A Tribute to Excellence...

"I attended Orleans High School up through 1959 finishing that June as a junior. My senior year started at Nauset Regional in September of that same year. My class, of which I was the class president, was Nauset’s first graduating class in June of 1960.

Man, that was a long time ago. Many of my memories of Orleans High are focused on sports, namely soccer and basketball.

I am proud to say I can bang out all kinds of names of teachers, teammates, and older guys who were my idols as a young Orleans High kid raised in Eastham. I made the trip to Orleans High each day with my dad and my late younger brother, Gene.

Dad was half owner of Schofield Brothers surveying. I walked onto the soccer field as a seventh grader. It was the first year of organized soccer. We were coached by Dave Edwards, an English teacher.

That day, he taught us how to dribble the soccer ball and I, in the most stupid way, corrected him by bouncing the ball with my hand and said, “No, Coach, this is how the ball is dribbled.” He nicely corrected me and spared me some well-deserved embarrassment.

We played against Chatham and Harwich in a very limited schedule. Later, as the game gained popularity, we played against DY, Barnstable, and Sandwich.

A story about soccer times will follow: We were playing against Harwich whose coach was Charlie Dunbar. They had an excellent aggressive player named George King. He and one of my idolized teammates, Jeff Whitmore from Eastham, were shoving and elbowing each other the whole game. We ended up winning the game 1-0 but what followed the game was interesting.

Jeff and George kept at it jawing at each other and challenged each other to a fight. They asked each of our coaches if they could fight it out. Both coaches agreed and they went at it as we circled them serving as a boxing ring. Jeff got his butt kicked and nose bloodied. We learned later that George was a Golden Glove boxer. Jeff said “No more!” and they stood up shaking hands. Both teams walked up the hill with Jeff and George having their arms around each other’s shoulder. We showered in the same dinky little shower.

As a longtime coach from Martha’s Vineyard I wonder how that ever came out without anyone getting sued. Can you imagine what would have happened if such a battle took place in today’s high school or college sports world?

Players’ names off the top of my head from soccer I have but am somewhat unsure of the spelling: Mike Ozon, John Knowles, Neal Nevin, Peter Norgeot, Jay Brackett, and others that will come to mind as soon as I finish this piece.

Faculty members from my memory include Principal Arthur Reynolds, Mrs. Denham, Dorothy Fulcher, Bernie Collins, Herb Pettingill, Doc Biggers, Georgia Lowell, and others that I could recall if I had a yearbook in front of me.

One of my favorite coaches was Sam Sherman who was my JV coach when I was a sophomore. I loved that old gym which is where I first met him. He was great and was my first basketball coach. I followed his ways when I began my own coaching career. I'm happy to say he was still with me when I was inducted into the MA State Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame at Holy Cross in 2003.

Some of my early high school basketball heroes at Orleans High were Peter Norgeot, Doug Higgins, John Knowles, Doug Lai, Jim Kew, Bill Livesey and many others but those were off the top of my head. I hope I have stimulated others to write down their memories from back in those days. They somehow don’t seem so long ago but know there have been 60 plus years."