SPORTS

If the Watsons put Weedsport on the map, it remained for John Skvorak to keep it there and make the impression more vivid. John came to Weedsport High School as science teacher and athletic coach immediately after graduation from St. Lawrence University in 1927. He continued to serve as coach and teacher until 1961 when he became High School principal. During that 85 year period his teams compiled one of the most outstanding records in the annals of high school ahhletics.

Skvorak coached football, basketball and baseball with equal skill. His athletes always seemed to improve as the season progressed and if they made one of their rarely poor records during the season, they could be depended upon to win the play-offs.

Weedsport High School Football Team, 1908

His boys won 80% of their football games: 100 wins, 19 losses, 7 ties. During the 6-man tackle football years they won 26 consecutive games. The baseball players did nearly as well, 3O0 wins with 101 losses. They were county champions eighteen years and undefeated in the 1950 season. Basketball teams followed the same pattern - 285 wins, 159 losses; County Pennant 13 years; playoff winner 5 years; undefeated in 1942 and Section IV, Class C Champions. In the years girls basketball was played, the Skvorak coached teams came thru with a whopping 83% winning record. They won 125 games, lost 24 and were county champions seven times in nine years.

Adding in a short period when soccer replaced football, John Skvorak's high school team played 1,142 games, won 824, lost S09, tied 9 - an astounding 75% of wins.

The Weedsport Watson name stayed with non-school baseball until the middle 1960's and Skvorak figured prominently with the team as both player and coach. He also managed the team for a few years. Other managers over the same period included Harold "Red" Dutton, Harry "Zip" Northrup, Raymond Hanlon and Terry Blumer. With good coaching and good management, the local team won "more than its share of games, "finishing in the upper half of the State League year after year. By winning seventeen straight games in 1958, the Watsons established a new league record.

Construction of the W. F. Lampman pool at the High School made swimming a very popular sport in Weedsport. Among the students who distinguished themselves locally and are continuing to participate on college teams are Michael Guzewicz, Cornell;-Deborah Kinney, Springfield College, Springfield, Mass.; and Scott Zimmer at Geneseo.