Huron Stages Remarkable Turnabout

Huron Stages Remarkable Turnabout

By Joe Broshear

Regardless of the outcome of tonight’s Regional championship game at Bowen Fieldhouse, Huron High basketball fans have plenty of reason for pride in their team.

Still without its own court, and in only its second year of existence, Huron High has staged a remarkable turnabout.

A year ago, the Riversiders managed but two wins in 18 starts and their loses included such ignominous pastings as 70-44 by Ypsilanti, 70-28 by East Lansing, and 92-56 by Battle Creek Lakeview.

But the Hurons are nobody’s patsy any more.

True, Ypsilanti socked it to the Hurons, 82-45, back in December, but that was without Dave Strack, last year’s Soufh Central Conference scoring champion.

Strack, who suffered a leg fracture during the football season and was in a cast for eight weeks, is finally back in top form.

With the 65-64 victory over Wyandotte Roosevelt. Strack tallied 20 points and maintained his recent blistering pace, bringing his total during the last six games to 123 points.

For the year, Strack has connected at a rate of 18.3, largely due to his always-dangerous 20 foot sideliner.

The Hurons, who early in the year were 2-6, have won five of their last seven starts and their setbacks were at the hands of two of the finest teams in the state, East Lansing and Ypsilanti.

The Trojans, South Central Conference champions and a leading contender for the class A crown won by Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills a year ago, downed Huron 74-66 while Ypsilanti was a 68-54 victor.

Both clashes were well-played games, and both were among the tougher games of the year for East Lansing and Ypsilanti.

Pete Jamison occupies another major chapter in Huron’s rags-to-riches story. Formerly, a Pioneer standout, who deserves a large share of the credit for the Pioneers’ amazing late surge of a year ago that earned the Purples a district championship, Jamison changed school districts during the summer.

The change in address found Jamison in Huron togs when the season started and the 6-3 senior immediately gained a starter’s role.

Jamison often teams with Strack in the backcourt but it would be less than accurate to call him a guard. Much in the manner of Earle Higgins, the Pioneer All-Stater now at Eastern Michigan, Jamison swings off the backcourt gate and into the corner.

And from there into the slot where he’s as deadly as a riled-up Cobra. Like Strack, Jamison has been hitting a torrid pace in recent games.

Jamison has hit 134 points during the last six games, raising his already hefty average to 21.3 for the year. In addition, he’s developing well as an outside shooter, a factor that give the Braves cause for concern.

But two stars do not make a team. And that's where the big question mark lies. Center Larry Brooks, a 6-6 junior, has shown flashes of brilliance, as has forward Larry Patrick, but neither provide the scoring punch needed to make Huron a serious contender for state honors.

Dave Hackett is another cager who's shown plenty of improvement but Hackett, like so many Huron and Pioneer hoopsters, is another athlete who’s developing too late due to an inadequate grade school program.

Rich Piepenbrink, not fast but always steady, is Huron’s sixth man while bench strength is led by Bill Olsen, a potential starter on many teams .and rapidly-improving Robert Allen.

But where Huron is two deep, Ypsilanti is four deep.

Bob Rhodin had one of his poorer games against Adrian, hitting but six of 22 field attempts, but none-the-less pulled down 15 rebounds and showed plently of All-State class.

Joe Frye, the sixth man on last year’s state runnerup squad, was tremendous against Adrian, hitting 11 of 19 from the field, hauling down 14 rebounds, and scoring 22 points.

Robin Raymond is a player’s player. Raymond, who along with cornermate Rhodin is a returnee from the team that Ottawa Hills defeated 76-68 at Jenison, is not a spectacular ballplayer.

He’s just plain good—very, very good, in fact—the type of player who rarely commits an error, always gets his job done and, as Pioneer learned the hard way last year, can come through in the clutch.

Up front, the Braves have the younger Rhodin and the younger Frye.

Many Ypsilanti fans feel Steve Rhodin is going to be even better than his brother, Bob two years hence.

Against Adrian, however, the blondish sophomore went hitless in stabs from the field while backcourt sidekick Sid Frye failed to connect in nine efforts.

It’s a funny thing about this Ypsilanti team. Even when they have a bad game, as they did against out-classed Adrian, they still look good. They’re fast, have a deceptively tough defense, and above all are extremely well-grounded in fundamentals.

They also have height, averaging 6-4 across the front line, and a go-gettum attitude consistently rewarded in the carom column.

All in all, it looks like a long night for Huron High.

But, as we said before, the 1969 Hurons have given their fans plenty of reason for pride, pride which won’t be diminished by a loss to the best.