letters•••
continued
I feel a lot more consideration should have been given to the Washington, D.C., high school basketball teams so far as rankings are concerned. In your Top 20 high school basketball teams, no D.C. team was even listed. This comes as a surprise to me considering the level of talent and tough competition which each team must face game after game. Many teams come into D.C. with very impressive won-lost records and highly touted players. These same teams leave with a greater respect and admiration for the caliber of competition here. The list of D.C. alumni playing on this year's collegiate basketball scene is endless. For the 1976-77 high school scene, your Top 20 could have featured teams such as Eastern High School with James Ratiff and Rod Wright, McKinley Tech with Gary Jordan and James Roache, or Archbishop Carroll featuring Steve Smith and Ray Harrison. These are just a few of the many teams which I feel could have easily qualified for rankings in National Prep Sports. Robert Michaels Washington, D.C. OVERLOOKED We would like to point out that in your December-January issue of National Prep Sports you failed to include the South Umpqua High School baseball team in your baseball section. Their overall team record for the season was an outstanding 30-1. With such a good record, the South Umpqua High School baseball team deserves recognition. We realize that you cover a lot of other teams and sports, and that mistakes can happen, and that a good baseball team like the one the Lancers had can occassionally be overlooked. Terry Church Myrtle Creek, Oregon
Basketball '77
60
•ALWMIUIICA TIAMS
•IIOCIIIY I'RIVIEW ~nMnrBri•l•
Wl:n:o:tttl•
• GIIILS BASIII'I'BAI.L lbRU.,. Call'lol.-T•nne!.fseto
I thought your February-March Baseball Preview edition was your best to date for the simple reason that I have never seen a publication anywhere which covered high school baseball like you did. The only magazines which cover baseball come out each spring and cover professional baseball only. I've never even seen a sports magazine cover college baseball. _
My only complaint about your national high school baseball ran kings is your failure to rate an Arizona schooL Schools like Sahuaro High here in Tucson and Apollo High in Phoenix, last year's state AAA champions, have good enough programs each year to merit more national recognition. Although Tucson High is no longer the national power in baseball they were for many years, I doubt if there is a high school in the country which could match their past records in baseball. I will be looking forward to more national baseball coverage, and don't forget about Arizona. Richard Flood Tucson, Arizona BASEBALL COVERAGE I just wanted to say that I was delighted to see a copy of your new national high school magazine on the newsstand the other day here in Canada. A magazine on prep sports has been long overdue. In particular, I enjoyed the article on the Lakewood High School baseball team, and the selection of your Top 20 baseball teams in the nation for 1976. Undoubtedly it will mean the continuance of more articles on prep baseball in the future, which is something I've been looking for for several years now. Allan Simpson Vernon, B.C., Canada I have never seen a magazine cover high school baseball on a national level like you did in your February-March issue. I don't know if your Top 20 teams are any good, or if your 300 best players are worth a nickel, but your publication is worth every bit of a dollar, and more, for covering high school baseball like you have. Keep it up. I hope to see a final roundup after the season is over, just like you did with football and basketball. Baseball is one of America's greatest sports, yet the news media seldom covers any form of baseball besides the pros. Johnny Alexander Charleston, West Virgini? MANY YOUNG MEN We thoroughly enjoy reading National Prep Sports magazine each· month. Regarding your December-January edition, Ralph Tasker at Hobbs, New Mexico, has certainly made his mark on the basketball record books, but perhaps more importantly, he has had a wonderful influence on the lives of many young men. Frank Brickey Salt Lake, Utah THEIHSA I must commend you on your fine coverage of high school sports, something which has been lacking for sometime now. However, I must comment on something you printed in your February-March baseball issue. You stated that the Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL), organized in 1909, is the oldest of its kind in the nation. If this is true, then the Illinois High School Association is the oldest in the United States. Set up in 1903, it enjoins 830 high schools in the state as members. The IHSA is just as comparable - if not better organized- than its Texas counterpart. The association was also the first in the nation to hire a full-time director. Having the longest running state track championships in the country (first was held in 1893) and one of the oldest state basketball tournaments (began in 1908), the IHSA holds state tournaments in 23 different sports, producing 31 state championship
teams. These facts alone should be enough to convince anyone that the IHSA is one of the finest associations of its kind in the country. Ron Kopezick Morris, Illinois NO.1 I would like to congratulate you on your new National Prep magazine. In your first issue you spotlighted the "Top 20" teams at pre-season, giving Cincinnati Moeller the No. 1' rating. During the 1976 football campaign, Moeller went undefeated (10-0) and gained a berth in the Ohio playoffs. Going into the playoffs they were ranked No. 1 by both AP and UPI polls. In their first game they played the No. 2 ranked Youngstown Cardinal Mooney team and had no trouble disposing of them, 48-0. In the championship game they met Gahanna Lincoln and beat them 43-5. Moeller is the first AAA school to win back-to-back championships in Ohio since we started playoffs in 1972. Coach Gerry Faust has a 16-year record of 128-16-2. Cincinnati Moeller deserves to be the No. 1 high '
~ .. ;
Cinrionati Moeller MJ.I FOIJTB!lll PR£VJ£W •1/nlion's Top 20 Teoms ·Pre-Season 111/-Amtrkaas liATIOI/Jl! ROUIIliUP ·Boys Basketball ·l'iirls Basketball -~~~'key
school team in America at post-season too. Joseph W. Wilson Troy, Ohio COACH OF THE YEAR Having just retired from coaching cross country at Ellis High S-::hool where we won the Kansas state cross country championship in our class last fall, I really appreciated the article in your February-March issue about Verlyn Schmidt, the highly successful track and cross country coach at Shawnee Mission South in Overland Park, Kansas. 'Verlyn deserves the accolades and continues to do a super job with his young athletes in the Kansas City area. Rocky Rorabaugh Ellis, Kansas 12 MILLION I just read the February-March issue of Prep Sports, and having coached high school baseball for 25 years I was very interested in the baseball section. However, I find it hard to believe that an area the size of Long Island, New York City, Westchester County and Northern New Jersey- a combined population of 12 million people does not have a high school baseball player who is not worthy of even honorable mention on your pre-season All-American list. Alfred Jacklin Wantagh, New York
•
PREP I APRIL-MAY 1977
t
L I
I
,,'