By DAVID KONOPKI
Special to The Dallas Post
Four years ago the Dallas High
School basketball program was
‘having its share of problems and
there was little doubt that the pro-
gram had hit rock bottom.
With the firing and subsequent
rehiring of then head coach Clint
Brobst, the famous ‘Jobson Saga’,
‘and the general lack of student
interest in the program, it looked as
though it would be some time before
Dallas basketball could get the sour
taste out of its mouth.
But the 1982-83 basketball season
brought with it a rebirth of enthusi-
asm in Dallas.
New life in the form of Clarence
0zgo.
0zgo, now in his third year of
coaching at Dallas, has turned the
program around, guiding the Moun-
taineers to their first-ever District
Championship last year. But 0zgo is
quick to point out that he has only
‘played a small role in Dallas’ suc-
cess on the hardwoods.
“It’s definitely the kids,” said
0zgo, when asked for the reason of
the turn-around. ‘‘In the three years
that I have been here, we’ve had
kids that are willing to make a
commitment. That's all we ask of
the kids. We wanted to get them to
work hard and they responded well.
The kids have turned this program
around.”
The student interest is back. The
days when Dallas dresses five or six
players for a junior varsity game
are over. This year’s team boosts 11
players on the junior varsity and no
less than 12 players suit up for
varsity action.
“I have to give credit to our
Junior High people,” said 0zgo.
Contest held
people involved down there. We've
been fortunate, at least since I've
been here, to have enough people
who want to play basketball. We
also get help from the community in
running a DBO (Dallas Basketball
Organization) league for -elemen-
tary students on Wednesday
nights.”
It’s funny sometimes how some-
body else’s loss could turn out to be
the hiring of Ozgo. Just how did the
‘‘Ozgo-Dallas’’ courtship
begin?
Why would Ozgo, of Plains, and a
coach at Dallas in the first place.
“Oh, that’s an easy answer,”
explained Ozgo. “I think they were
the only team that would hire me.”
has been holding its own, thus far,
in the Wyoming Valley Conference
as the Mountaineers finished in a tie
for second place in the first half.
But their two losses in the first
half could turn out to be “blessings
in disguise’’ as they lost both games
in overtime to two powerful GAR
and Northwest teams.
The losses, however, gave the
Mountaineers first hand experience
in pressure situations and that will
come in handy when, and if, they
should gain a berth in this year’s
playoffs.
The backecourt is the Mountai-
neers’ strong point as this year’s
quintet features two of the premier
guards in the Wyoming Valley in
seniors Steve Wilson and Mark
‘Pearl Washington has nothing on
me’’ Farrell.
Farrell is one of the top scorers in
Dallas cagers.
per contest. He is also the third top
rebounder on the squad, hauling in
four rebounds per game,
On the other side of the court is
Dallas Post/Joan Kingsbury
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Wilson, better known around the
Dallas circles as Mr. Goodwrench.
Mr. Goodwrench?
Nothing could be more. appropri-
Dallas Post/Ed Campbell
ate because this season Wilson has
been good in the clutch.
Wilson (11 points per game) has
made the tying and winning baskets
with less than five seconds remain-
ing in the game against Northwest
and Crestwood respectively.
Going inside the Mounts feature
6’6”’ senior center Joe Darling (30
blocked shots per game - 237 intimi-
dations) who has proven. that his
165-pound frame can mix it up with
the bigger centers in the league.
Darling is also, top rebounder on
the team averages eight points per
game for rebounds and also tosses
in an average of 10 points per game.
The Mounts have a set of “Tims”
at the forward positions in juniors
Tim Lyons (seven points per game
and five rebounds) and Tim Moyer
(six points per game and 6
rebounds.)
Let’s not forget Dallas’ answer to
the Philadelphia 76’ers Bobby
Jones, senior Tim Cotter.
The 6’5” sixth man is averaging
seven points per game while seeing
very. limited playing time.
Gone this season are the Dave
Thomas’, the Ed Goreys’, and the
Greg Manuskys’ of last year’s team.
But with the way things are going
for the Dallas basketball program
these days, you can bet that the
days when the rest of the Wyoming
Valley laughed at Dallas basketball
are over.
So what was all the laughing
going on at the high school back in
November?
Well in November, while the
Mounts were preparing for the
upcoming season, President Ronald
Reagan was asking America if they
were better off today than when
they were four years ago.
The noise you heard was just
Ozgo and the rest of the Dallas
Basketball Program enjoying a
good laugh.
By CHARLOT M. DENMON
Staff Correspondent
Dallas Mountaineers added three
wins to their record last week by
downing Wyoming Seminary 57-40,
Tuesday defeating Lake-Lehman 79-
55 Thursday and taking a 56-48 win
from Hanover Area, Saturday night.
FARRELL LEADS
In Saturday’s game against the
Hawkeyes, Mark Farrell led the
Mountaineers with 25 points for the
second consecutive time during the
week. Combined with Steve Wilson's
14, the Mountaineers moved into a
second place tie with Northwest,
who were upset on Saturday by
Crestwood.
Dallas was in front 26-23 at half-
time and outscored hanover 11-9 in
the third period. Hanover rallied
trying to close the lead but Farrell
took over control of the board to
keep Dallas in the lead and give
them the 56-48 win.
“Farrell came off a poor scoring
game the week previous,’ said
Dallas Coach Clarence Ozgo, ‘“‘But
during the past week he gave us a
lot of points averaging about 24
points per game. Wilson also gave
us points hitting in the double fig-
ures each game.
“We've also been getting some
great inside play from Joe Darling
and Tim Moyer and Tim Lyons
have started giving us points. We
have some tough games ahead and
we have to have a solid game out of
everybody,’’ Ozgo continued.
0zgo said his team can’t look any
farther ahead than Tuesday’s game
with Crestwood, who played them
tough the first half.
BEARDE CONTAINED
In Thursday’s game with Lake-
Lehman on the Mountaineers court,
the Knights high scorer Bill Bearde
was held to only nine points follow-
ing the ace scorer’s 43 points earlier
in the week against Crestwood.
Farrell hit 25 points and Wilson
added 18 for the Mountaineers to
lead them to the 79-55 win. Dallas
outscored Lake-Lehman 19-9 in the
first period and18-6 in the second
period to take a 37-15 lead at the
half. In the third period the Moun-
taineers outscored the Knights 23-19
but in the final period the Knights
turned the scoring around 21-19.
The key in the Dallas win was
holding down Bearde’s scoring and
closing out Earl Weidner, who hit
only three shots‘ from the playing
field. Ozgo emptied his bench with
11 of the 12 players hitting the
scoring column. Darling, Moyer and
Long scored six points each, Lyons
scored seven, Cotter four and the
other players scored from one to
three points.
T. Willy Cadwalader led the
Knights with 10 points and Boyle
joined Bearde with nine.
BEAT SEMINARY
In the Mountaineers 57-40 win
over Wyoming Seminary on Tues-
day, Farrell put nine goals through
the nets and hit two-for-two from
the free line to lead Dallas with 20
points. Wilson keyed in three shots
from the field and dumped in six-
for-eight from the charity stripe for
12 points. Lyons added nine and
Darling gave eight.
The Blue Knights were led by
Chris Saul and Mark Antinnes with
13 and 10 points respectively. Semi-
nary’s top scorer Chris Berry was
unable to play due to illness.
Seminary did some fine shooting
from the foul line hitting 14 of 18 but
were held from top shooting from
the field by the Mountaineers
defense.
The Mountaineers are scheduled
to play Crestwood away on Tuesday
and West Side Tech at home Friday.
Their makeup game with Northwest
is set for Saturday afternoon at
home.
LEHMAN FALLS
Lake-Lehman’s record fell to 2-4
for the second half, Saturday, when
they were edged 55-51 by Seton
Catholic. The Knights were leading
until the fourth period when Seton’s
Joe Lavelle tossed in eight of his
total points to pace the Eagles to
their four point win. Lavelle ‘had a
total of 12 points for the Eagles
whose top scorer was Ed Farrell
with 15 points.
Bill Bearde was high scorer for
Lake-Lehman with 19 points and T.
Willy Cadwalader hit for 12 points.
The Knights were unable to over-
come the Mountainers throughout
the entire game, Thursday night, as
they were overpowered 79-55 at the
Dallas gym.
SEASON-HIGH
Bill Bearde hit a season high
Tuesday night at Crestwood when
he scored 43 points for the Knights
but Lake-Lehman still went down
77-66 to the Comets, whose Rich
Loomis scored 25 points to hit 1,000
career points. Bearde hit 16 shots
from the field and dumped in 11-for-
17 from the foul line.
The Lake-Lehman senior scored
two points in the first period and
eight points in the second then
tossed in 11 in the third period and
22 points in the final period in
chalking up his total. He scored. 33
of the Knights total of 47 points in
the second half. He also accounted
for 16 of the Knights 23 goals from
the field and 11 of their 20-for-28
shots from the charity stripe.
Cadwalader added eight points for
the Knights, Weidner five, Janiczek
and Andes each four and James
two.
The Knights are scheduled to play
Meyers at home, Tuesday, and
Northwest, away, Friday.
Friday, Feb. 15 West Side Tech
scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.)
Wednesday, Feb. 13 Coughlin
Saturday, Feb. 16 Pittston Area
at 7:30 p.m.)
Bridy.T Feb. 15 at Northwest
at 8 p.m.)
Friday, Feb. 15 Northwest
immediately following)
at 7:30 p.m.)
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