THE BEST AT MT. VERNON HIGH PART I OF A SERIES

With the official start of the basketball season tonight, I thought a look back at Mt. Vernon High's best over the years might be fun since most of my faithful readers are MTV High grads. Obviously, this subjective list of mine is open to discussion, objection, further blogs, and I'll stop it when I feel like writng something else.

Let's start at the top. Best Superintendent: J. D. Shields Why? He hired me when I really needed a job. The Viet Nam War was going on and teaching was a deferment. Also I had gone to college on a teacher's scholarship which meant I had to teach for two years in the state or I had to pay back the money they loaned me. Dr. Shields knew desperation when he saw it.
Runner up: Terry Milt Why? Man, he's in our MVRL Leagues and is a great owner. He loves sports and people, and he's Number 2 because I said so.

Best all-time coach: Scott Gill Why? Who else coached three varsity sports and did a great job? Coach Scotty coached basketball, baseball, and golf. Also, he's still quite the gentleman.
Runner up: Sonny Ellis Why? Coach Ellis coached two sports at the varsity level and like Coach Gill coached year round for many years. Coach Sonny had a nickname for everybody and they were all different. For whatever reason I was Theodorski.
Runner up !B: Coach Rennie Why? Primarily a one sport coach, Sara also coached softball at the varsity level. She gets it simply for her durablity. Thirty plus years! Wow!

Best Athletic Director: John Cruser Why? Mr. Cruser sold the administration on a full-time AD with no teaching duties. And it is a full-time job if it's done right. John was at every sports event and at the high school, that's no small task. He also introduced awarding plenty of varsity letters which mean so much to student-athletes.
Runner up: Noble Thomas Why? Because he was such a good role model. I know, he may precede all my readers, but he was a fantastic person. He was maybe the strongest man I ever knew. He kept one math teacher with no athletic interest or ability on staff because he told a student a lie. The student was bad mouthing the teacher and Mr. Thomas told him that the teacher had killed a man in a boxing match when he was in the army. For the rest of his career, that teacher had few disciplinary problems.

As one of my childrren used to say " to be tinued."