Tuesday, December 13, 2016

PHIL WEYBRIGHT - 50 IN 50

The Goshen (IN) News recently published a nice glossy magazine - 50 IN 50 - CELEBRATING 50 OUTSTANDING ATHLETES.  A panel of sports writers compiled the list of 50 of the top athletic performers of the last 50 years in Elkhart County.  Naturally, they had a hard time deciding who was on the list and who was not, but I do not think that they had too much to discuss when it came to including my New Paris High School classmate, teammate, and long time friend, Phil Weybright.

A Young Phil in High School Days

http://www.elkhartcountyhof.com/images/big/PAGE516_Phil_Weybright.jpg 


I cannot find a copy of the 50 In 50 magazine on line, so I reproduce below what panelist Stu Swartz wrote about Phil:

A basketball legend at the New Paris Cubs and Argos Dragons - Phil Weybright dedicated his coaching career to creating memorable experiences for his players.

Weybright graduated from New Paris High School in 1964 [enrollment 237] and coached basketball for 14 years at Argos [enrollment 247].

Weybright started 69 consecutive games for the New Paris Cubs and finished as the school's career scoring leader with 831 points.

The Cubs, coached by Jim Hettler, were 60-9 in those three seasons with two Elkhart County small-school tournament championships.

After graduating from Manchester College, Weybright became a teacher and coach at Argos in Marshall County.

He had a 227-94 record in 13 seasons, capped by a 132-17 mark over a six-year stretch from 1976-82.

The Dragons enjoyed a state-record 76-game regular season winning streak, won four consecutive sectional titles and capped it off with a single-class Final Four appearance in 1979.

Key Argos players that winter were Bill O'Dell, Doug Jennings, Mark Malone, Dave Calhoun, Don O'Dell, Mike Scheetz and Rich Tuttle.

The long Argos winning streak ended December 17,1981 with a loss to John Glenn High School.
Weybright told Bob Williams, author of Hoosier Hysteria, "I did not mind losing to Glenn.  Their coach, Jim Waller, is a friend of mine and showed a lot of class."

"It's hard to believe that all this could happen at such a small school.  I'll never forget that experience and I'm sure our players feel the same way."

Weybright often credited playing for Hettler at New Paris as laying the foundation for his career.
He had single-game scoring highs of 20 points as a sophomore against Wakarusa, 18 against Middlebury as a junior and 28 against Concord as a senior.

His Cubs teammates during those three seasons included Everett Maurer, Don Metzler, Chuck Stille, Rich Hoffman, Fred Schrock, Tom Hoffman, Wayne Snider, Lonnie Clem, Keith Hummel, Bob Lundy and Steve Hoffman.  

Weybright is an inductee of the Elkhart County Sports Hall of Fame and the gymnasium at Argos High School is named in his honor.

Phil During His Coaching Years at Argos [back, right]

 http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/6a0758d80a5f15090710586aa20de61f99336442/c=51-0-532-362/local/-/media/2016/02/19/Indianapolis/Indianapolis/635914729967671996-Argos1979.jpg

Kudos Phil!

I should add that the 50 IN 50 magazine was mailed to me by my aunt Anna Belle Emmert.  My late uncle Red was a mainstay at the scorer's table at the New Paris High School basketball games.  Red, Paul T, also signed many of our draft cards since he was a member of the county's draft board.

10 comments:

DES said...

Added note - New Parisians and others from the area will recognize some of the names in the 50 - Bob Alvarez, Art Cosgrove, Ron Everingham, Steve Fisher, Shawn Kemp, Jay Miller, Rick Mirer, Steve Neff, John Ritter, Dean and Don Weirich, and Gary Yoder.

The Honorable Mention list included Doug Brookins, Mike Franger [I guarded him in the sectional :-], Toby Kidder, and my brother-in-law, Ken Willems, legendary cross country coach at Northridge.

Steve said...

Doug,

I felt Phil would like a book and sent one his way 2 weeks ago. I have several neighbors that take the Goshen paper and were not keeping this. Phil thought they made a mistake in their selection- I strongly disagreed.

Small world- I have a financial adviser in Warsaw and in the course of conversation I find that she went to Argos and Phil was her history teacher.I don't know if you have met many of the Manchester college (University) group. Don Egley organised a poinsettia an fruit baskets that were delivered to Phil and Cindy.

Have a Merry Christmas

Steve

Jim said...

How very cool!

Jim W

Phil said...

Thanks for keeping us up on what is going on. I do remember Red Emmert as one of the mainstays at the scorer’s bench. I also remember another guy, I think his name might have been Junior Whitehead, and the two of them were at every game. I think I lost my draft card a long time ago, but I think I am safe by now. Does anyone have Jim Hettler’s address? I need to send him a card and touch base with him. I have not seen him since our 50th. Thanks again Doug for keeping us updated. Phil

DES said...

You are most welcome, Phil

Junior Whitehead - yes, I remember him as well. Red passed away a few years ago, but don't know about Junior - I will ask Anna Belle if I remember. I have an email for Hettler, but it bounced. I asked his son Ron for a current address, but have yet to hear back. I have seen him a couple of times out at the fairgrounds at the MCC Relief Sale. Seemed pretty good!

doug

Anonymous said...

Yeah Phil taught me in high school I went to Artis High School all those years he met Cindy there he was his sister teacher we talked about two great people

Anonymous said...

Hi Phil this is Keith Stevens just want to say hello from Florida

DES said...

Thanks for dropping by Keith. I let Phil know that you commented.

Anonymous said...

I was the team's statistician for those 3 years when New Paris went 60-9. What a "fun ride" it was!! Each year we lost to Goshen, although in our senior year "we got robbed by the refs" (the opinion of many Cubs fans at the game!).
Our freshman team was 14-0. Great teams!!
Bruce Cable, CPA, Lake Tahoe

Douglas E said...

Bruce - I remember well your dedicated number-crunching during our NPHS days! And I am not at all surprised that you became a CPA :-)

I have an email list for some our the boys in the Class of 64 - if you want to be added, send me an email - swartzendruber46@gmail.com