Saint Michaels College - Hilltop Yearbook (Colchester, VT)

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At the final whistle the Squires were leading by 20 points, 71-51, and were going away. On the 22nd of january the Squires met Bur- lington YMHA in a return game and that tall group of tossers really pressed the hilltop quintet this time. Throughout the game they stayed within striking distance and only a sudden rally in the last minute gave the Frosh a ten-point mar- gin, 67-57. Tangling with the Norwich Frosh in the prelim to the varsity game, the Purple yearlings saw the chance to run up a score and took ad- vantage of it. Witli the second string in most of the last half they still managed to rack up a 72-40 win. In their second encounter with Rutland junior College the Frosh concentrated on developing a passing attack and, although they could have scored at will they eased up on their outclassed opponents, beating them neatly, 61-23. Vermont junior College came within 23 points of victory as they fioored a hard-fighting, never- say-die squad. They were after the ball every minute of the game, but after the first quarter their heads were spinning so from the passing ofifensive of the Squires that they were never a threat. The final score, 71-48. In the big Norwich gym the Squires found room to move around and they ran the Soldiers ragged. In this game they played one of their finest defensive games of the season. They held Norwich to 24 points while they were finding the range for 71. Vermont C. had another go at the Squires on the 16th of February, but were even less suc- cessful than the previous time. The Purple tossers ran up their highest score of the season, 83 points, and right from the start they made VJC wish they had never walked onto the court. The first half of the game against Middlebury at Memorial Auditorium was a nip-and-tuck battle but then the Middlebury team cracked. They be- gan to shoot off balance, to let the ball go from mid-court and to throw more passes to the Squires than to their own men. Final score, 66-44. In a brilliant 75-53 defeat of the Vermont Kittens, the Squires wound up an undefeated season. Their fast style of play and their excel- lent passing attack wore Vermont into the boards early and they maintained control of the game throughout. Bob Kateley was the season's high scorer with 223 points, followed by Farley, the sparkplug of the team, with 124. These two boys and perhaps some of the others will see considerable action with the varsity next year. Their scoring punch will add strength to a strong club. l Y l

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Frosh Basketball l FRESHMEN BASKETBALL Kneeling L-R.-Siroco, O'Connell, Kateley, Bogan, Catina. Standing-Flynn, Managerg Stapleton, Farley, Brunton, Duffy, Vrooman, Provost, Guter, Coach. FTER having had a successful football team the Frosh came up with an equally success- ful basketball squad. Under the watchful eye of Coach Steve Guter, the team improved with each game. Despite their lack of height they came through time and again against taller opponents, due mainly to the backboard play of their springy guards. Led by the slick ball-handling of jim Farley and the sharpshooting of Bob Kateley, Pete Meurer, jim Duffy and joe Brunton, the Frosh got ,off to a fast start and clinched the Vermont State Freshman Championship early. The initial game of the season was experimental all around as Coach Guter juggled his squad fre- quently, looking for a smooth-working combine. The Burlington YMHA made a good game of it but the Frosh outclassed them, 48-36. Apparently Steve found the right combination in the RIC game for the Squires ran away with it, 72-33. It was in this contest that Bob Kateley and Jim Farley established themselves as the stars of the team. In the next game they met a team that towered over them on the floor but not on the score. Burlington YMCA had some boys on the court who at times showed flashes of brilliance and in the opening quarter they looked as if they might give the Squires their first drubbing. However, they could not match the speed of Farley and Co. and were outscored, 67-46. The Vermont Kittens, who had beaten every- thing in sight up to this point in the season, fell prey to the classy SMC yearlings, 60-39. With an amazing passing attack and some excellent play under the baskets by Kateley, the Squires soon proved that they were not to be denied. Traveling to Middlebury, the Squires over- turned the applecart on that squad also. The boys in blue played a good, fast game but even so, they could not catch up to the Purple cagers.

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l-lockey HE Vermont weather seems to have had some- thing against the St. Michael's outdoor ath- letic teams over the past two seasons. Not only was it necessary to cancel the majority of the games on last season's baseball schedule because of cold, wet weather, but it was also necessary to cancel the ski meets during the Winter Car- nival this year because there was, of all things, no snow. But even more strange, most of the hockey team's schedule had to be cancelled because it refused to get cold. Imagine, in Vermont it refuses to get cold enough to freeze ice. The upshot of all this is that St. Michael's hockey hopefuls were unable to get in any practice sessions so that when they did take the ice against some foe, they were playing together for the first time. Naturally they were not what one would consider successful, but under the circumstances they acquitted themselves admirably. We used to laugh, but when you stop to consider it, it is really heartbreaking the way those boys flooded and shoveled, flooded and shoveled, flooded and shoveled, in order to get out on the ice and represent their college. Training began shortly after the football season ended and instead of skating 10 laps Coach Bill Piscione had the boys out running their excess weight off. Expecting freezing weather at any moment the squad continued to run daily, it's a wonder they could move when they finally did get a little ice. A six game schedule had been arranged but the first game against Clarkson was postponed be- cause of the warm January weather. fln Cali- fornia they were freezingj When the team finally did take the ice against Norwich on the 14th of january, they put up a hard Hght but they were defeated, in a free scoring affair, 13-7. That was one of the characteristics of the games they did manage to get in, they were free scoring from start to Hnish. The unfortunate part of it was that St. Michael's could never seem to get on the long end of the score. On February 2 they met Norwich again and this time our pucksters managed to come closer to victory, showing that they had improved. They scored the same number of goals, 7, but they held Norwich to 11. Norwich saw which way the wind was blowing and refused to play a third contest. The University of Vermont would not come onto the ice at all with our boys, claim- ing final exams and vacations as reasons for not meeting their schedule.