Thornridge High School - Piper Yearbook (Dolton, IL)

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ilk, it :rt fill' Q ilfi x ll 'r , 'tix Wi r It ,V rg lw.qrg:.'r Y li9'lWii:ilwr lellwww A li:,lilrlf'fVWuxi X M ww :tif l z iw ll we ,l gl, Right: Lamen Adams, the football team's leading rusher, tries to escape the grip of a possible tackler. Above: Using perfect form, Kay Nee- dles demonstrates thal hard work pays oft. Sports 12

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Pain, practice P0S 'Ve T ...2t..i.1...Wewon! The long hours of hard work finally paid ott. But it ywasn't whether weywon or lost, it 'truly was how T we played the game. The sense ot camaraderie gained by team- work held tast through thick and thin. 'Teamwork was an essential part of volleyball. lt enabled us to work together and compete against teams with a higherlevel of skill than ours, said, Paula Bentley, sophomore. g What looked easy from the ,stands didn?t,teel too natural toftired, aching muscles. Posi- tive spirits and exhausted bo- dies returned to practice every day to sharpen the edge. srifififhey often yeyig y, ',Nolpain4l no gainf Practice was sometimes torturous, but the thrill of wir 120 Sports Sem' ninglgpulled us through, said Rich Whittington, senior. lt wasn't just the club mem- bers who put in long hoursg athletes were rotten here until 6 or 7 at night, striving for per- fection. The coaches didn't go home either. They guided their teams and worked with them until everything was just right - then they worked some more. Athletes are a special breed: when you think theyfre through achieving they do bet- ter iust to surprise you, said Coach Al Hutt. When the long strenuous seasons werelfover and the Nikes were thrown into the closet for another summer, we feltexhllarated and were titled with! .il. , r s -- just a little more pride.

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3 lead team to 18-11 he Falcon batmen ended their season with a record of 17 wins and 11 losses before los- ing thier first regional game to Tinley Park. We had a young team so our underclassmen got the chance to gain varsity expereincef' commented Coach Wally Shatkowski. A bright point of the season was that the Falcons, consist- ing of 8 seniors, 9 juniors, and 2 sophomores, beat every team that they played at least once with an exception of Thornwood. We all played to- gether and no one tried to be the hero. We wanted to win as a team, stated Mike Small, junior. Selected to the all-confer- ence team were Captain Mike Top: Assistant Coach Al Budding of- fers his advice to Mike Small Middle: Tim Zackavec was one of the two sophomores on the varsity team. Above: Freshman Pete Quirk makes a good play at shortstop. 122 Baseball record Koontz, senior, Steve Straka, senior, and John Garcia, ju- nior. Awarded all-conference honorable mention were Will Svilar, senior, Tom Spence, senior, Mike Small, junior, and Edgar Anderson, sophomore. Koontz, Spence, and Straka were also selected by the SICA East coaches to partici- pate in the senior all-star game. Leading the team at bat was Anderson with an average of .47O. Garcia j.308j, Koontz j.447j, and Svilar j.378j also performed well. The batmen ended with a conference record of 7-5. The sophomores' record was 16- 11 and the freshmen were 14- 12 9 fi rlrri Above: Varsity Baseball: Front Row: Tom Frazier, Tim Zackavec, John Garcia, Edgar Anderson, Jim Banasiak, Clearts Boyd, Angelo Car- lomangog Row 2: Tom Spence, Ken Poison, Scott Vasquez, Jim Nelson, Mike Koontz, Mike Griffin: Back Row: Coach Wally Shatkowski, Will Svilar, Steve Straka, Eric Pfister, Mike Small Joe Janz, Coach Al Budding