The Streak
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| Twenty-one banners decorate the Sutton High gym recognizing superior team performances. Eleven of these banners were earned in the short span from 1986 through 1991. Four of the banners are on the opposite wall. 8 |
How
well have you examined those twenty-one banners hanging in the high school gym?
Those are markers of teams and individuals who excelled against the best competition
Nebraska had to offer. But did you notice that those banners are not
well-distributed across the history of Sutton High. There is a cluster when
more than half of those banners were earned in just six school years, 1986 to
1991.
Noticeable.
It’s
not great news to say that high school athletics is the center of attention in
Small Town America. And Sutton conforms. Just try to schedule a meeting in town
on a fall Friday night, or in February, about any time.
It
should come as no surprise. Among the 1,500 census-counted Suttonites, a big
percentage has family, relatives or neighbor or friends’ kids involved in some
school athletic program. Pretty typical in our area; maybe it’s universal, or
not.
It
surprises people when I mention that we have grandkids in a high school with no
athletic programs, by choice. Their urban district has several schools that are
typical, but there is one school with a full-bore academic focus. And the kids
chose it.
On
the other extreme, the intensity of attention paid to high school athletics in
Nebraska just doesn't match some other places, think Texas. Or one of the
competing schools of our daughters’ high school, the one with a section of
their website for following alums in the NFL.
So
Sutton High certainly doesn't strive for those extremes, often middling is
good.
Our
local high school began in the 1880’s before organized athletics played a role
in education. The first two Sutton championship banners did happen early, in
1919 with the Class B state basketball championship and in 1922 when the Sutton
five won the Class A or All-Class state championship and continued on to face
the Dakota champs in Yankton and have a win and a loss in a 32-team national
tournament in Chicago. We chronicled that story in this publication two years
ago in the February, 2013 issue.
We
offered the 1922 basketball team as Sutton’s All-Time Top Sports Story and
challenged anyone to refute that claim. No one did. We’re going to offer this
challenge to that title.
A
measure of pride in our local sports history is that set of twenty-one banners
hanging on the walls of the gym at the high school. Those are reminders of
teams and individuals who did well against state-wide competition.
There
is a gap between those first two banners and the third Sutton tribute to
athletic success, a real gap, a gap of 64 years, my friends. That’s quite a dry
spell.
We
can be sure that during those six-plus decades that there were some fine teams,
superb athletes, good coaches, maybe great coaches but never did things come
together to qualify for a banner on the wall.
Then
the girls’ basketball team made to the finals in the State Class C-1
Championship in 1986. They did not win that championship but earned a
“Runner-Up” prize for the third banner of all time at Sutton High. Not a
championship, but a deal, just the same.
That
’86 girls’ team must have been an inspiring crew as the very next year the
boys’ basketball team matched them with the 1987 Class C-1 Runner-up prize.
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| Sutton's 1988 Nebraska Class C-1 State Championship team was the school's first state championship since the 1922 basketball team. That's 66 years. It would not take another 66 years for the next one. |
So
in more than a century of Sutton High, exactly one half of the team athletic
performances warranting honor status was done in back to back seasons by kids
who knew each other, were friends and shared the experience. And the fun was
just starting.
In
the fall of 1988 Sutton’s football program was just three years removed from a
0-9 season. Coach Rob Hanger took over that program and posted a 27-7 record
over his first three years. The ’88 team showed promise and they delivered.
In
nine regular season games, the Mustangs had two 12 point wins, the opener
against Stromsburg 12-0 and 22-10 over Geneva in their penultimate game.
Everything else was wins by wider margins. Sutton was second ranked in in Class
C-1 going into their final game against Clay Center, an undefeated team
top-ranked in Class C-2: 35-6.
Ravenna
fell in the opening round of the playoffs 41-0 and the competition stiffened.
The close game of the season came in the quarterfinals against North Platte St.
Pats. Both teams scored two TDs in the 2nd quarter and one each in
the third and fourth but two missed PATs by St. Pats and one two-pointer by
Sutton made the difference 29-26. John Spearman scored three TDs, one on a punt
return for most of Sutton’s scoring success.
The
semi was a win over Tri-County 15-8 with an 87-yard interception return by Doug
George, otherwise, defense.
The
fifth banner in the Sutton gym is for the school’s State Champion Football team
coming with a 20-13 win over Battle Creek but in a game dominated by the
opponent. First downs? 17-5, Battle Creek. Offensive plays? 68-39, BC. Total
yards? 280-164, same story, etc. etc. But a muffed punt and a fumble was enough
to claim that football championship for the Mustangs.
Tough
act to follow, don’tja think?
Not
so much. Sutton boys followed up their state championship football season by
matching that performance in basketball. Throughout their season they had one
game with fewer than 62 points (a 47-29 win over Geneva early – definitely an
outlier) and they gave up more than 65 points only six times in 26 games – four
of those were losses, twice to Sandy Creek. That record foretells achieving
even the highest goals. And they did.
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| The Sutton athletes of the '88-'89 school year followed up their fall state football championship with a spring state basketball championship. |
The
1988-1989 Sutton basketball team breezed through their district tournaments
beating Harvard, Doniphan and Centennial and headed to the state tournament and
an appointment with Palmyra with a 20-2 record.
Sutton
led by 10 after three quarters when the Palmyra team figured out the Mustang’s
full court press outscoring Sutton 18-8 in the final quarter to tie the game.
Sutton regained control of the game to win 81-75 in their only OT game of the
season. It was a short entry in the scorebook with Jay Spearman scoring 23;
John Spearman, 15; Matt Maser, 13; Clint Jones, 12; Doug George, 11 and Brent
Mau, 7.
The
team dispensed with Stanton 83-52 while in the opposite bracket Sandy Creek was
beating Battle Creek and Scribner-Snyder to set up the third meeting between
the two Clay County Class C-1 teams.
Jay
Spearman hit his first seven shots and Sutton was up 39-27 at the half. Sandy
Creek could only shave three points off that margin in the second half and
Sutton claimed its first state basketball championship since the storied 1922
team, two-thirds of century earlier.
Jay
Spearman and Brian Kissinger of Sandy Creek were named to Channel 10/11’s First
Team, All-State – out of Class C-1.
Quite
a record for the school. Football and basketball state champs the same year.
The
girls’ basketball team was no slouch either. They came into the state
tournament with a 22-1 with mostly dominating scores. They met Stanton in the opening
round and lost the fourth quarter by 11 points to lose the game by 6.
The
overall performance of all Sutton athletic teams earned the school the first of
two consecutive Boy & Girl Class C All-Sports State Championships for 1989
and 1990.
That
1990 All-Sports banner was earned primarily by the girls’ basketball team and
the boys’ track and field efforts.
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| Football and basketball dominated this six-year span but in 1990 the boys came home with a state championship in track. Brothers John and Jay Spearman figured prominently in Sutton's successes. Here John qualifies for the state meet in the 400-meter dash and Clint Jones displays his long jump form at the Sutton track. |
The
1989-1990 girls’ basketball team piled up a string of 15 school and state
records including averaging over 71 points a game. Scores were, well,
lop-sided. They made it to the final game for the state championship with a
25-1 record when they beat Crofton in OT 59-57. Battle Creek edged them for
that state championship 53-50.
Both
track teams did very well as the girls qualified eight for the state meet but
the boys took it all with their Class C State Championship.
Success
certainly did not end there as the girls’ basketball team in the 1990-1991
season put a big red exclamation point on this string of sports excellence at
Sutton High.
Again,
log-sided scores were common – does 81-14 over Superior support that claim? And
more importantly was a 48-43 win over Centennial who had gotten in the way in
prior years. And consistency? District scores were 51-43, 53-42 and 55-37 over
Geneva, Hebron and Tecumseh. I wonder, was that maybe even a bit boring?
More
of the same in Lincoln with 61-37 over Cambridge and 59-38 against
Wisner-Pilger. But then came the finals against Crofton and a tight game won by
the Fillies 40-38 to finish the year 26-0, the only undefeated team in the
state that year. And there was another long list of team and individual records.
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| Yearbooks chronicle forever (if you don't lose it) the exploits of high schoolers as viewed by the yearbook staff. Here the 1991 girls' 26-0 state championship team is remembered, almost modestly. |
So
there you have a brief rundown from a runner-up finish by the girls’ basketball
team in 1986 to their undefeated state championship in 1991 with lots of
excitement at Sutton High in between.
Then
comes another gap in the dates on those banners, though nowhere near as long as
that 1922-1986 gap. Both basketball teams did well in 2002 and 2003 with the
boys capturing the C-2 championship in 2003.
A
couple of boys’ State Golf Championships in 2010 and 2012 put banners on
another wall where there is room for expansion…
This
brief look at a highlight period in Sutton High’s athletic record was just
that, brief. How do the players from 25 years ago remember those experiences?
Are memories shared or are they personal? There are Facebook Groups which
target people who shared some experience in the past, including several high
school related ones. There is a “You know you’re from Sutton, NE when…” Group
with more than 500 listed members. Thought I’d look for one targeting students
from this period at Sutton High, didn’t see one. Just saying…
One
more item. As we asked at the beginning, “How well have you examined those
twenty-one banners hanging in the high school gym?” Not individually, but as a
group. They are displayed in chronological order with the bottom row earlier, right?
Well, almost.
Did
you ever notice there is a sequence issue? It stood out as I tried to include a
photo of adjacent banners for the football and basketball championships during
the 1988-1989 school year. Somehow the next school year’s football banner
squeezed in between them. Show of hands: how many noticed that before? Hands
down. (It may be fixed before you can check it out.)
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| Banners are displayed in chronological order, mostly. May be picky here, but this is wrong. The 1989 football banner (fall season) is before the 1989 basketball banner, a season that was earlier in the year, winter and spring. Again, nit-picky? The arrangement foiled the plan for a picture of adjacent banners for the championships by the same kids during the school year of 1988-1989. But there it is, the next year's football banner sticking its nose in. |
This article first appeared in the February, 2015 issue of Sutton Life Magazine. For further information about this publication, contact Jarod Griess at 402-984-4203.
