Seventy years ago, on May 27, 1949, Manteca High’s annual Senior-Varsity football game ended the season of sports at the local high school. The senior squad, with eight of last year’s starting lineup, broke away to dump the Varsity 49’ers in a 25-6 score. Senior touchdowns were made by Wayne Dughi, Henry Welch, Jim Watson and Don Salmon on a pass from Gene Clarke. Dick Swift kicked the conversion. Rich Noack was the only scorer on the Varsity side.
In other sports stories from the Bulletin files:
100 years ago: May 30, 1919 – The baseball jinx just seems to be a bosom friend to the Manteca baseball team this year. The game last Sunday was the third successive game the boys have lost in spite of good playing and hard work. The score last Sunday was 5 to 3 with the local team on the losing end. The game was with Turlock. The feature of the game was Percy Toomes getting three hits out of five ups.
90 years ago: May 30, 1929 – The Manteca Maulers baseball aggregation romped home a winner here last Sunday. In a windy, wild and wooly ball game, the Maulers defeated the cocky Tracy Tigers by the big-proportioned score of 19 to 14. Throughout the game, a real African sandstorm swept across the field. Milton Converse kept up his fine hitting. Milt collected four hits on five times at bat and scored four runs for the Maulers.
80 years ago: June 1, 1939 – Manteca’s slugging Merchants came through with a well-earned 7 to 5 decision over the Livingston Wolves Sunday at Pennebaker Field and stood a mathematical chance of ending in a first-place tie with the Escalon Merchants. Yearick, local centerfielder, garnered three for four at the plate.
60 years ago: June 4, 1959 – Larry Lusk was presented with the Athletic Achievement trophy at the awards assembly at Manteca High last week. The award is given to the boy who is the most outstanding athlete in four years at Manteca High. Larry played varsity basketball and baseball thus year. He was chosen the most valuable baseball player.
50 years ago: May 30, 1969 – East Union High held its annual sports banquet with the following receiving Outstanding Player trophies: football – Larry Yamasaki (back) and Don White (lineman); wrestling – Bill Burgess; golf – Ron Agostini; basketball – Manuel Luis; tennis – Bruce Porter; track – Manuel Luis; and baseball - Bob Holmes.
40 years ago: June 1, 1979 – Scott Morris and Karen Steves were honored as Manteca High’s all-around senior athletes at the Buffalo Spring Sports Social Wednesday. Morris was involved in football, soccer and baseball, while Steves lettered all four years in volleyball, basketball and softball. Top scholastic honors went to Jack Norris of the tennis team with a 3.98 GPA and Andrea Negley with a 3.73 while participating in track. Most valuable athletes were Fred Nelson in track, David Cardoza in golf and Rick Hogan in baseball.
30 years ago: May 29, 1989 – Jon Fannin tossed a two-hitter and led Guinta’s Food Mart to a 1-0 win over Manteca Chiropractic in Tri-County Babe Ruth 16-18 Baseball action Sunday afternoon on the Manteca High field. Fannin struck out eight and walked only two. The only run of the game came in the sixth inning when Oscar Castellanos singled, moved around on a sacrifice and a wild pitch and then was driven in by Gary Shockey’s base hit.
Kelly Masterson earned the high-point trophy among six-and-under swimmers at the Tracy/Heinz Invitational Saturday and Sunday, the Manteca Dolphins first meet of the season. Masterson was first in the 25 butterfly (25.54), the 25 free (21.3) and the 25 breaststroke (32.03).
East Union High and its spring sports coaches honored athletes in the EU cafeteria Tuesday evening. Robert Randall, the Valley Oak League’s Most Valuable baseball player, also gathered that honor on the Lancer team. Other MVP’s were Crystal Hardcastle – softball; Eric Wohle and Shannon Leatherwood – swimming; Jason Snyder – golf; Steve Valdez – tennis; Manuel Zaragoza, Griffen Cheek, Carrie Stringfellow and Kirsten Nelson – track.
Manteca High honored its top spring sports student-athletes at a social in Winter Gymnasium Wednesday night. Winners were Rob Gibson, Garrett Hubbart, Clyde Trent, Blake Burnett, Amanda Dias, Brandi Higginson and Erin Lathrop – track; Paul Banks – tennis; Alberto Almeida – baseball; Rick Mullen – golf; Erin Candini, Mike Dunigan, Mike Gaynor and Tony Mello – swimming and Shelly Spence – softball.
East Union High’s Darren Fix was named the Manteca Bulletin’s top scholar-athlete at a luncheon Thursday afternoon, edging out seven other finalists. Fix walked away with a $250 scholarship. He lettered four times in basketball and three times in tennis, while carrying a 3.8 grade point average.
20 years ago: June 4, 1999 – At the East Union High spring sports awards ceremony on Wednesday, the following athletes received top honors: swimming – Erin Pritchard and Quinlan Chavez; baseball – J. T. Hardcastle and Jack Arroyo.
Manteca High’s sports awards winners last night included: softball – Gina Gonzales and Janeese Bousliman; tennis – Eric Risso l and Jason Tokheim; track and field- Alma Verduzco, Erica Pastran, Josh Roddy and Steve Sims; baseball – Ben McKinsey.
10 years ago: June 4, 2009 – Earning awards at Sierra High’s Spring Sports Social were: baseball – Andy Scott (MVP) and soccer – Nicole Varni (MVP) and Jamie Huffman (Defensive Player of the Year).
During Manteca High’s spring sports social recently, Taylor Trout and Rileigh Mankin were named the soccer team’s Most Valuable Defensive and Offensive Players, respectively. The Buffalo track and field team named Cameron Lucas and Julianna Flores as Most Valuable Players.
Yassen Aniss was named the tennis MVP and Trina Solario was the softball MVP. The swimming team named Davina Bennett, Kevin Craighead and Brent Pollard as its MVPs.
10 years ago: June 11, 2009 – Earning Best All-Around Senior Athlete Awards during Sierra High’s spring sports social recently were Heather Scharmann and Christian Williams. Other Timberwolf winners included: swimming – Zach Holmstrom and Megan Viduya; John Bowers and Courtney Whitlock were the Most Valuable track athletes, while Scholar-Athlete awards went to Jordan Ribota, Madison Taylor and Craig Casity. Gabby Hawkins was the MVP for softball and Kevin Rausa won the same award for the tennis team.
