St Joseph High School - Spires Yearbook (Oil City, PA)

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ROW ONE: J. Settlemire, B. Balcerek, A. Smith, S. Oliver, R. Dunrnire, C. Owens, T. Prorok, R. Carone, R. Fink. ROW TWO: W. Barrett, P. Lukasiak, J. Fink, A. Compagna, R. Rockefellow, C. Anthony, P. Prorok, J. Rybak, W. Hynes, P. Masson. ROW THREE: D. Hynes, J. Balcerek, managersg A. Masson, T. Long, G. McDonald, T. Hughey, T. Haslett, D. Shreve, J. Hartle, J. Cunningham, D. Sobina, P. Masson, Coach Zagorski. The 1957 football season may not have been a big success to St. Joe's players and their followers because we did not have a winning season. Naturally any team likes to win and this year's team was not an exception. The Irish, though they fought hard, could not seem to bring home a victory. In high school football or in any other field of competition we feel that winning is the all important thing. This is the wrong way of thinking. Maybe we don't see it the way we should while we're still in school, but in years to come we will realize our mistakes and be better people because of them. Sure it's great to be a winner, but we can't always be winners. We must realize that winning isn't everything. To be a winner is an achievement to be proud of if we win fair, but to be a good loser - to take it on the chin and still come back for more - is still a greater achievement. It's easy to be a good winner, but to be a good loser is a real test of character. The St. Joe's football team were good losers this year. They played hard and fought all the way. Though we did not have a winning season, it was a profitable year. It was profitable because we bettered ourselves both physically and mentally. We profited from experiences that will help us later in life. Football is an important part of our high school training. Win or lose we learned a great deal from football and other sports, but football especially. Football teaches us to use our brains as well as our bodies. We have to develop physically to be able to play this sport. Likewise we have to sharpen our minds to try to out-smart our opponents. Football is not all physical work. We have to be alert, we have to think every minute we are in the game. Playing football is a thrilling experience, one will always remember because we're out there using our individual talents in a team effort to conquer an opponent. We win or lose not because we are stronger or weaker, not because we're more talented or less talented, but because of all these things combined. Foot- ball is like our fight in life. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. Win or lose we come back for more! We never stop trying to win, to get ahead, to be better. Sometimes we make it, other times we fail. We learn from our failures. We don't like them, however, we take them unashamed. And we come back! We're proud to have played at St. Joe's, no matter what the record may have been. We owe a lot to football because it not only was fun to play, but also was very instrumental for our training in life. This past season was an experience we'll never forget. We who played football thank God for the gifts He gave us, so that we might play this sport. We thank Him for letting us be physically strong, mentally alert and closer to our friends, working with them as a team, knowing and understanding them better. We thank Him for giving us the opportunity to stand on our own two feet, to face a problem, a challenge. We thank Him that our school had football. We think we faced the problems and the challenge and in this sense--we won! We hope that St. Joe teams in the future will try as hard as the team of 1957. We know that if you do, good fortune is bound to come. But win or lose as long as you try your best, we, along with the rest of the alumni, will be behind you. We know what it is like to lose, but we also won in a more important game-- the game of life. You will too. 77

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P Masson J Hartle B F1nk A Campagna A Masson,B Carone B Balcerek B Hynes C Owens B Dunnure S Ohver Touchdown Bound Get Ready Andy To the left, Ank' 78