New Utrecht High School - Comet Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

Page 29 text:

harness, plus Pete Caldora, and that should be a sufiicient nucleus for another fine track team. FOOTBALL By KEN KRONMAN Along about the middle of this term, came the announcement that football was being suspended at New Utrecht. Natural- ly, this move was to cause a few irate individuals to beef vehemently, and clamor for its immediate return. However, the Health Education Depart- ment released a number of reasons for the shelving of football. The first and obviously the most important was the lack of G. O. funds needed to carry on the sport. The previous season showed a S350 deficit on the money returned by football. Secondly, the lack of aihome field, forc- ing the school to play its games at Brook- lyn College or Lincoln Field necessitated the payment of a sizable amount of cash for the use of these fields. Third, the mediocre caliber of recent teams forced a decline in attendance at the gate, and students began to assume an extremely indifferent attitude toward the sport. Coach Vifarchaiser has kindly offered his services to an intramural football program, but the success or failure of that program will rest on one thing: student support of other varsity sports. Track, basketball, and baseball may suf- fer the same fate as football unless this support is achieved. iVe repeat, intramural programs are de- pendent upon the success of the varsity sports, for it is only when the latter are successful, that intramurals can be prop- erly financed. DIAMOND DUST By BOB SPIRO Lenny Bernstein looked like a sure thing for the right field picket post, but, unfor- tunately, a pulled tendon in his right leg sidetracked him for the season. Bernstein managed to play in the final game of the season . . . Dodger scout Joe LaBate had a look-see at the Utrecht nine. LaBate had his good eye trained on hurler Joe Foppiani . . . Abe Bilder was an energetic bullpen catcher and should develop into Coach Felcher's number one backstop next sea- son . . . Itis quite unusual for a third baseman to bean a player but Captain Sol Fried- man accidentally beaned Larry Ciaffone sliding into the plate . . . A word of thanks to baseball managers Lombardi, Gulino, Varrone, and Bonne- quero . . . Joe Trotta, Utrecht's former all-scholas- tic shortstop, practiced with the team be- fore leaving for Quebec to start the sea- son there . . . Lou Trotta CJoe's brotherj and Joe Brancatelli shared duty around the key- stone sack. BASKETBALL By Mon ROKEACH Erasmus eliminated New Utrecht from a berth in the Divisional Championship playoffs for the second consecutive year, as Al Badain's scrappy Buff and Blue quintet came from behind to triumph in the closing minute of play, 45-43. The Green and White disregarding 3-1 odds, copped a thrilling 31-29 upset-Win in Madison Square Garden, December 20, thus avenging last year's triumph by Erasmus which also eliminated Utrecht as a championship contender. Spearheading the Green's attack was Captain Larry Jacobson whose 112 points enabled him to capture runner-up laurels in the scoring department in Brooklyn Division 2. i Utrecht suffered two crushing defeats at the hands of Madison. The initial con- test set a precedent in that it was the first sporting event in the history of the United States to be postponed because of an air raid alert. The alarm was a phoney but Madison's bombardment of the basket proved to be quite a reality. The Black and Gold tri- Twenty-Jevefz

Page 28 text:

facts about Mount Saint Michaels' phoney win in the Stuyvesant-Manual Meet. The Mikes had used an ineligible chap by the name of Kleist in the novice high jump event, which provided the Bronx School with the winning margin of vic- tory over Utrecht and Loughlin, dead- locked at twenty-two points apiece. At the P. S. A. L. Committee's hearing, these facts were unearthed and Utrecht was awarded first place over Loughlin on the basis of more first places. The big story in this meet was the one two three finish in the 60 yard dash with Wenger, Katzman and Friedman running in that order. This, if we remember cor- rectly our track history, marks a prece- dent. In the IC4A Metropolitan Champion- ships staged at the Coliseum, the lk mile medley relay of Wenger, Katzman, Grohs- berger and Badenhop, speeded to victory, but, unfortunately, in the IC4A's at the Garden in a special afternoon event for public schools, the usually reliable Grohs- berger dropped the baton, and this relay was beaten. In the Catholic Invitation meet, the identical thing happened to Wenger, and as a result, the Green and pt S3551 H ,:-. - 1 ,A V 'V , 'F ' - - , I -sl , . - E I N Xa : J! , E, L p , E. I 4 1 t I W - is .3 , ,,, I T I ljlili ,V,, . I ,i'i f White's 880 quartet was also trimmed. Following the pattern they set during the indoor season, the Utrecht trackmen swept their first three outdoor engage- ments, dual meets with Newtown, Lincoln, and Brooklyn Tech, by one-sided margins. In the outdoor curtain raiser on April 21, Coach Browne's cinder-ellas wrote a major accomplishment into the books Twenty-Jix when they trounced a highly-touted New- town foe, 65-48, at Elmhurst. The Newtown boys had been undefeated in a period of ten years in their own back yard, and their ego was considerably de- flated, when the Green and White Mercury- men started to get hot. Utrecht captured nine out of fourteen events, sparked by Justin Wenger, Charley Grohsberger and Captain Normy Katzman among others. Wenger ran away with the 220, clocked in 2228, and as evidence of his versatility, the lean Utrecht ace com- peted for the first time in actual compe- tion in the running broad jump. He fin- ished second, too, with a leap of 19 feet l01f2 inches. Charley Grohsberger, in the best shape he'd been in all year, won the 440 hands down in the time of 5125. Charley beat Modesto Sarno, Newtown's quarter mile ace in this event. Sarno, incidentally, finished third in the P. S. A. L. meet at the Garden during the in- door season. The other two meets were complete romps, Lincoln being tripped 53-41, and the Technical school flattened 69-21. At this writing, the Brooklyn, City and Novice Champs and the Brooklyn Auto- motive, Schenectady and Boys High meets are still to be held. Whatever the outcome of these meets fand they augur well to be hotly contestedi it should be reiterated that this has been a gala year for Ut- recht track partisans. This year, Captain Normy Katzman, Charley Grohsberger, Billy Williams, and Al Mancusi, to mention a few, will exit from these portals. Katzman has been a consistent performer all year, and a fine leader. We've already extolled Grohsberg- er's ability, and his fine comeback after a slow start in the indoor season. Wil- liams, perhaps the most under-rated man on the squad, has long merited verbal bouquets. The quiet self-effacing blonde sprinter has run brilliantly, and if not for the publicity that teammate, Justin Wenger has received Cand deservedly soj, Billy would be up there in the limelight. Mancusi has capably filled the shot put post which has long been traditional at Utrecht. Next year, Coach Browne will have Jus- tin Wenger, Eddie Friedman, Joe McClel- lan, Jack Badenhop and others back in

Page 30 text:

Umphed 37-29 and gave a repeat perform- ance on February 3, when it annihilated the Bensonhurst quintet, 40-19, at the Highwaymen's court. Jimmy Moscowitz's lads humiliated our twine-swishers by chalking up 30 points in the second half, while limiting the Green and White to a mere 3 points. Lafayette, playing inspired ball, led an overconfident Green and White contingent throughout most of the contest, before finally bowing to a more seasoned Utrecht quintet, 43-41 on February 20. Jacobson's 19 points paced the victors. However, the winning marker came on Bernie Sugarman's lay-up, after the lanky star sunk a pivot, tying the score at 40 apiece. Normie Mager, Lafayette forward, gave Utrecht partisans the jitters as he regis- tered 10 consecutive points in an unin- terrupted scoring splurge before being forced out of the game on fouls. Coach Ross' five then proceeded to romp over Lincoln, 64-34, in the season's finale. Highlighting the contest was Jacobson's scoring of 22 points, the highest totaled by a Utrecht player in a single encounter. Jumbo Stenzi successfully brought a four-year playing career to a close by tallying 17 points. New Utrecht's quintet terminated the season with a record of 7 wins and 3 losses, which gave it third place in the P.S.A.L. Division 2 standings. FENCING By GUNTHER WERTHEIMER The 1942 Fencing season was a bitter pill for the coach and the team alike. Although the season began auspiciously, Tw elziy-eight the championship hopes entertained by the squad did not materialize. It seems to us that the greater part of the blame for our low fifth place stand- ing must be absorbed by Captain Jerry D'Alessio and by the number two man, Philip Alba. A clean split of fourteen bouts for D'Alessio and eight losses and six victories for Alba certainly did not speak well for their prowess, although D'Alessio's second place in the City-wide champonships and both of them Form being invited to the Individual Champion- ships seems to point towards a different conclusion. Jack Oldstein with a record of just one defeat out of ten starts, showed a most commendable spirit throughout the season, together with Herbie Kaufman, Justin Cammaleri, and Mario Abatte. The first three matches with Clinton, Port Richmond and Lafayette were push- overs for the Green and White. However, these victories proved too much for the Utrecht fencers and over- confidence brought an ill-deserved defeat at the hands of Townsend Harris, at a score of seven to five. The following three weeks saw the Var- sity beaten by a strong Bayside aggrega- tion, seven to five, and a tie scored against the second team by the Bronx High School of Science. Lincoln's championship team scored an 8-4 victory in a hotly-contested battle as indicated by the individual 5-4 scores. The swordsmen wrote finis to the season with a 7-5 win over the second place Madison team. Mr. Mirelman's excellent coaching has readied next term's team in such a man- ner as to be fairly confident of success.