East Hills and West Hills Jr. High

I attended East Hills Jr. High for grades 7 and 8. The growth of students in the district was so big that the schools built a second high school (Lahser) and a third Jr. High (West Hills) in the 60’s. So I was a content East Hills Cavalier and the school board redrew the lines and next thing I know, I’m heading to West Hills for 9th Grade. I missed some of my friends from East Hills but I made new friends at West Hills and everything was new…everything! I was given lemons so I made lemonade. I ran for 9th Grade president and won. I played on the soccer, basketball and track teams. I was an actor in both plays Good Morning Miss Dove and Our Hearts were Young and Gay, the only time in my life I performed in a play at school. And since so many of us played in sports after school, our play rehearsals were held before school, like at 7:30 a.m. I didn’t drive so I’m not sure how I got to school so early…must have car pooled with somebody. It was a fun year…and I won the Outstanding Athlete Award. Because I was a West Hills Warrior, I then went on to attend Andover instead of Lahser where the people I grew up with attended.

The Junior High Years (7th and 8th Grade-East Hills '65-'67, 9th Grade-West Hills '67-68)

Flag Football, 7th Grade

Soccer, 8th and 9th Grade

Basketball, 7th, 8th and 9th Grade

Track, 7th, 8th and 9th Grade

9th Grade Class President

Student Council, 9th Grade

Theater, Small part in Good Morning Miss Dove and Our Hearts Were Young and Gay

7th Grade yearbook photo.

When I was in 7th grade, they didn’t offer soccer yet so we played IM (flag) football.

The names got goofed up and they owe me any apology, I’m not Bob!

Looking so studious! (Feb.1967)

First year they offered soccer in the Fall, the photo has both 8th grade and 9th grade together. PE teacher Barry Crowe was the coach.

8th Grade basketball team coached by the shop teacher Mr. Corcoran. 13 was my lucky number!

My last year being in the school band…when I went to West Hills, I dropped band. I’m in the back row with my trombone.

Our band teacher had a great name: Mr. Lively!

Mr. Werner was the media center librarian at East Hills. He moved to West Hills with us.

The gang in East Hills lobby: Rick Olson (my next door neighbor), Jon Schwanz, Bill Leonard, Doug Byrum, Scott Gallentine, Mike Studnicki.

Carol Oliver on the way to the bus with what looks like a lot of homework. This was an era before backpacks became popular.

One of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Logan, who taught English.

Scott Gallentine with French teacher Mrs. Kahler.

On the bus with Patti Jaaksi and Sue Rodgers.

Doug Byrum and Biff Galentine on the bus.

So the district redrew the attendance lines and, living in the same house, I and others in my area, were sent to West Hills Jr. High, a brand new school built to handle the large number of students in the district.

Photos from yearbook.

I didn’t know a lot of the 9th graders at West Hills but that didn’t stop me from running for class president. Pretty cool!

Soccer team coached by Mr. Crowe who came over to West Hills from East Hills. He was one of my favorite teachers of all time. I worked with him in the summer as Day Camp Counselor starting in the summer of 1969.

9th grade team had only 10 players, eight of them in this photo. My nickname was “Rubber Man”. I was the leading scorer, leading free throw shooter, honorary co-captain and Most Valuable Player…that’s what it says on my certificate.

I had an interest in one of these cheerleaders…can you guess which one?

Warming up before game. Note the Chuck Taylor Converse All-Star shoes…and kneepad.

Starting for us was Doug Byrum, Bob Smith, Stacy, Mark Sewell and moi.

I’m thinking my Dad took this and other basketball photos.

Track team, just 9th graders. I ran the sprints, the 60 and 100 yard dashes. I was a high jumper and ran on relay teams. Mr. Crowe was coach.

Story to tell here. Mr. Lyle wanted me to play baseball but I was committed to the track team. Mr. Lyle asked Mr. Crowe if he could “borrow” me when we had baseball games as long as they didn’t conflict with track meets. Crowe said OK and that’s why I’m in the baseball team photo. As it turned out, I didn’t play any baseball games for West Hills…it just didn’t work out.

When I was choosing classes to take, A/V Assistant looked like something I could get into since I was an audio-visual kind of guy. And Mr. Werner was cool. One of my jobs was to run 16mm film projectors in classrooms to help out the teacher. Fun!

Student Council…I was probably on it because I was 9th Grade President. Mr. Sheldon was one of my favorite teachers!

Our Fall play was Good Morning Miss Dove. I had a very small part… a few lines…but it was fun with the exception of 7:00 a.m. rehearsals. They had morning rehearsals because so many of the cast played in sports after school. I also had a small role in the spring play, Our Hearts Were Young and Gay. This was the only time I was ever in a play or musical. I wanted to be in those in high school but never could because I played three sports a year. Mr. Chapman was drama teacher and play director. He was one of my favorite teachers of all time!

At the 50th anniversary of West Hills, some of us came to the party May 16, 2018…all of us were 9th grade students the first year West Hills opened: Trent Dalrymple, Ellen Pankratz-White, Sandy Sweeney Feloni, Jon Schwanz, Stuart Bergsman and me.

My Dad was on the School Board in 1966 when they were building West Hills. The school opened the Fall of 1967.

Those three years of Jr. High…Those were the best days of my life (line from Summer of ‘69 by Bryan Adams)