Basketball
Dallastown basketball has changed a lot over the years. Many very talented athletes have played here and taken their game to the next level. Not only has the game differed from the past, but the uniforms, coaching styles, transportation, and the league in general have all changed mostly for the better.
One of the major changes in Dallastown's basketball program was the way the league was set up. Mr. R. S. Orwig, who played in the mid forties while World War II was going on, said "there were actually three divisions in this league, the Northern division, the Central division, and the Southern division. Dallastown was in the Central division with York Catholic, Wrightsville, Spring Grove, West York, Red Lion, and North York."
You might wonder how Dallastown got the kind of uniforms they had. Mr. Gerber, who coaced the varsity boys from 1969-1992, has an answer for that. "We picked new uniforms to look like whatever college team was good back then. In the eighties we went with Georgetown uniforms because Georgetown was the powerhouse school. Then in the nineties we bought Duke uniforms because Duke had just won the national championship."
Before the scoreboards were invented, how do you think they kept score? Mr. Gerald Miller said, "faculty members used to take turns writing the score on paper." Mr. Miller was the varsity head coach from 1959-1961.
Where did Dallastown play before the new high school was built? Mr. Orwig responded, "the first place, our gym was a converted market house, where the gym is now across from the South Charles Street Elementary School, that was the high school, the barn as we called it."
Dallastown now is a big rival with Red Lion but how did that rivalry start? Mr. Orwig who was on the team at the time said, "contrary to popular believe Red Lion has always been a rival since I played. But in my senior year it was West York, because all our games were very close with them."
You might want to know what happened to the basketball team when the new high school was built. Mr. Miller said, "different students came from different schools and had to play together because of the new high school. It made a very hostile gym."
How did people travel to get to their games? Mr. Orwig commented, "in our junior year and sophmore year we car pooled during the war and that helped fan support. Then when we got to our senior year the was was over so we got buses. During the war there wasn't enough gasoline to fuel all of the buses.
There have been a lot of changes in the rules in basketball from then till now. One of the biggest changes is the jump ball. Mr. Orwig said, "when we played every time there was a tie up it was a real jump ball. That's no longer the way they play."
You might wonder where the players got dressed. Mr. Orwig said, "we had to dress in the elementary school and run across the street into the high school. This probably was not nearly as dangerous as it is now a days because there were so many less cars on the road."
Was there a lot of fan support? Mr. Orwig answered, "we did in 1945 which was my junior year and in 1946 we were in the district playoffs. That's when basketball really caught fire, because we started going into the playoffs and then they had to buy us uniforms, so we looked presentable."
Dallastown has always been a big powerhouse school for basketball. Hopefully in the future Dallastown players will keep the strong play and continue to succeed and keep the basketball tradition going. Before you know it that too will be history.
