PHOTO: Midvale Blue Devils - Tom Krocker*
Midvale's Blue Devils, who comprised the Cinderella team of Ohio's 1957 Class A tournaments until they reached the semi-finals at Columbus, will be odds-on favorites to add the forthcoming county tourney championship trophy to their display case. The forecast is based on the Blue Devils' record for the season just ended. They were undefeated over an 8-game County League route and have an overall record of 16 wins in 18 starts, bowing to West Lafayette 75-70 and to Strasburg 80-77. Coach Pete Hillard's boys currently are riding a 14-game win streak. It will be a long time before county cage fans forget Hilliard's 1956-1957 edition. Even though they walked off with the consolation title of the county by beating Tuscarawas Valley 96-58 the Blue Devils were accorded little chance of advancing on the playoff trail. But in the sectional play the "boys from Stumphill," as they were nicknamed because of a comic strip team in vogue at the time, turned back Killbuck 91-52, Stone Creek 76-71 and Walnut Creek 77-58. Gnadenhutten was the other sectional winner, beating Augusta 86-71. Then in the district event, also staged at Memorial Hall, Midvale knocked over Adena 95-68 and took Gnadenhutten 73-59 to advance to the Canton regional. There the Blue Devils nipped a touted Vienna Flyer quintet 64-62 and then squeezed into the state semi-finals on a 1-point, 61-60 decision over the Savannah Sailors. Midvale was paired with a bunch of bombers in Ayersville's Pilots and, combined with a cold shooting night, found the going too rough and bowed out of the tourney picture on a 71-57 loss. Ayersville went on to beat Gratis for the state toga. Coach Hilliard saw six members of that team graduate. They were Dick Leggett, John Columbo, Lonnie Wolf, first stringers, and Dave DeMattio, Gary Haney and John Beans. Because of those departures, Midvale wasn't expected to cut too much ice in the campaign which has just ended. Two wins and two losses in their first four outings seemed to bear out the forecast. But on December 13 the Blue Devils caught fire in a 58-49 victory over Tuscasrawas Valley and kept right on burning up the nets for 14 games. Their league play gave the Blue Devils their first uncontested loop crown since 1949. Forming the nucleus of this season's squad are two cagers who were on last year's starting five. They are Tom Krocker, a 5-foot-10 junior, and Russ Hobart, a 6-foot-2 senior center, who is the squad's tallest. Rounding out Coach Hilliard's top six are juniors Jim Clark and Dave Belknap, both 5-10, and sophomores Dick Housel, 5-10, and Ron Breniser, 5-11. Gnadenhutten, which copped the 1957 tourney title by beating Stone Creek 75-66, may offer Midvale stiff competition in the upcoming tourney. The Indians finished second in the league race and won 15 of 20 games over the full route. Stone Creek tied with Tuscarawas Valley for third place in the loop and in the 1956-1957 campaign tied with Gnadenhutten for second place, behind Strasburg, which was unbeaten in nine loop games, Stone Creek then pulled a big upset by beating Strasburg 69-52 in the tourney. Strasburg was 4-4 in this season's loop competition. Strasburg meets Garaway in Thursday night's 6:30 opener with Midvale tackling Port Washington at 7:45 and Stone Creek encountering Baltic at 9. On Saturday night Tuscarawas Valley will engage the Strasburg-Garaway winner at 7:30 and Gnadenhutten will collide with Tuscarawas at 8:45.
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Tuesday, February 11, 1958
Norm Singleton
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio
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