The 1958 Garaway Pirates Basketball Team. This is the 1st year for the new school and basketball team which was a consolidation of Dundee (Bulldogs) and the Sugarcreek-Shanesville (Pirates) and are now called the Garaway Pirates. The name of GARAWAY came about from GAR which is from SuGARcreek, the A from Auburn and the WAY is from WAYne...the name was due to the consolation of Sugarcreek-Shanesville, Ragersville and Dundee schools. FRONT: Bill Slemmer (Dundee) - John Goso - Chuck May - Gordon Gerber - Butch Yakley and Carl Squires. BACK: Head Coach Jim C. Stull - Jim Gerber - Charley Stingel - Dean Burrell (Dundee) - John Sigrist (Dundee) - Dave Banks - Koran Zehnder - Manager Dick Barnhart. (Photo from the 1958 Souvenir Booklet)
DOVER - The Midvale Blue Devils, who comprised the Cinderella Team of Ohio's 1957 Class A Tournament until they reached the semi-finals at Columbus, will be odds-on favorites to add the forthcoming County Tournament Championship Trophy to their display case.
This forecast is based on the Blue Devils' record for the season just ended. They were undefeated over an 8-game County League route and have an overall record of 16-2. They bowed to the West Lafayette Generals 75-70 and to the Strasburg Tigers 80-77. Head Coach Pete Hilliard's boys currently are riding a 14-game win streak. It will be a long time before county cage fans forget Hilliard's 1956-57 edition. Even though they walked off with the Consolation Title of the county by beating the Tuscarawas Valley Trojans 96-58, the Diablos were accorded little chance of advancing on the playoff trail.
But, in the Sectional Tournament the "boys from Stumphill," as they were nicknamed because of a comic strip team in vogue at the time, turned back the Killbuck Bucks 91-52, the Stone Creek Golden Panthers 76-71 and the Walnut Creek Cardinals 77-58. The Gnadenhutten Indians were the other Sectional Tournament winner, beating the Augusta Blue Devils 86-71. Then in the District Tournament event, also staged at Dover's Memorial Hall, Midvale knocked over the Adena Golden Waves 95-68 and took the Indians 73-59 to advance to the Canton Regional.
There the Blue and Gold Blue Devils nipped a touted Vienna Flyers quintet 64-62 and then squeezed into the State semi-finals on a 1-point, 61-60 decision over the Savannah Sailors. The Midvale Blue Devils were paired with a bunch of bombers in Ayersville's Pilots and combined with a cold shooting night, found the going too rough and bowed out of the tournament picture on a 71-57 loss. Ayersville went on to beat the Gratis Trojans for the State toga.
Coach Pete Hilliard saw 6 members of that team graduate. They were:
STARTING FIVE
John Columbo
Dick (Dandy) Leggett
Lonnie Wolf
RESERVES
John Beans
Gary Haney
Dave De Mattio
Because of those departures, the Blue Devils weren't expected to cut too much ice in the campaign which has just ended. Two wins and 2 losses in their first 4 outings seemed to bear out the forecast. But on December 13th Midvale caught fire in a 58-49 victory over the Tuscarawas Valley Trojans and kept right on burning up the nets for 14 games. Their League play gave the Diablos their 1st uncontested loop crown since 1949 (their 7th).
Forming the nucleus of this season's squad are 2 cagers who were on last year's starting five. They are Tom Krocker, a 5-10 Junior and Russ Hobart, a 6-2 Senior Center, who is the squad's tallest player. Rounding out Hillard's top 6 are Juniors Jim Clark and Dave Belknap, both at 5-10 and Sophomores Dick Housel, 5-10, and Ron Breniser at 5-11.
The Tribe of Gnadenhutten, which copped the 1957 County Tournament Championship by beating the Stone Creek Golden Panthers 75-66, may offer the Devils stiff competition in the upcoming tournament. Gnaden finished 2nd in the League race and were 15-5 over the full route. The Golden Panthers tied with the Trojans for 3rd place in the loop and in the 1956-57 campaign tied with Gnadenhutten for 2nd place, behind the Strasburg Tigers, which was unbeaten in 9 loop games. The Panthers then pulled a big upset by beating the Tigers 69-52 in the tournament. Strasburg was 4-4 in this season's loop competition.
The Bengals meet the Garaway Pirates in Thursday night's 6:30 opener with the Blue and Gold of Midvale tackling the Port Washington Purple Riders at 7:45 and Stone Creek encountering the Baltic Eagles at 9:00. On Sasturday night Tusky Valley will engage the Strasburg-Garaway winner at 7:30 and Gnaden will collide with the Tusky Broncos at 8:45.
Tuesday, February 11, 1958
Norm Singleton, Sports Editor
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio
THE TUSCARAWAS COUNTY LEAGUE
1. Midvale Blue Devils 8-0 1.000 (7th Title)
2. Gnadenhutten Indians 6-2 .750
3. Stone Creek Golden Panthers 5-3 .625
4. Tuscarawas Valley Trojans 5-3 .625
5. Garaway Pirates 4-4 .500
6. Strasburg Tigers 4-4 .500
7. Baltic Eagles 3-5 .376
8. Tuscarawas Broncos 1-7 .125
9. Port Washington Purple Riders 0-8 .000
THE TUSCARAWAS REGULAR SEASON
1. Midvale Blue Devils 16-2 .889
2. Gnadenhutten Indians 15-5 .750
3. Tuscarawas Valley Trojans 11-5 .688
4. Strasburg Tigers 11-7 .611
5. Baltic Eagles 12-8 .600
6. Stone Creek Golden Panthers 12-8 .600
7. Garaway Pirates 10-10 .500
8. Tuscarawas Broncos 7-10 .412
9. Port Washington Purple Riders 1-16 .058
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