Pittston Area coach Mike Hopkins, left, and GAR coach John Hopkins present their mother Mary with corsages before the teams played in 1992. John Hopkins retired in 1996 with one of the most impressive coaching careers in any WVC sport.
Times Leader file photo
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After a month of speculation, GAR coach John Hopkins retired in 1996 after coaching the school’s boys basketball team for 23 years.
“For so many years, it’s been very hectic,” Hopkins said. “I’ve been thinking about it for a month. I think I’ve put enough time in. I’m going to spend more time with my family now.”
Hopkins had a career few WVC coaches in any sport could match. He finished with a 502-146 record, 15 WVC championships, eight District 2 Class 2A titles and three state finals appearances. He coached nine 1,000-point scorers and a pair of 2,000-point scorers.
Hopkins began his coaching career as a Coughlin assistant under Jim Atherton. He then was an assistant coach at Bishop Hoban for five years before landing the GAR job in 1972.
Based on records on pahoops.org, Hopkins is only one of six men who coached in the WVC to amass over 500 victories. Northwest’s Ed Gayeski is atop the list with 744.
1950
The Wyoming Valley Chapter of PIAA Umpires agreed to resume the use of only one umpire during high school games. The chapter was against the system a year earlier and refused to work games where schools wouldn’t hire two umpires.
An umpire would be paid $5 for a game.
1975
The Polish National Junior Wrestling team won seven of nine matches against regional high school wrestlers in an exhibition at King’s College.
Berwick’s Matt Simone won 7-2 at 127 pounds and Hanover Area heavyweight Mike Pisarcik won 3-0.
Other WVC wrestlers were Meyers’ Frank Castrigano (110) and Phil Seeherman (169), Crestwood’s Don Gaetano (119) and Pittston Area’s Phil Dunn (147). Two Shikellamy wrestlers and one from Abington Heights rounded out the team.
1984
Studio 19 defeated Humphrey’s 86-82 to win the fourth annual Mendy Rudolph Small Man’s Basketball Tournament at the Jewish Community Center.
John Leighton scored 36 to lead Studio 19. The team consisted on many former Wyoming Valley Conference stars, but had a unique twist. One member was 45-year-old Bob Mullery, who set the state record for points in a high school game in 1957. Mullery scored 92 points, hitting 41 of 52 shots, for St. Vincent’s in a 128-38 win over Sacred Heart.
Mullery’s record lasted just three years. In 1960, Bristol’s Pete Cimino scored 114 points in a 134-86 victory over Palisades. (Some sources have it listed at 112 points).
Mullery played just five minutes for Studio 19 and scored two points, but the game gave him a chance to play with his son Bob Jr.
1990
Dallas’ Laura Poyton pitched a perfect game, striking out four, in an 8-0 victory over Pittston Area in WVC softball.
Brenda Mission saved the perfect game with a running catch in the right-center gap for the final out.
The perfect game was the second in the WVC. Meyers’ Kim Maguire had one four days earlier.
2010
Nate Newman set Misericordia’s all-time home run mark at 22 with a two-run shot in a 10-5 win against Eastern.
Newman, an Athens High School grad, holds Misericordia career marks in homers (32) and homers in a season (13, 2010). His 154 career RBI was second-most in school history.