David Strain Coach

Looking forward to speaking at the evening banquet. Getting a little too old to do any rope tricks, but the class of '79 was one of my favorite classes in my 27 years of teaching and coaching at Central.

This is what I remember of the '78-'79 Boy's Basketball season: The 1978-79 season saw another run at the state championship with another senior dominated squad. The Cobblers posted a 12-11 record but ended up strong at tournament time. The Cobblers lost to fellow West River teams that season, such as Lead, Custer, Belle Fourche, Douglas, Stevens and Spearfish; but would beat teams such as S.F. O’Gorman, S.F. Washington, and Aberdeen Central. This showed the quality of basketball that was played out in western SD that season. The Cobblers received good play from seniors Ralph Jackson, Jim Kurtenbach, Mike Clough, Rick Beaird, Lee Lundie, Mark Clements, and Scott Feterl. In addition, Terry Cuny and Kevin Fleming saw action as juniors. That year saw a lot of substitution off the bench to support a fast-paced full court pressure defense and a fast-break orientated offense. At the Section 7 tournament, RCC played through Douglas and Stevens to gain a berth in the State “A”s. This was no easy feat, as both Douglas and Stevens beat RCC during regular season play. At the State Tournament, RCC beat both Belle Fourche and Aberdeen Central, to play Pierre in the State Championship game. Pierre won the game, but the Cobblers took home yet another runner-up trophy. Scott Feterl was selected as an All-State player, but as always, credit goes to all the Senior Classmen that were on the team.