 by Brad Groghan March 04, 2005
As you probably know, Jessie Lebeau's brilliant guard play and Tyler Richardson's smooth moves under the basket led Kayhi to a one point win over Juneau Douglas a couple weekends ago, snapping the Bears' home winning streak against the Kings that dated back to 1980. Coach John Brown, who is generally considered Kayhi's most dominating player ever, led the Kings to a 19-10 record and a Southeast championship in the 1978/79 season. But Brown saw his entire starting five and top seven players graduate the following year. The Kings played tough and scored a lot of points, but finished the season a disappointing 10-17. The highlight of the season came late in the year when Kayhi traveled to Juneau for a pair of games. Kayhi lost a close game 53-59 to open the series, before rebounding the next night to upset the mighty Bears 62-61. Jerry Macki scored 17 second half points and hit the game clinching free throw to lead the Kings to what would be their last win over Juneau on the Bears' home court for 25 years. Brian Reno added 16 points and Steve Axelson chipped in 13 for the Kings. Other members of the 79/80 team included: Joel Sims, Kevin Klepser, Pat Moran, Steve Copeland, Brian Craig, Dan Wendeborn, Guy Mickel, Dan Galos, Martin Svenson and Bill Glass. My apologies if I spelled any names wrong. Juneau has dominated the series of late, though Juneau fans seem to forget that JDHS has three times the enrollment that Kayhi does. Back when the cities and schools were of similar sizes, Kayhi actually dominated at times. The Kings went 31-14 against Juneau in the 60's, and when the Kings won back-to-back Southeast championships in 1987/88 and 1988/89, Kayhi was a cool 7-4 vs Juneau. Dave Maynard coached those two teams, which were two of the biggest Ketchikan has ever seen. Ron Greene, Frank Cloudt, Paul Meehan, Trevan Walker, Dave Meyer, Kevin Nalder and Randy Koltfarber all stood 6-foot-1 or taller, and they all could play. Kayhi dominated everybody in the 60s, winning five state championships and six Southeast titles thanks to players like John Brown, Dennis Nalder, Larry Kemp, Wally Jones, Reymond Henderson, Bill Goodale, Lanny O Neill, Mike Hook, Rick Eide, Kit Keyes, Gerald Huff, Mike Erickson and Tom Seierup. This year's team put on a good performance in Juneau, Ketchikan should be proud of the Kings! Thanks, Brad Groghan
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