Sports Opinion: Random musings May 21

There is hardly a decade in the history of DS sports that changes did not take place. The 60's proved to be much the same with some triumphs and lows. It was a time when the district began to grow in enrollment. Ranches were beginning to sell. Lake Travis was in the early stages of development. It was a time when the UIL reclassification process had a two-year lag time and allowed a growing team to jump into the middle of a classification before having to play up. Like most small schools, it was seldom that you could put together back-to-back classes of athletes and had to depend on a single class to carry the burden of success for their four years. Also, only district champions could advance in playoffs. New sports would be added by the UIL.

Football: 1960 was a hard luck year as they finished 1-9. They would lose four games by less than a TD. 1961 was the best year (6-4) in 11-man since the first. Losses to Blanco and Pflugerville in their final two games knocked them out of first. Among the players making a difference were Roy Ruston, Pat Baker, Hillary Canon, Jimmy Shelton and Ray Shackelford. The next three years represented another drought with a pair of 2-8's and a 1-9. Coach Rippy said they ended the season with twelve able bodies suit up for the last game and the extra had a cast on. Bill Smith, Alford Hill, Bobby Baker, Malcolm Key, Gary Garnett, Ronnie McCarty, Johnny McCarty, Lupe Alarcon and Phillip Cook were among the warriors on the field.

The second half of the decade saw the Tigers competing for titles. 1965 was one of those. Marvin Myers, Larry Tracy and Bill Crisp were the leaders of the 4-5-1 team that actually had the title on the line when they played Johnson City in the final. The '66 team slipped a bit (3-5-2) but stayed in the mix. Myles Kingsbery, Thomas Combs, Sid Spillar, Albert Hudson and Bill Kingsbery played. A loss to Blanco kept the '67 team (5-4-1) from the title as Dan Sansom, Rocky Weihrauch and Gilbert Nevarez were the leaders. Most of the '68 team had been contributing since their freshmen years and it culminated in the championship season (9-3). They had a disputed win over Florence as their closest district game. They romped over Brackettville and met Banquete in the regional game. The Tigers scored quickly and then held on until deep in the fourth before falling 16-7. Key players were Randy Garnett, Dennis Sansom, Ray Whisenant, Leon McIntyre, Paul Freitag and Jimmy Stigler. Bad luck struck the '69 team (4-5-1) and kept it from the title when the QB broke an ankle just before district play and a dropped ball as the runner broke into the clear left the Tigers with a 6-6 tie and losing on penetrations. Roy Gay, Ricky Schieffer and Bill Garnett headed the group.

Boys Basketball: It was a rocky decade for boys basketball. Incomplete scorebooks in the first half left stats missing. The '60 team was 11-12 but the talent-laden '61 team (22-6) still could not get past the Kyle jinx and placed second. 1962 carried over with a 13-9 record and 1963 broke even at 12-12. 1964 was tough with a 5-20 record. The record improved to 10-16 the next year but a non-senior 1966 team struggled to 4-21 record. It paid off the next year with a 16-10 record and high point was the first win over Kyle (46-36) in a decade. Finally, the first district title would come in 68-69 but not without a struggle. An ineligible player gave the Tigers a second chance and thanks to the free throw shooting of Poe Shelton, Florence was vanquished 51-44 and the Tigers made it to regional. A one-point loss to Florence the next year relegated the Tigers to second place and no repeat. Players most likely to be in the scoring column during this decade were Canon, Kenny Phillips, Dan Alvarado, Marcos Alvarado, Eddie Needham, Shackelford, J. Shelton, Joey Needham, Key, B. Baker, Jimmy Lyle, Lupe Alarcon, M. Myers, Crisp, Louis Godoy, Da. Sansom, Weihrauch, De. Sansom.

Girls Basketball: Unfortunately, complete stats from scorebooks were not available. What is known is the 59-60 district championship was not followed by bump in records. The 1960 squad was 9-13, followed by a 3-13 in 1961. It would bottom out in 1962 with a 2-14 record. In 1963 it was 8-12 and 1964, 5-12. The good fortune for the Tigerettes began to rise in 1965 when Donna Pittman made her freshman year debut. That year DS amassed a 16-9 record and the next year it was 19-10. A strong contingency of players started joining Pittman as the Tigerettes started to get stronger and stronger. Geronimo Navarro was still the thorn in the side. In 1967, DS (21-13) was able to split with them for a co-championship after losing the playoff game. No stopping them in 1968 with a 27-5 record. A loss by Lometa did stop them at the bi-district level. This also ended Pittman's career at DS and she would leave with every scoring record with a season best (990) and career (2656). The next year the team continued to soar with a 30-7 record that ended in the regional finals against Round Top-Carmine. Key figures in this decade includes Sue Thompson, Betty Ragland, Mary Marshall, Jackie Shackelford, Janet Thompson, Billie Ferrell, Kay Roberts, Virginia Malott, Ann Ella Harmon, Linda Walker, Linda Holweger, Sherry Canon, Minnie Needham, Beatrice Herrera, Robin Brown, Rosie Collier, Kathy Draper, Mary Ann Alarcon, Cherry Needham, Donna Cauthen, Pat Shugart, Bonnie Walker, Diane White, Peggy Holton, Brenda McNair, Debbie Spillar, Kathy Hutto, Kathy Pittman, Johnna Nichols, Becky Schenck and Letha Phillips.

Baseball: Like most of the sports of this time, statistics were scarce to come by. Not they did not keep them for the games but they were not saved for posterity. Unlike today, the schedule consisted of one or two practice games and then the district schedule. Just like the '50's, DS did manage to put together a string of three district championships. The first was 1966 and a bi-district loss to Jarrell. 1967 & 68 teams could not get past Sheridan. Even though we are naming just a few of the players, it is normal to assume that most of the players that played any other sport, also came out for baseball. Smith, Hal Petmecky, G. Nevarez, Weihrauch, Hudson, Myers, Don Dailey, P. Shelton, Sonny Knutson, Crisp, Rickie Krabe, Alarcon, J. McCarty, Spillar, J. Needham, Cecil McIntyre, Joe Ramirez were among the participants.

Boys Track: DS was always well represented in track but never with enough athletes to compete for the title against Kyle. Among those to place at district were R. Ruston, Petmecky, Alarcon, Key, J. McCarty, Edward Cruz, Carl Dahlstrom, Louis Godoy, Knutson, Combs, Schieffer to name a very few. Worth remembering was Roy Gay's second place finish in the 100 at the 1969 meet. He was only a stride behind the state champion from Cherokee.

Tennis: Always seemed to be a popular spring sport at DS with good success. Those that copped district titles in this decade were Mickey Davidson/Sandra Foster; P. Baker; B. Baker/E. Needham; Sandra Rippy/A. Harmon; Cheryl Wardlaw; Olen Wardlaw; Holweger/C. Needham; P. Shelton; Janet Brizendine/D. Pittman; S. Spillar.

Girls Track: Track was the sport with the most stigma when it came to girls participating in the so-called rigorous sports. The UIL would not sponsor the sport until 71-72 but an outside organization began sponsoring in the mid-'60's and DS started participating with a pretty good degree of success, sending some athletes to the state meet from the very beginning. Cherry Boone, D. Pittman, J. Nichols and Betty Odell among the state bound members.

Girls Volleyball: Even though it had been a sport DS would participant in forever, it was never sponsored by the UIL. It began to do so in 1966-67. Up until that time, volleyball was held as a district tourney during the spring meet. Ironically because of missed communications, DS failed to sign up for that first season. Originally the UIL volleyball season was held in the spring but eventually too much competition with other sports made it settle for a fall season opposite football.