Laurel outlook., 1949-03-02
FETE LOCOMOTIVES
At ROTARY MEETING


districts basketball tournament
were guests of honor Tuesday at
the weekly luncheon of the Ro-
tary club. Their coach, Glen
Anderson, carried the ball for
them, although not penalized for
travelling. Supt. Fred w. Graft
of the Laurel school system, a
member of the Rotary club, was
the first speaker on the inter-
esting program arranged and
presented by A. A. Moser.
! Visiting Rotat ans were DR.. w.
D. Copeland, Worthington Smith
and w. L. Quirk, all of Billings,
and Rev. George S. Sloan of
Buffalo, Wyo. James Strong was
a guest. c. w. Laird, Laurel
Rotarian who had just returned
from spending the winter in
California, was called by Pres.
Oliver Void to take a bow. Act
ing Sec. Marvin Hoppel read a
letter from Sec. r. b. Packard
in which Packard expressed
thanks for flowers sent him at
a hospital in Missouri.
Moser, program committeeman,
presented Graft for prefactory
remarks. The latter said among
other things that the recent dis
trict tournament set a record for
financial success and attendance.
The gross was about $4,100, ex-
ceeding by $1,000 the gate of
last year. He announced that
the southern divisional tourna-
ment will be held here next
week, with eight winning teams
from as many distrirts attend
ing. He said it would be we'll
worth watching. There are only
400 reserved seats in the gym
nasium, which have been divided |
for sale among the towns send !
ing participating teams. Lau-
rel's quota in the reserved sec
ton is n. Requests for 120 |
have been received locally. Those
without reserved tickets will oc-
cupy the general seating sec
tions.
When Coach Anderson was in
troduced he said the tournament
team consisted of 10 members
five seniors, our juniors and
one sophomore. 1t is always
with regret that the seasons
playing team has to be pared
down to the 10 required by reg
ulations for the tournament.
The stalwarts introduced by the
coach and roundly applauded
were Bill Sorg, Leo Yeager, Nor
man Lais, Jim Phillips, Bob
Sorg, Wayne Hageman, Bob
Kass, Bob Dantic, Don Miller
and Keith Willis, and Bob
Stickelberger, manager.
The coach's overall strategy
provides for future teams as
well as current, which means
that after losses from graduation
there remains a nucleus for the
following year. This was the
plan followed in the season just
closed, although the 1948-'49 edi-
ton of the Locomotives could
have consisted of 10 seniors. In
clusion of undergraduates makes
for another good team next year.
Anderson also commented on
the districts financial success,
attributed to quite an extent to
patronage by Laurel people who
had witnessed a preceding sea-
son filled with high-class basket
ball and whose resulting enthus-
lam was continued for the tour
nament games. I
Last seasons schedule was ,
good and every game a tough .,
1ne. The tougher competition !
paid off well in the Locomo- ,
ives final game of the tourna- p;
nent, the coach thought.
Another factor contributing to
success was the experience the =
players had gained in the grades, =
particularly in junior high school. !
The past seasons B team, with 7
is splendid record, is a pool :
rom which to draw recruits for =
he first line.
Anderson praised the stats
icians who did extensive paper
work in the past season, COM :
bling detailed information on
ZACH player and the team as a
yhole. The figures show that
laurel won both on paper and
IN the floor; but Columbus,
which was second on paper, was
defeated Monday night for sec
md place-indicating that the
iuman element sometimes goes
ontrary to the figures
Red Lodge was described as a
eally tournament team, playing
yhen it has to exert itself.
Fromberg was rated as having
played best with available ma
erial. Ability in this direction
las to be recognized.
A danger to teams is that of
eaching a peak performance be-
ore the crucial period and then
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