Long Beach High School - Echo Yearbook (Long Beach, NY)

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re-stling ORKING with what was a young and comparatively inexperienced group of boys at the beginning of the season, Coach Roy Illowit managed to turn the 1947-1948 mat season into one of the most successful that Long Beach has seen in many years with a record of four wins and six losses. The most consistent wrestlers on the squad during the season were Donny Taussig, Stan Rud- dock and the two graduating grapplers, Al Bomser and jack De Franza. However, it was in the post-season South Shore Class B Wrestling Championships that Roy Illo- wit's boys showed their real mettle. With a total of 63 points the Long Beach Wrestling squad took the class B South Shore Wrestling Championship by 8 points over our nearest rivals, the grapplers from Oceanside. In the 103 class, Paul Bedell reached the nnals on a bye, and pins in 4:25 and 3:14 over his opponents from Malverne and Lynbrook and took second place when Oceanside's Hull-Ryde pinned him in 3:02 in the finals. At 112 though we had no one in the finals, the consolation match involved two Long Beach boys, with Bill Kiernan tying Al Sutton for third place with the referees decision going to Kiernan. Long Beach took lirst and second position for 11 points at the 121 pound mark when Jack De Franza, in one of the best matches of the day, pinned his teammate Andy Segura at 7:37, for the first of Long Beach's 3 Class B championships of the night, and also won the Metropolitan A. A. U. meet in New York. The second championship was won by 128 pounder Stanley Ruddock, who put up his usual good show in registering his third decision and third pin of the tournament, a 4:22 pin of his Oceanside opponent. Though we took second place in the next four weights, Al Bomser's loss was very close and was a great match all the way, and the pin called against Hal Battani was a very poor call, and actually was not a legal pin. These 4 seconds netted us 16 points, At 165 pounds, Donny Taus- sig continued his winning way, taking a 5-0 de- cision over Nielson of Malverne, after a 5:21 pin of Burgner also of Malverne in the prelims, for our third championship.

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defeat at the hands of our ball-hawksi' to the tune of 38-30. The high point of the season was the teamis week-end trip upstate to Hornell, N. Y. This game gave Long Beach the opportunity to demonstrate the type of ball that had been con- tinually drummed into their heads all season long by Coach Bob Gersten. Although the club was not so confident as it had been in previous en- counters, a surprising brand of both ball-handling and team work, enabled them to come close to one of their biggest upsets of the season, and were it not for the poor officiating, the boys would have come back with a clean sweep of the series, and a psychological shot-in-the-arm. Despite this temporary setback, the team posted an easy victory over a much inferior Corning Squad. Coach Bob Gersten is the man who sweated it out with the team through all the joys and dis- appointments of a competitive sport that he him- self had mastered to a high degree, and is the only one who deserves both our sympathy and praise for the headaches suffered by a basketball coach. Working with what at the beginning of the season was a young and for the most part in- experienced team, he is to be highly commended for the good showing that the courtsters of LONG BEACH HIGH made .... This past season, team honors for high scorer went to Gene Carbona, who had a total of 146 points in 16 games, nosing out Wendell McPhee by 15 points. Gene was also the high individual scorer with. 19 points on two occasions. Bernie Fisher was third in the scoring race with 95 points. Gene Carbona, Billy Ryan, and Vinnie Klemmer, will not be back next season, but aside from the V. men that will be making the jump to the varsity, the team will be molded around Roland Perry, Donny Walters, and Bernie Fisher, Wendell McPhee, and John Nosworthy. Wendell was on the second string V. last year but showed great possibilities. This year he moved up to first string varsity and was one of the stead- iest men on the team. There is no reason why someone else should not duplicate his feat next year. Though next yearis team will miss Gene Carbona's fine play under the boards and Bill Ryan's great floor work, the future L. B. basketball picture still looks good.

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Girls' Sports 1947 saw many changes but one of the more noticeable was in Girls' Sports. Long Beach High joined the Long Island Girls Association and was offered the opportunity to participate in inter- scholastic events. The long bus rides when there weren't enough seats, the broken fingernails, the Senior trip with Aunt Clara CMiss Ditchikj and P0ky CSheila to a volley ball playday at New York University, the thrilling game in which the Seniors defeated Oceanside, the Boys' Basket- ball Cheering Squad, the candy canes at Mepham and our basketball playday at Lynbrook are the things the girls of Long Beach will not forget for a long time. Gym classes became more interesting and the girls took advantage of every opportunity to prac- tice their skills. The 5th period gym class was very pleased when they defeated the boys in a volleyball game and the Seniors of the second pe- riod class made a record in basketball. Because of the enthusiasm the girls showed new activities such as stilt walking, modern dancing and bowling were organized. To climax the Intramural activities and the Girls Athletic Association gave a banquet at which Long Island Girls Association awards were given out. Jeannette Romanescu earned a numeral and shield while the following Senior girls received a numeral, shield and letter, which were awarded on a point basis: Helen Andreoli, Florence Fischer, Sheila Kaminow, Joyce Rohr, Carolyn Salzberg. The highest award, a gold key, was awarded to Carolyn Salzberg. The singing of class songs and a guest speaker completed a very enjoyable eve- ning. These events were made possible through the combined efforts of Mrs. Propper and Miss Ditchik.