Walt Whitman Junior High School - Pioneer Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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THE BASEBALL PLAYER With a scornful look on his young face, the baseball player struts contemptuously to the plate. His eyes narrowed with hate and disgust, he looks at the nervous pitcher as one looks at some insect or sub-human form. Not acknowledging the cheers of the hysterical crowd, he smirks as the pitcher throws three straight balls. Positive of his superiority, he permits a strike resembling a bowling ball pass down the center of the plate un- molested. He is ready now, and the blood-hungry crowd knows it. They lean forward apprehensively like vultures circling a dying man. The smile gone from his face, he looks at the pitcher as if to say, UCome on, busher, an- other grapefruittn The ball, now resembling a bullet in speed and appearance, is thrown. He takes a mighty swing, as if to put the ball in orbit. The en- tire assemblage is shocked to see a miserable bunt a few inches in front of the home plate. The batter exerts himself mightily to reach the haven of safety, first base, before the despised ball. By a streak of fortune the ball is overthrown and the batter confidently streaks to- ward second. But Lady Luck is fickle. The ball is hurled to- ward second base long before our jaunty athlete can reach the bag. Tagged out at second, a sadder but wiser athlete walks back to the dugout like a losing army general, to a chorus of rep- rimands from his team. 7 Theodore Weiss XLL X, ::- Ggwudl ff 5'

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WITH THE TEAM AT THE PLAYOFFS by Harry EITl The first playoff game was played at Midwood High School. Here our team came against an- other top rated team called Cunningham Junior High School. At the end of the first quarter, Cunningham was ahead by a very slim margin, but, by the half, we were well in the lead. Af- ter a good old-fashioned Brook- lyn basketball game, we came out the victors. Some of the more noticeable things in the game were that our team played a clumsy first quar- ter but came right back to show off our fine defense and excel- lent teamwork in the remaining quarters. Cunningham seemed to have a one man team with one man always taking the outside shot but was one of the fastest teams I have ever seen. Our ace rebounder and high scorer, Coak Cannon, led us to a well- deserved victory by scoring twenty-four pointsg Alan Perry, a fine defensive and offensive player, sparked the team with thirteen points. The final score was 59-41. The second playoff was again played at Midwood High School. This time we faced one of Staten Island's finest teams, Markham Junior High School. This game was a harder one for us for we encountered several players be- yond the six foot mark. Never- theless, our six-foot-three-inch center, Coak Cannon, controlled the center tap and the boards. In this game our good teamwork and superior defensive play pre- vailed. Fine ball-handling of our starting team helped us through the full court press many a time. Needless to say, the sweat and toil were well worth it, for we were on our way to the quarter finals of the borough championship. Our final game was played at the Brownsville Boys' Club Gym. Here we played against Sands Junior High School whose p1aY6rS were well over our height. Aft- er leading at the half, our team lost the game by the narrow mar- gin of three points. We were out of the competition but we were proud of our record. Coak Cannon was again one of the highest scorers and our man be- hind the scenes, Mr. Cassuto, coached a good game. With a coach like Mr. Cassuto and a team with unpredictable poten- tial, Walt Whitman can well be proud of its performance. MR. BEN CASSUTO- COACH MANAGERS SfanIey Bodzin 9-5 David Sackoff 9-5 AVG. TOTAL PER POINTS GAME Coak Cannon Ronald Tishkevich 267 13 6 Alan Perry 128 TOTAL Foul Shots AVG. POINTS Coak Cannon 0 Ronald Tishkevich 50? 33 Alan Perry 542 27 CHonor Rollb TEAM POINTS PER GAME Total l,I52g 53 points per game TEAM POINTS BY OPPONENT Total 6583 33 points per game TEAM RECORD I7 wins 3 losses Cone loss to last year's City Champs: Marcus, by two points.D Cone loss to this year's City Champs: Sands, by three pointsb Cone loss to J.H.S. 643 HIGH POINTS SCORED IN ONE GAME BY AN TNDTVTDUAL Coak Cannon--29 points Ronald Tishkevich--26 points

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HSPORTSH--FROM THE GIRLS' POINT OF VIEW Years ago it was considered absurd for girls to participate in sports, yet today girls are joining and winning contests in all phases of physical activity. Sports is especially popular among girls at Walt Whitman, largely because of the enthusi- asm of our gym teachers: Mrs. Nonas, Mrs. Bauman, and Miss Zuckerman. These highly capable teachers have organized and di- rected competitive games and ex- ercises in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. Girls are taught to compete in overtake, deck-tennis, volley-ball, punch- ball, relays, and squad games. In addition, they learn many types of exercises including push-ups, sit-ups, and thrusts. They take a PSAL CPublic School Athletic Leagueb test and must be able to meet qualifications. As the girls go through the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, they learn more about these ac- tivities. In the ninth grade, there is a special test given to check ability in the exercises learned to date. An important feature of the gym program is the yearly dance festival. This festival, held in May includes all grades. This year six dances were performed. They were the Russian Medly, Hap- py Polka Faida Blankita, Salty Bog Rag, Corrido and Hava Ne Gela. Costumes for each dance were ap- propriate to the type of dance and country from which each dance comes. The costumes were color- ful and typical of the nation from which the dance originated. Dancers included, seventh, eighth, and ninth graders. The dance fes- tival, directed and produced by Mrs. Nonas and Mrs. Bauman,proved to be one of the best auditori- um programs of the year. IL ' ,V.r,' ,fx, -fAfQg, www 4 7-.-,ye cZK.z ,,!g-'ZEXKJ A 0 Zi -fk-jx:-jk .-!k!,,xN' .A 'Rho'-DDA 628061, JM- gfpfk' The world of sports for girls does not end in the gyms alone. If we look around our city, we will see a large variety of op- portunities to practice physical skills as well as chances to learn new skills. Some favorite outside sports opportunities for girls are bowling, skating, horse- backriding, tennis, golf, volley- ball, punchball, and water sports. To all girls who have not al- ready joined the ranks of parti- cipators in the sports world, I can only say, HStand up and show the men folks you can do it! H Barbara Katz 77