What would you want in a dream basketball team? Over-all height, good speed, dead-eye shooting, defensive ability, abounding competitive spirit and, above all, plain love of the game? That's exactly what the 1956-1957 Class A All-County Basketball League team has this year. Usually 10 boys, but 11 this year because of a tie, the team was selected for The Daily Reporter by the coaches of league schools. The mentors first voted for the top 20 players on a preliminary ballot and then made a final choice from the nominee list. The team is comprised of eight seniors, two juniors and only one sophomore. It averages approximately 6-feet in height and in an aggregate 207 games the 11 "dream team" members sizzled the nets for 3,749 points or 18.1 markers a game per player during the regular season. Seven schools are represented on the team with Stone Creek, Strasburg, Tuscarawas Valley and Midvale each placing two players. Baltic, Gnadenhutten and Port Washington had one player each. Those boys named to the dream team were Ronnie Deibel and Rod Reinhart of Stone Creek, Jerry Froman and Chuck Burris of Strasburg, Ben Price and Ken Haueter of Tuscarawas Valley, Dick Leggett and John Colombo of Midvale, Glen Reidenbach of Baltic, Eldon Miller of Gnadenhutten and Ed Bates of Port Washington. Only three boys, Ronnie Deibel, Jerry Froman and Eldon Miller were unanimous choices of all 10 coaches. Ronnie Deibel and Jerry Froman, along with Ed Bates and Dick Leggett are repeaters from last year. Ronnie Deibel joined the select few who have made the team three consecutive years. He was named in both his sophomore and junior seasons. Ben Price is the only sophomore on the team, while Rod Reinhart and Chuck Burris are the two juniors. Ben Price received honorable mention last year as a freshman, while Rod Reinhart also was on the "mention" list. Ken Haueter was picked on the honorable mention list last year and this year just barely missed being a unanimous choice as did John Colombo and Dick Leggett. Glen Reindenbach, smallest member on the team at 5-5, along with Eldon Miller, did not receive any recognition last year as juniors. But, this year Eldon Miller was a number one choice and Glen Reidenbach was one of the top vote getters. Ed Bates leads in scoring among the All-County team with 446 points during 18 regular season games for a 24.7 average. In four tournament games the sharp-shooting lad has tallied 136 points to bring his total to 582 for better than 26 points per contest. Eldon Miller follows Ed Bates with 413 points in 20 regular season games for a 20.9 average, while John Colombo tallied 360 in 18 games for a 20 point clip. Ronnie Deibel netted 399 in 20 tilts for 19.9 and Jerry Froman 356 in 18 contests for 19.7. Ed Bates set two new marks in the third game of the present tourney with a 50-point spree. He broke the old tourney record of 43 points held by Jerry Von Kaenel of Strasburg and 44 markers that was the Memorial Hall floor record held by Jake Lengler of Dover High. Ronnie Deibel, although experiencing a slump during the season, set a new 4-year scoring mark. He has tallied 1851 points thus far in four years, snapping the old mark of 1792 set by Jim Jones, also of Stone Creek, in 1952, when the Panthers won the county tournament for the first time. Ben Price is the tallest man on the team at 6-3 and is one of the better rebounders although teammate Ken Haueter, 6-1, has been labeled as the top board man in the league as he, many times, out-jumped players two, and three inches taller than him. Ed Bates is also known as a dangerous man under the boards. He handles his 6-2 frame with amazing ability in snatching loose ovals, while Chuck Burris and Jerry Froman also display uncanny ability in getting good rebound position, although they are only 6-1 and 6-0, respectively. Play-makers? The team has them. Rod Reinhart, labeled by many as a "ball-hawk" and Rod Reidenbach, one of the best ball handlers in the loop, could do a better than ample job as the sparkplugs of the team. Dick Leggett and Ronnie Deibel, although very fine shooters, are also outstanding on drive-ins. Dick Leggett was noted throughout the season for stealing the ball and making many easy layups. Eldon Miller could also be added in the driving group as he led his fast-breaking team all year and tallied many of his points by beating the defense down the floor or getting the jump on his opponent. Pivot men are also abundant on the squad as Ben Price, John Colombo, Ken Haueter and Chuck Burris all move very well in the key and are adept in the art of hooking and shooting fade-away jump shots.*
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DREAM TEAM OF 1957
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Ronnie Deibel, Stone Creek Sr. 5-11 399 20 19.0
Rod Reinhart, Stone Creek Jr. 5-8 287 20 14.3
Jerry Froman, Strasburg Sr. 6-0 356 18 19.7
Chuck Burris, Strasburg Jr. 6-1 231 18 12.8
Ben Price, Tuscarawas Valley Soph. 6-3 394 18 17.0
Ken Haueter, Tuscarawas Valley Sr. 6-1 263 18 13.8
Dick Leggett, Midvale Sr. 5-11 342 18 18.8
John Colombo, Midvale Sr. 6-0 360 18 20.0
Glen Reidenbach, Baltic Sr. 5-5 328 20 16.4
Eldon Miller, Gnadenhutten Sr. 5-10 413 20 20.9
Ed Bates, Port Washington Sr. 6-2 446 18 24.7
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HONORABLE MENTION
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Ron Huprich, and John Rich of Baltic
Nick Haswell and Woody Norris of Strasburg
Bill Slemmer of Dundee
Ben Wherley of Stone Creek
Larry Clark, Larry Biggs and Tom Roth of Gnadenhutten
Denver Glazer of Port Washington
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Saturday, February 23, 1957
The Daily Reporter
Jim de Mello
Daily Reporter Sports Editor
Dover, Ohio
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