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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 2017)
4A • March 3, 2017 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com SignalViewpoints The championship that got away T he basketball Gulls have yet to win a state championship. But they’ve sure come close. As they look ahead to the tournament ahead, players past, present and future are watching a team with a long legacy of success. Mark Wickman’s name comes up almost immediately in every conversation of Seaside’s basketball stars. “I had a great player, Mark Wickman,” Coach Larry Elliott, who led the team from 1971-96, said. “He went on to Linfi eld, was a little All-American academically as well as basketball.” The Gulls have never won a state champi- onship, but Wickman’s scoring dominance — abetted by the play of his teammates — in the 1973-74 season brought them close. Seaside alum and 1973-74 basketball team member Scott Maltman recalled “some good athletes those years: Mark Wickman, Lee Wilson, my younger brother Michael, Frank Sheppard was our center. Mike Hartman was the other guard my senior year.” Others in a team photo include Mitch Mooney, Tom Bates, Josh Gizdavich, Fritz Beckford and Jim Norling. “If we wanted to be in the gym, we were in the gym,” Maltman said in January. Wickman is not easy to catch up with today — he’s frequently on the road as a fi nancial planner — but we did manage to catch him for a phone conversation on one of his drives in southern Oregon. Wickman transferred to Seaside High School from a small religious school in the Olympic Peninsula for the 1972-73 school year. “The two prior years, the Gulls hadn’t won many games,” Wickman said. The team fi nished 6-4 in the very tough Cowapa League in 1972-73, beating two league powerhouses, Scappoose and Tilla- mook, during the regular season. Wickman was picked for fi rst team all-league. Dave Allen, Dave Butler and Tom Maltman gained second team honors, setting the next season’s stage. “I knew that going into the ’73-74 season we could be a very good team,” Wickman said. “We were big, we had guards, shooters, we started 6-6, 6-5, 6-4 and we had 6-5, 6-4 coming off the bench as well.” The Gulls reeled off a 9-1 record by early January, the only loss coming to Portland’s Class AAA Jackson. Seaside was ranked No. 1 in the Class AA Associated Press poll. “They know they can’t sit back and rest on their record,” Elliott said at the time. “Oh my goodness, it was crazy,” Wickman said. “Just crazy. We won our tournament and another tournament. The gym was packed throughout the year. The No. 1 ranking was something people really got behind.” You think “Go Gulls” fever is big this year? With two tournament wins, “busloads of SEEN FROM SEASIDE R.J. MARX fans” followed the Gulls to every game, Wick- man said. “We had a very good following on the road,” he said. “This was the event, every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday night in town to go to, and people went.” The season had its share of big games. Wickman set a school scoring record against Clatskanie, pouring in 38 points, 24 in the second half. He also hauled down 24 rebounds and had eight steals. Cascade was dominant, as were the highly ranked Rainier Columbians. “I had a game where I was 15-15 from the fi eld and they still beat us,” Wickman said. “They just had our number. They had an all- state guy that was about my size, and another guy, second team all-state.” Looking back at the record, Wickman’s memory holds true. In a February 1974 game, the Columbians shot 80 percent in the fi rst half and 90 percent in the second half to trip up Seaside. The level of play remained high all year, as did the excitement. A January contest brought what the Signal’s sportswriter called “cardiac basketball.” Scott Maltman was the hero of a showdown with Neah-Kah-Nie, making a layup in the fi nal second of the game to win 48-46. In another buzzer-beater, senior forward Beckford gave the Gulls an 50-48 overtime win against Scappoose with a reverse layup with 14 seconds on the clock. That win put the Gulls into the State AA Tournament in Eugene. Their fi rst matchup was against No. 2 Cascade. The game pitted two all-state centers — Jeff Koenig played the position for Cas- cade — and though it was the fi rst game of the tournament, it was considered the jewel in the crown. Wickman still regrets the trophy that might have been. Seaside played 3 1/2 quarters of some of its best ball of the year, the Signal reported, “man- handling the Cougars and almost breaking the game open at several points.” With a little more than two minutes remain- ing, Seaside led 57-53 and had a one-and-one bonus situation at the foul line. The Gulls missed the opportunity and in the next 120 seconds Cascade reeled off points as the Gulls lost the ball repeatedly on the full court press. Cascade capitalized on an 11-point burst for a 74-61 victory. Wickman scored 33 points in that game, 14 rebounds and “completely handled” Koenig for the fi rst three quarters, but he and the team ran out of gas as Cascade’s Koenig and all- state guard Dennis Federico led the Cougars’ comeback. “I’d had a real good game,” Wickman re- called. “They came back, they had a couple of guys who kept plugging away, we made a few bad decisions and they took advantage.” Wickman was “absolutely crushed.” “I felt we were the better team,” he said. “It sounds selfi sh, but knowing what I know now, I would have said, ‘Give me the ball.’” After the loss, the Gulls regained their composure, rolling off three victories in a row, winning the consolation trophy and fi nishing fi fth in the state. In one of those tournament games, Wickman set a record tying the individ- ual fi eld goal mark in a tournament, 15. He was named to the all-tournament team and was the Class AA rebounding leader. Cascade went on to beat the Gulls’ nemesis, Rainier, for the title, 56-50. “I know we provided the best matchup against them than anyone at the tournament,” Elliott told the Signal at the time. The next year, the Gulls earned a repeat trip to the tournament, winning their fi rst two games before being stymied. Wickman followed his Gulls career with even greater glory, playing ball at Linfi eld Col- lege — the alma mater of Coach Elliott. At Linfi eld, Wickman was a three-time All-American and four-time All-Northwest Conference and all-district basketball player. He was a nearly straight-A student. Wickman’s bid at a major college tourna- ment came in his sophomore year at Linfi eld, when they faced a team from South Carolina. “That was one and done as well,” Wickman said. “Their starting lineup was 6-11, 6-10, 6-6, 6-6 and 6-2. We gave up about 4 inches at ev- ery position, another one where we’re leading with two minutes to go and I fouled out.” Wickman’s career total of 2,357 points has never been equaled at Linfi eld. Nor his career rebound total of 1,109. Wickman came oh-so-close to a career in the National Basketball Association, drafted by the Trail Blazers the season after they won the title. “They won the title in ’77, my year was ’78,” Wickman said. “I went to rookie camp, played a little bit in the summer league and then got cut. I played four years in Europe. I coached and taught for a little while, then went into fi nancial services.” Today he and his family split their time between McMinnville and Bend. Wickman looks back on his time in Seaside and Coach Elliott. “Tongue in cheek part is, he never ages,” Wickman said. “He looks the same as he did 40 years ago. He was a Linfi eld guy as well. Certainly that played a role in my decision. I did a lot of camps there, looking back 40-plus years, I look back and see his growth as a coach. That was really, really something that was encouraging to me.” Perhaps with a little bit of irony, the Gulls are back up against the team that took it all in 1974, the Cascade Cougars, on Saturday night at the Gulls’ Nest. Wickman has encouraging words for this year’s Gulls as they take to the court once again with hoop dreams. “I just know they were there last year in that championship game and they have to realize how great an advantage having been there last year in that championship game was and how they can use that to their advantage this year,” Wickman said. “It’s a confi dence issue. Absolutely a confi dence issue. Believing in themselves, they can win.” ‘Oh my goodness, it was crazy. Just crazy. The gym was packed throughout the year. We won our tournament and another tournament. The No. 1 ranking was something people really got behind.’ 1973-74 team photo. Mike Maltman Mark Wickman 1973-74 basketball team member played a big scoring role for the 1973-74 Gulls. 1973-74 stand- outs Mark Wickman, Scott Maltman, Mike Maltman and Fritz Beckford. Mark Wickman dominated on the court in 1973-74. FILE PHOTOS My hospital visit didn’t make for much of a vacation I n my last column there were two typos which made it sound silly and that always bugs me. You probably fi gured them out. The mar- ried couple were two halves of the same whole; not “where,” and the leg amputation was one that did not heal, not “walk.” Sorry. I hand print my copy and often it’s not legible to the transcriber. I need to try harder. Valentine’s Day I went to the hospital with Montezuma’s Revenge — a lovely time. Montezuma and I haven’t spoken for ages. The visit ran into my son’s birthday on the 15th. A “friend” asked if I were va- cationing. Not so you could notice! PUBLISHER EDITOR David F. Pero R.J. Marx SCENE & HEARD CLAIRE LOVELL Stormy weather was fun to watch out the window when I was cozy inside, except when the lights went out at midnight and we were on generator for two or three minutes. Disconcerting. I discovered a lot of unpleasant things about myself, except that it comes with the territory. Nurses and assistants were so plentiful, there were many names to learn. One aide (my word) who got the unpleasant jobs, had a Spanish name which she said meant “a rock before it became a star.” I thought that was beautiful. Everyone, from E.R. to discharge, was so nice, except for putting me in room 213. Maybe that caused me to stay three days. Ha. Has anyone else seen the three deer that used to come to my back yard or know what happened to the mama with the broken leg? Was there ever an accident on the high- way, which took one of the fawns, too? They’ve been a part of my outside scene for so long, I’d like to ADVERTISING MANAGER SYSTEMS MANAGER Betty Smith Carl Earl PRODUCTION MANAGER ADVERTISING SALES John D. Bruijn Brandy Stewart CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Rebecca Herren Katherine Lacaze Claire Lovell Eve Marx Esther Moberg Jon Rahl know how everything turned out. Most outstanding news in the paper recently was the article that told us that Packy had died the day before. I haven’t been to the zoo for ages although there was a time when every important detail of Packy’s progress was fascinating to us all. His birth started a whole new circumstance in the zoo industry. I wonder if TB is a common ailment among elephants. I’ve never been a fan of legaliz- ing marijuana sales and I do believe the time will come when we will regret having so many (or any) outlets. It makes sense to allow it in Seaside Signal Letter policy The Seaside Signal is published every other week by EO Media Group, 1555 N. Roosevelt, Seaside, OR 97138. 503-738-5561 seasidesignal.com Copyright 2017 © Seaside Signal. Nothing can be reprinted or copied without consent of the owners. The Seaside Signal welcomes letters to the editor. The deadline is noon Monday prior to publication. Letters must be 400 words or less and must be signed by the author and include a phone number for verifi cation. We also request that submissions be limited to one letter per month. Send to 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive, Seaside, OR 97138, drop them off at 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive or fax to 503-738-9285. Or email rmarx@seasidesignal.com pharmacies for the conditions it alle- viates but anything mind altering, it seems to me, would be dangerous on the highways. I think it’s cool that our shop is next to the police station. I had a phone “outage” on Mon- day after my illness and got upset because I couldn’t make any calls. I’d forgotten to check what had happened before — another phone off the hook. Tsk. Laugh lines Pick: “Did you hear about the kidnapping at City Park?” Pat: “No, what happened?” Pick: “His mother woke him up!” SUBSCRIPTIONS Annually: $40.50 in county • $58.00 in and out of county • e-Edition: only $30.00 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Seaside Signal, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103. Postage Paid at Seaside, OR 97138 and at additional mailing offi ces. Copyright 2015 © by the Seaside Signal. No portion of this newspaper may be re-produced without written permission. All rights reserved.