Samuel Gompers Vocational Technical High School - Artisan Yearbook (Bronx, NY)

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season, but inspired by the splendid coaching of Mr. Landis, we played air tight ball for the rest of tl1e year and copped theesecond straight championship. That was the tightest spot any of my teams ever got intof, And so, with these reminiscences, our grand coach and teacher Mr. Landes left us. Your two reporters also say farewell with the hope that last year's defeats will be erased by future victories. William La Calmniw Ellis Mastel OH the Wal How many schools could put out a handball team, on two weeks notice? Gompers did it, and won the Bronx-Manhattan championship as well. It seems like only yesterday when Coach Welson weeded out of ninety contest- ants a star team consisting of La Manna, Byrnes, Byko, Kahn, Denowitz, Lupo, Arkin, Davidson, Braunstein, Arvay and Bobbin. Remember how Vincent Lupo set the pace in singles with an unblemished record of five victories and no defeats? His drastic ukilln shots drove his unlucky opponents frantic trying to return them. Following right behind were La Manna and Byrnes, ace doubles team. Equipped with a dazzling repertory of angle shots as well as the uncanny ability to return practically everything, these boys maneuvered the opposition around in every game they played until they could put the ball away for the point. This season Mr. Bertisch has taken over the coaching position. He still has vet- erans Byrnes and Kahn. These wto will be the nucleus of the handball stars of to- morrow. Assisting Mr. Bertisch will be the retired champ La Mauna. We seniors wish the future teams nothing better than the same plucky spirit of the past stars. Good Luck. Alfred Cosentino Edward La Mauna

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Batter Uh! Oli! Fellows. Hold everything! Here comes Coach Landes with a few words for our book. 'ln my opinion. explained our genial coach, uthe reason why our teams did so well in the P.S.A.L. league was because ofthe boys' splendid res- ponse in attending each and every practice session and because of their outstanding school spirit. They play as, one big nucleus and above all, they have real native ability. I recall a little incident which will prove my point about school spirit. In the championship game against Brooklyn automotive we had many a tense moment. With the score tied flve to five going into the beginning of the seventh Brooklyn scored four runs to put themselves out in front. Our team felt downcast., but did not give up, because it had a lot of that fine school spirit in its blood. We came to bat in the last half, banged out a pair of doubles and with the aid of three walks and a timely single. managed to tie the score. At this point the game was called on account of darknescs by the three umpires in charge of Vocational activities, and both schools were declared co-champions of the Vocational League. Vocational students can never be ball players. 'fhat was the taunt which our opponents usually cried. but Gonipers standing for what it does. made them swallow their words. 'l'hc first year we put out a softball team we ran away with all ho11ors by cap- turing not only the Bronx and Manhattan championship, but also the Vocational City championship in a final play off with Queens Vocational by a score of 9 to -1. 'l'hat year we turned out one of the best softball pitchers in the Vocational League. This hurler not only pitched five shutouts, but allowed an average of only 1.3 runs per game. We refer to the long to be remembered Aureama. Playing alongside were the slugging stars Orlando and Larken whose dangerous and consistent hit- ting really brought the bacon home to Gompers. Gompers scored again for the second straight year with another crackerjack tcam composed of veterans. We learnt what it means to lose the first game of the

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