HOLD THAT LINE! That's what the opponents of the Strasburg Tigers' new basketball team will have to do if they would pry the Tigers loose from the County Championship which they now hold. And it's be a tough line to hold: Senior Guard Bob Deibel - Junior Center Lloyd "Mule" Haas - Sophomore Forward Garver Wallick - Senior Guard Bob Raica - Senior Forward John Miller and Senior Guard Charles "Babe" Reiger winners of All-County honors last year. Reiger was also All-District. Above the charging Strasburg line is 8-year Head Coach Paul M. Roby who last year won his 6th County Championship in 7 years at Strasburg. The inset at Roby's right is Senior Paul "Pete" Haswell, another veteran and an All-County forward, who was absent when the picture was taken.
Will Coach Roby and his Tigers add more trophies to the Strasburg collection of 21, a portion of which are shown in the school's trophy case?
STRASBURG - The Mineral City Tigers starts the ball a-rolling tonight with an Alumni game and from then on until the tail-end of February the county's 11 Class B high schools will be embroiled in their annual winter's work of trying to bring home the basketball bacon. And, according to the best advance notices several of the coaches can give it's going to be an interestng imbroglio, one in which any one of something like 5 or 6 teams might slide out ahead of the field and capture the coveted championship.
The Championship in 1937 is now held by the Strasburg Tigers in both its phases, the League Title and the tournament pennent. When the Tigers left Legion Hall last spring with the county tournament prize under their collective belt, Paul M. Roby, their head coach, celebrated his 6th County Championship in 7 years. But his job of keeping it looks as big as the job of getting it. To defend the title---a job which most coaches say is harder than winning it---he must beat down such as the Midvale Blue Devils, which will be up with a veteran squad; the Bolivar Cardinals with a world of size and experience; the Baltic Eagles bouncing from the depths; the Tuscarawas Broncos with another of those teams that always rate and the Gnadenhutten Indians, another bouncer with plenty of experience to help it along.
That's the way the picture sizes up today. Strasburg must get 1st call for coach Roby, an Otterbein product, is drilling a club that lists on its roster every member of last year's Championship Team but one. The one man lost to Roby is Ramon Renner, center, who won All-County and All-District honors in his 2 tournaments last season. Remaining are Paul "Pete" Haswell, All-County forward - Charles "Babe" Reiger, All-County and All-District guard, Lloyd "Mule" Haas, All-County guard - John Miller - Bob Deibel - Bob Raica and Garver Wallick, the latter the only member of the squad who did not win a letter last season.
Just about everything seems to be smiling on Roby this season as it will be the 1st time he can forget the mettlesome problem of finding a center when he has no above-the-line height. In years past, it has always been his biggest problem. This year there is no center jump except at the start of the game, the half and after double fouls. So the team that last year won 20 of its 24 games including tournaent play, is well on its way.
While the 7 mentioned above will very likely constitute the "varsity" club, Wallick will be used regularly with the Reserve Team as will Morris Bayer and Loren Miller, holdovers from last year's Reserve squad. Battling for the open position on the 1st Ten are a husky group of 9 boys: Bob Dreher and his brother Bill, Bob Spidell, Bill Schroyer, Percy Tucker, Bill Shutt, Clyde Denzer, Earl Lengler and Pete Welsch. Added up, this Tiger squad spells trouble with a capital "T" for all Strasburg foes this winter.
The Burgers face a 16-game schedule, 10 of them with regular League opponents and the others with the Sugarcreek-Shanesville Pirates, Beach City Pirates, Dennison Railroaders, Newcomerstown Trojans and the Bolivar Cardinals.
Friday, November 12, 1937
Clyde Shaffer, Sports Editor
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio
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