerged with a 64- 63 title victory. On Friday, February 13, the Fox Warriors dared cross the path of the teams invisioning title dreams and having only one loss, Herky inflicted a 70-66 defeat on the?5Warriors and insured them- selves a share of the League Championship. . . A During the 1975-76 season I-Ierky encountered some powerful nonconference foes, including Eureka, Clayton, DeAndreis, and Flat River Central. , g -g Central proved to be the toughest. The Rebs posted a final 29-1 win-loss record and finished 3rd state tourney. They were to entertain the Catslon February 20 in what was to be a test of the areas 3AI and also serve as a tune up for the next weelfdsiiregional tournaments. The match proved to be all as the Rebs shot down the Blackcats 93 -79,wi'thja ,blistering 68M shooting effort from the floor. V, There were some gains made on February 20 asiFestus was able to upset Northwest in their conferencefinatdlif and allow the Cats to retain sole possession of first place in the conference with a nifty 7-1 recordrzgff rpirlfgg ff ir'. I fg The stage was now set for the upcoming regional tournament, in which the Cats were seeded first. In the opening round, the Stotlermen had little trouble with Perryville, defeating them 73-54, and handled the problems with Festus, in the Semifinal match, sending them to defeat 53-40. Herky now had only one obstical between it, and a regional championship, the l-lillsboro Hawks. It was a nip and tuck game from the beginning in which the outcome was favorable, Hillsboro got the second place trophy and the Cats ad- vanced into State play. The first round saw the Blackcats facing Luthern South, a strong mature team that was rated number one in the St. Louis area. Disaster struck, 'asthe Cats were defeated in a frustrating game, throughout which they had held the lead, until the last deciding minutes. A 63-55 loss closed the door on a very successful and impressive season for the eleven dedicated, talented and inspired 1975-76 Herculaneum Blackcat Basketball Squad.