Fifty-seven years ago, they were the Genesee-Orleans Class A high school basketball champions. The same 58 years ago. During their regular senior year season, they were 16-0. Team members met for a reunion August 27 at the Galley Restaurant in Brockport. Two members of that team are deceased. Three others were unable to make the trip. But four of the five senior year starters were there, with wives and other family members. They were guards Ken Spychalski and Lee Colavito, forward Newell Hawley, and center John Ludington. Their school was Holley High School, a Class B-size school that participated in a Class A league because its athletes were able to compete successfully against larger schools. Especially in basketball. Their school building, located near the center of town, now is vacant and crumbling, replaced by a school campus on the edge of town. Those were different times. During the war years, 1941-1945, gasoline rationing was strict, and tires were almost unavailable. The school could not use school buses to carry team supporters to the away games. In fact, it could not use a school bus to carry the team to away games. Instead, the school furnished gasoline ration stamps to car drivers who volunteered to transport players in automobiles whose front and back seats were packed with players. Until the war ended in the spring and summer of 1945, the players did not look forward to college playing careers. They knew that they were probably headed for military service. Players who reached age 18 during the school year were eligible for the draft, but not the NBA draft. The selective service draft. They could be taken out of school and put in the Army or the Navy. If they were seniors in good academic standing, their schools graduated them. During the halftime of a player's last high school game before being drafted, his schoolmates serenaded him with the song of the service he was entering. Their junior year coach, Tom Coccitti, hadn't graduated from college, and taught under a temporary teacher's certificate allowed because of the teacher shortage. He left after their junior year to return to college. Their senior year coach, Andy DeCarlo, was the baseball coach, who had never before coached high school basketball. Both are deceased. Those who played high school basketball then knew that they were lucky. Some school sports were eliminated because of war shortages. Their older brothers were in the service, sometimes with an address which was simply an APO (Army Post Office) number for an overseas destination. Today, the 1944-1945 and 1945-1946 champions know that they are still lucky. Averaging 75 years of age, they are in reasonably good health. They have fond memories of working together for a common purpose. And none of them was injured or killed in the war. |
