Laketon High School:
That Championship Season

Introduction

In the winter basketball season of 1925-26, Laketon High School won both the men's and women's championship titles in the rural-based Mountain League.

This honor for the Lake's basketball teams was even more extraordinary given the chaotic history of the Lake Township School Board in 1922-1926.

 

The Lake School Board 1922-1926

In June 1922, the Pennsylvania Department of Health condemned the Laketon school along Queen of Peace Road at the West Corner, but allowed it to operate until the close of the 1922-23 school term. The 1912 four-room school, in some manner, accommodated 3 elementary or grade school classes and 2 high school level classes. The total enrollment was 143 pupils. In June 1923, Laketon graduated 5 high-school students as the Class of '23. No action was taken by the Lake Township School Board to provide school facilities at Laketon for the 1923-24 school term, and its 143 pupils were apparently without schooling in 1923-24.

The Lake Township school directors sought court permission in the summer of 1923 to make repairs to the Laketon school and to reopen it on a temporary basis. The State inspected the school and concluded it was beyond repair. News accounts of Laketon in this period are absent or unclear. School board minutes for June 1, 1925, note the appointment of teachers at Laketon for the 1925-26 term and suggest Laketon was in fact open for the 1924-25 term. Perhaps the Lake school district and the State had reached an accommodation to reopen Laketon until a new school was built. The only other option would have had Laketon students accommodated in remaining one-room schools and by the larger Loyalville school still operating in the township.

In December 1923, the local Court ordered the removal of three of the school directors. The Court appointed three new school directors and retained one of the former directors. An intervening election supported a new director for a total of five.

In March 1925, the Laketon school board finally approved a $27,000 contract to the Berwick Lumber Company for a modern high school along West Point Avenue near Sandy Beach. The A.J. Sordoni Company had bid $31,000. Other contracts for heating and electrical raised the total cost to $35,000. In May 1925 the local court refused to halt the building of the school in a lawsuit filed by taxpayer Herbert A. Bronson.

Ground was broken for the new Laketon High School on March 30, 1925, and the completed school was dedicated on May 21, 1926.

 

The Laketon Basket Ball Season 1925-1926

The 1925-26 school term for Laketon students is also not entirely clear. It appears Laketon High remained open as construction of the new high school was underway. In any event, there would be open schools in Lake Township in 1925-26 and an eventual basketball season in 1925-26.

The Laketon school had a basketball team as early as 1921. But the old 4-room Laketon school did not have a gymnasium. The team used the second floor of the Alderson lodge building of the Patriotic Order of the Sons of Liberty (P.O.S. of A.). The new high school would have a modern gymnasium. The team may have initially used the P.O.S. of A. Hall in 1925-26 but then used the new Laketon High gym as the school was nearing completion in 1926.

With a new school term` in 1925-26, the Laketon basketball team joined a new basketball circuit called the Mountain League. The circuit was represented by the teams from Laketon, Beaumont, Trucksville, Lehman, Noxen and Dallas. It was an eight-week schedule with three games played weekly on Friday nights.

The League rules also required each team to field both men's and women's teams.

Unfortunately, there were few news accounts of the League games. By January 15, 1925, early in the season, Kingston Township (Trucksville) and Lake Township were tied for first place.

Occasionally, the Laketon teams played outside this League. In mid-January 1926, the Wilkes-Barre Americans defeated the Laketon men 36-30. In mid-March 1926, the Wyoming High girls' team defeated the Laketon girls 30-13.

In late March 1926, both the Laketon boys and girls' basketball teams were winners of the Mountain League championship titles for the 1925-26 season. Laketon High School hosted a lavish event for the league on Friday, March 19, 1926, as reported in the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader:

The boys and girls' basketball teams of the Laketon High school of Harvey's Lake, winners of the pennant in the Mountain League for the 1925-1926 season, tendered a banquet and dance in their high school auditorium to the various teams in the Mountain League and to the directors and faculty of the various schools on Friday evening. The school auditorium was very neatly decorated with the school colors and plants, music for dancing and banquet was furnished by the Trucksville Society Orchestra and the banquet was served by the Ladies of the Lutheran Church of the Reformation at Harvey's Lake. The various teams represented in the Mountain League were Laketon, Noxen, Beaumont, Dallas, Trucksville and Lehman. The members of the boys' team of the Laketon basketball team winners of the pennant are: Benjamin Rood, captain, Loren Crispell, Michael Kuchta, Clifford Booth, Burton King, Richard Kocher and Harold Payne. The members of the Laketon girls' winning team are: Adda Edwards, captain, Marion Oney, Ethel Edwards, Fern Sorber, Dorothy Anderson, Viola Kocher and Violet Kocher. [This news article fails to name women team members Elsie Kocher, Mona Sorber, Aderine Kocher and Irene Oney.]

Mr. Ray Worden, president of the Mountain League, introduced the toastmaster, Mr. J.E.R. Kilgore, who filled the position in a most creditable manner and praising the teams of the league for their efforts to establish this indoor spot in the mountain districts. Rev. W.S. York, of Alderson, opened the meeting with prayer and remarks were made by E.S. Honeywell, president of the Lake Township School Board; Benjamin Rood, captain of the Laketon High School basketball team; Fred Hutter, coach of the team; Ralph Rood, president of the Dallas school board; Prof. Oran, of Lehman High school; Prof. Smithgall, of Lake Township schools; Prof. Jaquish, of Noxen High school; Prof. Oberton, of Beaumont High school; Mr. Appleton, of the Trucksville school board; Mr. Stanley Dohl and Sterling Mitchell, of the Dallas school board; Mr. Floyd Ide and Mr. Brown of the Lehman school board, and Mrs. A.E. Burnaford, a former member of the Wilkes-Barre school board. The following captains of the various teams also spoke for their teams: Benjamin Rood, Lake Township; William Richards; Beaumont School; James Garry, Trucksville School; Mr. Newell, of Noxen School; Elwood McCarty, of Lehman School. The girls' teams captains also spoke. Adda Edwards for Lake Township, Edna Cease of Trucksville, Miss Lee of Dallas school, Miss Down of Beaumont school, and Miss Turner of Noxen school.

A silver loving cup was presented to the winning girls' team of the Laketon High school and a silver basketball to the winning boys' team of the Laketon High school. Also a gold fountain pen was presented to Edgar Stem, Jr., of the Laketon school on his delivery of the best essay on the benefit of athletics at school, the presentation speech being made by Mr. S. Dohl. At a meeting held it was decided to organize a baseball team of the various schools of the Mountain League which were associated with the basketball teams.

The banquet proved to be a very enjoyable affair, over 200 attending. Special buses were provided for the accommodation of the players.

It is unclear where this event occurred. The P.O.S. of A. Hall could not have accommodated a large event. The most probable site would be the gym of the unfinished new Laketon High School which would be dedicated in late May 1926.

The Mountain League only lasted one year. In the early 1930s rural schools were organized into a Bi-County League (Luzerne, Wyoming) and later a Tri-County League with a few Lackawanna teams. There was also an Anthracite League, primarily in the Wilkes-Barre area, and briefly a Back Mountain League. Laketon High continued to play at a high level at this time.

In 1930 there also was a Laketon Ex-High team, graduates of Laketon High School who competed against area high school teams. These Laketon graduates included ex-captain Ben Rood, and his brother Vernon.

In the early 1930s, Laketon High won the Bi-County High School Basketball League pennant three times.

The captain of the men's 1925-1926 basketball season, Benjamin Rood, with his brother Vernon, later created the famed Rood's camp ground opposite Sandy Beach. Ben Rood later was a superintendent at Ricketts Glen State Park. A teammate, Burton W. King, served during WWII with the 410th Bombardment Squadron. He was a deacon for 25 years for the Huntsville Christian Church. Teammate Loren Crispell graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a business teacher at Wyoming Seminary for 21 years, and later worked for the Pennsylvania Gas and Water Company for 20 years.

Adda Edwards Smith (1907-1991), the captain of the women's' team in 1925-26, later graduated from Bloomsburg Teachers College and taught in Lake and Ross Townships. She retired from Penn Manor School District in Millersville in 1970.

Another woman on the 1925-26 team was Marion E. Oney Odell (1909-2007) who was employed by Commonwealth Telephone Company, Dallas, for 15 years. She was a 50-year member of the Lake's Emmanuel Church. Violet Kocher and Viola Kocher were twins born on April 30, 1910.

By the late 1970s, the Lake School Board was discussing a new high school to replace the 1926 school. But Laketon High was destroyed in an arson fire on February 24, 1979. The Noxen-Lake Elementary School was rebuilt on the site. The Lake and Lehman high schools merged into a single district.

 

Ben Rood: A 50th Year Remembrance

In mid-April 1976 Ben Rood offered a 50-year remembrance of the 1925-26 championship basketball team in an interview published on April 14, 1976, in the Suburban News:

Benjamin Rood, Laketon, in a conversation with a Suburban News reporter Monday recalled the boys and girls' basketball teams of 1926 at Lake High School. The two teams won the championships of the newly formed Back Mountain Basketball League that season 50 years ago and he recalled, "We even beat Kingston and GAR during that season in exhibition games. GAR beat us on their floor, but we beat them on our court in the building now housing the Lake Elementary School."

Rood recalled, "Schools that joined in 1926 to form the league were Lake, Lehman, Noxen, Beaumont and Kingston Township. I remember the play-off game for the boys' championship very well. We won by a score of 8-4. The game was played in the old Hillside Pavilion, which sat near where the Unclaimed Freight Store is today. The structure was torn down to make way for the Luzerne Highway there. Basil Steele, Dan Richard and Nick Davis were there of the Kingston Township team that year. The pavilion was so full of people we had to play on an oval court with people practically under our feet. Fans were literally hanging from the rafters."

He said, "When we beat Kingston High on their court they refused to come out and play us on our court. At the time we had only been playing basketball five years and were the only Back Mountain School with a gym. Noxen played in the tannery roller house, Beaumont in Meeker's Apple Shed and Kingston Township at the Hillside Pavilion. Lehman practiced and played at our gym."

Rood noted that despite the 50-year lapse only one member of the boys' basketball team is deceased. Richard Kocher, who went to the Pittsburg area to live, was killed in an auto accident about three years ago.

Viola Kocher of the girl's team married Clifford Booth of the boy's team and they reside in the Washingtonville area.

Mona Sorber of the girls' team is the only member of the girl's team who is deceased, as far as Mr. Rood knew. One of the girls, Elsie Kocher, he said, married and went to the west coast and he's not sure about her, and Dorothy Anderson married and moved to New Jersey.

Others on the girl's team and Mr. Rood's information about them were: Adda Edwards, who remained single, lives in California. Violet Kocher married Marian M. Ide, Benton; Marion Oney married Frank O'Dell, Shavertown; Ethel Edwards married John Richards, Binghamton, N.Y.; Fern Sorber married Dan Smith, Ruggles; Irene Oney married Jasper Kocher, former Lake Township Supervisor. Aderine Kocher married Francis (Frank) Collis, Wilkes-Barre, who after retiring as a postmaster at Mountaintop moved to Harvey's Lake.

The men and their information follow: Mike Kuchta, Commonwealth Telephone - Clarks Green; Harold Payne, son of the late Herbert Payne, operated a telephone company in Greensburg; Benjamin Rood in the grocery business and Sandy Beach camp area 30 years; Loren Crispell, Shavertown; Clifford Booth, lives near Washingtonville; and Burton King still resides at Harvey's Lake.