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Jul. 23, 2008
Wrestling added at PVHS in 1977-78
By DON McDERMOTT
During the 1977-78 school year, the Nye County school board approved the addition of wrestling at Pahrump Valley and Tonopah high schools and also okayed the construction of football bleachers at PVHS. There was no extended discussion on those decisions, but adding wrestling seemed a logical extension of the extracurricular/athletics programs in the schools. The Pahrump Valley High School boys' basketball team, led by sophomore all-league and all-state choice Randy Gordon, won 13 of 20 starts, including a 5-4 record in Southern Nevada Class A games. The Trojans, coached by Joe Peterson, lost 61-59 to Tonopah on a last-second shot by Don Buckner in a key league game. Virgin Valley won 80-79 in another thriller. Rob Braden, a transfer from Tonopah, was a second-team all-state pick for the Trojans, who lost to Indian Springs in the regionals. The 1978 volleyball team, in a rebuilding mode like its basketball sisters, was 4-9; in the first 14 years PVHS girls' teams competed, only that team and the 1987 softball Trojans (7-11) were to finish under. 500. Pahrump Valley's baseball team, for the second straight season, was 13-5 in all games, but a 9-1 run in the league gave Rod Poteete's Trojans the league championship, the first of five PVHS would claim over the next eight years. The Trojans lost in the regionals, but they compiled some impressive statistics. The team earned run average was a stingy 1.48 as the Trojans batted .335, including a gaudy .648 regular-season average by Carl Kaucky. Righthander Mike Empey was 10-2 (8-1 in the league) with a miniscule 0.50 ERA. Kaucky, who had 28 runs batted in and a final average of .608, and Empey were all-state selecdtion Kids baseball flourished, under the direction of Al Giannotti; more than 140 boys and girls participated at the Community Center field. That same spring, Gary Nerger, a seventh grader, won the state spelling bee. ---- Shauna McCullough, a 15-year-old PVHS student and an enthusiastic rodeo performer, and her mother Laura were killed in an automobile accident at Linda and Basin streets on April 7, 1978. At the state rodeo held later that spring in Carson City, the McCulloughs were remembered in a solemn tribute. ---- The Calvada Valley Golf & Country Club had Chuck Kaucky serving as course superintendent in the summer of 1978. The front nine was opened July 1, with $6.50 greens fees also covering the cost of a cart on week days. On weekends, it cost $8.50. On July 22, the kickoff tournament and picnic attracted 51 players. The back nine was under construction and scheduled for completion in September. When the course is completed, it will play at par 72 and 7,200 yards. A Preferred Equities-sponsored softball team was 16-0 that summer. Anna Barris of Pahrump was Miss Nevada Reno. ---- In December 1978, wrestling debuted at Pahrump Valley High School, with Al Giannotti the coach; Darrell Bellamy was the assistant. In their debut, the Trojans defeated Indian Springs 46-33. Giannotti had 12 of 13 weight classes filled; the matmen were Ken Steib, Pat Scanlon, Marty Daffer, Charlie Dodge, Jeff Phillips, Marshall Laub, Angelo Santovito, Dennis Sanders, Mike Taylor, Brad Engstrom, Harold Coleman, Joe Nicholson, Frank Day and Dusty Gill. ---- Cotton farming started in what was the Pahrump Valley in 1948, with most the the acreage devoted to the growing of that crop. There were 10 cotton farmers still in business in January 1979, including Bob Ruud, L.O. (Digger) Anderson, Perry Bowman, Ted Blosser, Lyle Christensen, Hollis Harris, Al Bell (the Bell Vista Ranch lease and arrangements with Ruud, who managed Calvada property) and the Brady Brothers farm. Johnny Bell ran the cotton gin, where in 1963, a record 6,773 bales were processed. Only 1,376 bales, from 1,300 acres, were processed in 1979. The price was 70 cents per pound in 1978, 60 cents in 1979 (58.6 tons). |
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