St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1909-03-24
IN Answer to Goddard.

EDITOR CALIFORNIAN
M behalf OF the st. Johnsbury
,oodemy basket ball team l make this
rsnIv in your columns to the statements
'If MANAGER Wellman of the Goddard
taom which appeared in the St. Johns
bnrv papers a week ago and also in a
$3.50 ;ssue of the Boston Globe. 1t is
w.. that the St. ]. A. five are claiming
No "prep" school championship of
Vermont, owing to their excellent
.,,ord for the season just ended. God
Iord disputes this claim, saying that
etL A. played only two really strong
.4ao,ns away from home and lost both
,es It is fact that Goddard lost
60 Games to teams not even in the
.hampionship race, namely, to Brad
f,.a Academy at Bradford and to the
v,,cans of Barre. notice that through
.o,,e way or other the defeat at Brad
ford was not mentioned in Goddard's
list of games in the Boston Globe while
.a.c;aI mains were taken to mention the
dafsat of Bradford at Barre. St. J. A.
hoe a clean-cut victory over Bradford on
4to Iotter's floor. Mr.. Wellman states
t th People's Academy and Spaulding
II : have victories over St. J. A. Even
f this is so, a glance at the total scores
made by St. J. A. against these two
taao,s in two games with each of them
iii show the St. Johnsbury team SUI
narior TO either of them. When the
Rcademy team doubled the score on
Sounding H. S. at st. Johnsbury, the
idraI five was in the poorest condition
= was in during the season, while in
the came at Barre, st. ]. A. was far
below her usual form, not having played
a came for three weeks, and also one
of her PLAYERS was laid out for half an
hour. requiring medical aid.
On Feb. 2 Goddard came to St. Johns
hurry with the idea of wiping the local
on;ntet off the map. The visitors had
their own referee, played their own style
If rules and their strongest lineup, not
70 mention the fact that the game was
nIaved on what is considered the best
haskell ball floor in Vermont. AS side
note two of Goddard's players were
brought up on this floor, yet st. ]. A.
won the game on her merits by score of
081S Mr.. Welman claims that the St.
Iohnsbury team constantly refused to
0lay a return game in Barre. This is an
absolutely false statement because the
st. Iohnsbury manager tried several
times to arrange game at Barre but
was unsuccessful, owing to the refusal OF
Goddard to play or to objections of the
faculty. can honestly say that it was
great disappointment both to the st.
Johnsbury team and to the public, as
WE'LL that second game could not be
played. And yet, after their victory at
St. Iohnsburv, where conditions were
equal, it did not seem necessary that st.
l. A. repeat her performance elsewhere.
In that game st. ]. A. showed herself to
be a better team than Goddard, and, as
no arrangement was made earlier in the
season for series of games, it seems
that Goddard lost her right to the cham
pionship by that defeat.
Inotice that Goddard claims to have
lost but one game out of fifteen. | am
positively certain that her record should
be won -, lost 4. Aside from the three
defeats above mentioned, to Bradford, to
St. Johnsbury, and to the Vulcans, Cod
dard met defeat at Burlington by score
of LOG, although. she ingeniously con-
verified this defeated into 20 victory in
her list of games. Since St. J. A. won 8
out of II games, her percentage is great
a than that of Goddard. Goddard says
we have played weak teams. | venture
that we have played no team so mex
perienced in the game as the Italian A.
{. that Goddard defeated 600, with
apologies to the |. A. c. and | claim
that St. ], A. played just as hard games
as Goddard.
From these statements the public can
see the position in which Goddard Sem
mary and St. Johnsbury Academy are
placed regarding the state championship
and think that the people will see that
St. !. A. is Justly entitled to that honor.
1t is regretted that st. ]. A. was forced
to make these disclosures, but such re-
marks as the Goddard manager made re-
garding the st. Johnsbury team could
not go unanswered.
WILLIAM GIBSON,
MnnaOer- ST Team