General Memories, 1965-66: Steve Penner

Update: Purchasing Steve's book is easier than I knew. You can buy it from Masthof Press here. At $15 it's a steal.

Steve Penner emailed these reflections on the 1965-66 season:

"Don Nikkel has offered an accurate portrayal of Shafter High basketball in the mid 1960s. The goal of every Valley high school basketball squad was to attain the Valley finals, to be part of the Final Four weekend. These games were played in packed out gyms, the stands equally divided, assigning the fans of the four participating teams to their particular quadrant. Our hearts were all stirred when the brilliant Larson-Loewen-Costello team pulled the Generals out of the roundball doldrums and into that fabled Final Four showdown weekend in the late winter of 1965. As the 1965-66 season dawned we knew that we had the beginnings of a tradition to uphold.

Pre-season practices for the 1965-66 season did not include Danny Costello. Danny was now a senior and an outstanding football player. He would later go on to play defensive back for Washington State. While we ran laps in the SHS gym, Danny was out on the gridiron. Danny was the one starter from the 64-65 Final Four team who would be returning in 1965. Don Nikkel and Ken Torrigiani had both logged considerable minutes and would be expected to contribute mightily. Those of us coming up from a mediocre JV team, namely Alan Hoggard, Mark Franz, and myself, hoped that somehow our skills would magically rise, just by being around the trio of veteran Generals.

We could hope that, especially, something of the charismatic Costello would rub off on the rest of us. Costello was one of the best athletes I ever saw in my high school years. He was quick and tough, a good shooter, and he was viciously competitive. His personality filled up a room. Socially and temperamentally, he was from an entirely different world from me, and many of my teammates. But basketball was a team game we could play together, and when, at the beginning of the season, Coach Hampton named me as a starting guard alongside Danny Costello, I was honored.

We lost our first two games but we rationalized that our football players, particularly Danny Costello, were just getting their basketball legs, and soon enough we would turn things around. So it was a great shock when Coach Hampton announced that due to a violation of team rules, we would no longer have Danny Costello and Ken Torrigiani with us. It was like the heart of our team had been ripped away.

But there were a lot of games remaining on the schedule, and the next one was a home game against the Lindsay Cardinals. That night the gym was packed and the fans roared when we trotted onto the court. We took an early lead and somehow managed to win the game. Lindsay was a small school, and no basketball powerhouse, and they probably had a very weak team. All we knew was that we wouldn't go without a win, even with two of our star players sidelined for the season.

The other thing I remember from that night was this. Costello and Torrigiani were sitting in the stands that night, probably wearing their letterjackets, cheering for us."