Laughing along with Len, we give you the 1963 all-Olympic league basketball team.

This is the annual all-opponents roster, the thankless compilation of which falls upon Leonard Bell, Sequim high school principal, whose task this winter was lightened by the presence of his son, the obviously outstanding player, and darkened by three-valued ballots from member schools.

There used to be seven teams in the circuit, four class AA and three class A. That wasn’t so good but they all played each other and, when the sickly thing that is an all-opponents team was issued, at least everyone had equal say.

NOW THERE ARE 11 TEAMS. The original seven – South Kitsap, Central Kitsap, North Kitsap and Port Angeles, all double-A, and Bainbridge, Port Townsend and Sequim, all single-A – have been joined above and below. East and Shelton, big schools signing up this year, played none of the single-A members. North Mason and Forks, new A partners, played no double-A.

So what kind of all-opponents team do you get when members aren’t all opponents?

This:

First team – Young Len Beil, 6-4, Sequim center and son of old Len Beil; Joe Burroughts, 6-1 Central Kitsap guard-forward; Doug Dow, 6-2 Bainbridge center; Cliff Echternkamp, 5-11 Sequim guard-forward, and Rich Brooling, 6-1 Port Townsend forward.

Second team – Dave Denny, 5-8 Port Angeles guard; Bruce Shamp, 6-2 Port Angeles center-forward; Dave Edwards, 6-0 Port Townsend center; Mike Holen, 6-1 East forward; and Ed Almojuela, 5-8 Bainbridge guard.

Honorable Mention – Jerry Williams, NK; John Tracy, East; Larry Thomas, Forks; Jim Tienhaara, East; John Eliason, NK; Bill Smith, Shelton; Larry Powell, Shelton; Greg Morrison, East.

All are listed in order of ballot points although some are tied.

Your funny bone twinge in there?

DON’T CHUCKLE OUT LOUD. Impolite, impertinent. Besides all are good players, as far as our area is concerned. Al deserve their post-season honors.

But a trend is noticeable beyond the obvious point that class A schools, which had better season records in general than the class AA schools, landed more and better berths on the all-opponents alignment.

1. Nine of the 10 players on the first two units come from schools that competed in both classifications.

2. Six of the 10 honorable mention youngsters competed in only one classification.

Counting the same ballots, but only for school of common size, we would get a representative two-division all-league team:

Class A – Beil, Dow, Echternkamp and Brooling with Edwards beating out Almojuela for the fifth spot on the tie-breaking ballots from out-of-class opponents, the logical place to use such votes.

Class AA – Burroughs, Holen, Denny, Shamp and Tracy.

That’s much fairer to a versatile performer like Tracy whose only handicap was not getting to play everyone.

THE TWO-DIVISION IDEA probably would spawn conjecture over which would win in an all-star game between the two dream teams. It’s not a bad idea, that game, but it’s not worth debate.

None of our teams of late could raise blood pressure outside its own backyard.

Got a hunch that if such an all-star game were realized, the side with the silentest coach would cop the pop. But we’d better avoid that “technical” subject.

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Westside Honors

Boy Club Cagers

Westside Boys club honored 30 athletes with trophy awards at its annual basketball banquet last night at Hadden school.

Bob Smith, West high school basketball coach, was the principal speaker at the fete which attracted 120 persons. Dr. R.D. Diefendorf was honored for his leading role in a recent fund drive for equipment.