St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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should gravitate to the ice sport rather than the court game. However, the indoor game attracted the veterans of preceding years and a few newcomers who more than made up in enthusiasm what they lacked in ability. Prior to the official opening of the hoop campaign, our prospects for a successful season were dealt a serious blow by the loss of Fr. Collins who had been chiefly re- sponsible for the organization of Basketball at St. Sebastian's on a major sport scale. We were fortunate, though, in being able to offset the loss by the acquisition of Reverend Iohn P. Redding as coach. Fr. Redding in his pre-Seminary days, had played the game extensively in school-boy and semi-pro circles, and was eminently qualified to teach us the fine points of court play. Practice sessions under our new mentor began long before Christmas, but it was not until after the holidays that we took on our scheduled opponents. We opened against the neighboring St. Columbkille's quintet which was expected to be an important factor in Catholic League competition of1945. During the first half we managed to match our rivals point for point, but shortly after the inter- mission they pulled ahead and led us 28-21 at the final whistle. The result was un- satisfactory ofcourse, but Fr. Redding found consolation in the 'play-making abilities of Dan Sullivan and Dick Tonner, and also in the promise shown by Hilton Collupy, a freshman. This contest also served to demon- strate to us the importance of free tries, for St. Columbkille's could lay their victory and we could attribute our defeat to that de- partment. Our second outing also took on an un- favorable aspect when we were forced to submit to a 36-22 defeat by Belmont Hill. Our boys did well enough, but they were not able to cover adequately the omnipresent Nemrow who scored almost half of Belmont's total. Our weakness in foul shooting had been remedied since our initial appearance, and the play of Sullivan, Baker and Dermody was outstanding from the Red and Black point of view. The progressive development of our hoop- sters finally paid dividends when we were able to register clean-cut decisions over our next two adversaries, Sacred Heart of Wey- mouth and Rivers School. The Weymouth lads found themselves completely outplayed and their coach paid tribute to the work of our Herb Baker and Dick Tonner, who were the chief basket-makers in our 27-12 triumph. Against Rivers it was Dan Sullivan who found his eye and registered 20 of our 29 point total. The former Andover boy had a field day and his efforts were notably abetted by the general court-work of Frank Dermody and the defensive play of O'Leary and Collupy. - As The Arrow goes to press, the Red and Black still has the greater part of its season to complete, and is looking forward to meeting Cambridge School and Middlesex both at home and abroad, and also to return engagements with Belmont Hill and Rivers. If their work in the last two games is any criterion, we may expect our quintet to garner the lion's share of the spoils and compile an impressive record for the cam- paign. b

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RIGHT ABOUT THERE Father Redding adds il fine point to Sull's technique THE BIG FIVE Cllemfifzkg Cfofkzwi fel Tonner Sull ivan H. Baker De rmod y Col l LI py

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x 9 4 5 JTJ, Nil.-- gr. if J SAINT SEBASTIAN'S did not enter into hockey competition until the winter of 1943-1944, which marked our Junior year. Candidates for the team reported to Coach Murphy shortly before the Christmas recess, and the turn-out was approximately 25 boys. Dan O'Brien who had been the motivating force behind the new project was appointed cap- tain. Our preliminary training was done in the gym which adapted itself nicely to the practicing of marksmanship. At long last outdoor ice became available during the holidays and we were fortunate enough to have the Angel Guardian rink placed at our disposal. Daringly enough it was decided that we should enter the newly-formed Catholic Hockey League which was to play its games at the Boston Skating Club. The league was to be a six-club circuit and we were to be in the company of Malden Catholic, St. Patrick's of Stoneham, St. Mary's of Waltham, St. Clement's of Somerville and Mission High. We were not entirely inexperienced when we faced off against St. Mary's on the league- opening Saturday night. We had a few practice games under our collective belt and these had resulted in rather easy wins. The sextet that wore the Red and Black against the Waltham entry was made up of Phillips, Slattery and Mulhern in the forward line, Captain Dan O'Brien and Jimmy Collins at the defense posts, and Paul McGrath in the net. It may have been that the indoor rink was an unfamiliar setting for our lads, or that the enthusiastic crowd disconcerted them- but, whatever the reason, our debut was not a brilliant success but a reverse that was recorded as 2-O. Analyzing the defeat, the coach attributed it to the inability of our forwards to lift the puck and wing it past the goalie. The following week brought us back to the Skating Club with the determination to redeem ourselves for our poor showing of the previous Saturday night. Our foe this time was Mission, and we skated on to the ice with one change in our line-up, Hank Barry replacing Slattery. We found the Roxbury lads rather weak and our forwards were able to turn on the red light practically at will, amassing ten points to Mission's none. Our first real test came on January 29th when we were introduced to Malden Catho- liC's icemen. We managed to get the jump on our Fellsway rivals in the second period when Hank ragged his way solo up to the mouth of the net and blazed the puck past the guardian. From that point on we had all we could do to keep up with the foe for they had the edge on us in reserves and made frequent substitutions. They caught us at last, however, just before the end of the game, passing Paul McGrath to dent the strings and earn a l-1 tie. The tempo of our next contest was just as fast and furious, for we were paired up with St. Patrick's of Stoneham, as rugged an outfit as any sextet in the league. Both sides skated rather warily in the opening minutes fthe Stoneham boys had heard of our 14-O win over Browne and NicholsD but the Northern- ers turned on the heat towards the end of