Evening star., 1939-01-15
Western, Roosevelt,
Tech Packed With
Power for Race
Lincoln Porkers Depend
On Transferred Stors
For Title Defense
BY GEORGE HUBER.

BY GEORGE HUBER.
Eastern's cage team, refuge for
three of last years scholastic stars
who transferred from other schools,
figures prominently in champion
ship predictions as seven public high
schools announce themselves ready
for the title race, starting Tuesday.
1t must contend with power
packed squads from Western, Tech
and Roosevelt, but in answer it can
fire back with Bob Custer, Bat Bat
tiste, Lenny Mills. Howard (Soup)
Hancock and three or four other
well-seasoned players. OF that list,
only Hancock is a native fastener
and member of last years cham
pionship team.
Custer, all-high last year with
Western, recently transferred to
Capitol Hill and will be eligible Feb
ruary l. Battiste shifted from ST.
Johns city champions and Mills
is a tall player from Tech. All will
get starting positions with Eastern
as it goes after its fifth title in six
years.
Eastern Perfects Team Play.
Johnny Mcbride, making his de-
but locally as coach, apparently
had a squad of individual stars
when the training period at East
ern opened. Last Friday against
St. Johns he proved. however, that
he had whipped them into a
smooth-working and fast team that
should be able to match anything
offered by other schools.
A pleasant note of sentimentality
is injected into the opening cere-
monies Tuesday as Anacostia, max
ing its initial start in the cage title
race. in it's being permitted to play
on its own floor against Central in
stead of at the new Eastern gym as
originally scheduled. The Indians,
an inexperienced team Of young and
small players, have high hopes, but
little prospects of getting into the
playoff series in spite of Julian
Colangelo's intensive prepping cam
paign.
The other game of the sched-
uled double-header opener has been
shifted to Tech gym with Eastern
and Tech as the opposing forces.
Roosevelt Has Vet Squad.
As already mentioned, Western,
Tech and Roosevelt promise to bat
tie Eastern for top honors. Roose-
velt probably is the best of the
three with practically every men,
Der back from the team which last
season tied Western for second
place.
Bruce Kessler at Tech is pessi-
mistic, but in spite of the woeful
picture he paints he also has lot
of last years material. Western,
although hurt by Clusters transfer
to Eastern, has some of its strong
reserve players showing excellent
promise. OF all preseason records
Westerns is the best, loss to st.
Johns being the only bad break in
six games.
Woodrow Wilson has an excellent
coach in Tony Kupka, and although
it finished in a tie for the cellar
last year it may offer a surprise or
two in the approaching race. Gen.
trail almost is an unknown quantity,
having played but one game, and
that out of town.
WI. Poor on Foul Shots.
Washington-Lee Highs Little Cen
grassland they really are little
are not so good from the foul line,
Coach Buck Richardson ruefully
admits. In recent games they have
missed of II, II of 13, 10 of IA, and
SO on. The coach makes the team
shoot 100 or even more practice
tosses every day, but when they get
out in game they continue to miss.
Fairfax Highs game at Washing
ton-Lee tomorrow night is one of the
visiting schools big contests of the
year. Generally about half the
student body pile into buses to
make the trip down and support
their team, and tomorrow they
should be out in full force when they
see chance of nipping the Little
Generals.
The boys on Techs squad now are
calling Moe Tanenbaum Glass Eye"
1t happened last week the team was
taking physical examinations, and
Moe had bit of trouble with one
of the bottom lines in the eye test.
Kidding him, the nurse asked,
whats the matter son, got glass
eye?"
Find d. c. Quints Tough.
Bethesda-C Chevy Chase, which has
had disastrous month against
Washington teams, losing to West
ern, Tech twice, Eastern and Ana
costa, still isn't out of the woods.
In fact. the boys are going up against
some really tough opposition this
week. Wednesday they face the
strong Roosevelt team and Saturday
they play st. Johns, which in spite
of its loss Friday to Eastern, is no
soft touch.
Montgomery-Blair of Silver Spring,
which intends to give Bethesda a
battle for Montgomery County
honors this year, likewise has been
having a rough time in Washington
against Western, st. Johns and
Roosevelt. 1t gets a chance to coast
this week, however, at least during
the early part. Tomorrow it plays
Georgetown Prep and Wednesday it
meets Landon. Not until Friday do
the Blairs face stiff competition, but