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1970-71 Resurrection Raiders (8th grade) Front Row: Bobby Gattuso, Jimmy O'Toole, Drew Ondik, Jim "Bim" Wheeler,
Danny Gallagher, Mark Zucco. The 1970-71 Ressi Raider 8th grade basketball team finished the season with a 10-2 record in Diocesan Section AA, second only to St. Albert the Great. Resurrection's basketball program ran up quite an impressive string of successful seasons, making the name "Raiders" synonymous with winning. Editors Note: As I look at this photo, I think of what some of these folks are doing today. Drew Ondik is an executive with Cutler-Hammer, and Moe Buskirk can be found at Brookline Soccer in the fall and at the Little League fields during the spring. You'll find Billy Gallagher there too with his daughter Maeve. Mark Zucco teamed up with his younger brother Jake and, under many names, the two have played some good rock n' roll music at many of the local venues. For years you could find Bim Wheeler playing basketball in Chuck Senft's men's league, and I ran into Bobby Conti a couple years ago at the library. Coach Ben Hartman led the Raiders to further glory, then moved on to coach the girl's varsity team at Seton-LaSalle, where his teams, led by the McConnell sisters Suzy and Kathy, were annual contenders for the state crown. But the one that prompted this note is Joe Ehland. In October of 2001 Joe was working as the Network Manager at ACS, Inc in Robinson. I was out of work and looking for a job. I interviewed with Joe and he hired me. At the time I didn't know who he was, but soon we discovered that we had mutual friends and had probably crossed paths on more than one occasion. To get to the point, Joe hired me on October 8, 2001. Two weeks later, on October 21, 2001, Joe was killed senselessly in a tragic motorcycle accident. Joe was a man revered among his colleagues at work. I only really knew him for those two or three weeks, but I'm glad to have had the opportunity to make the acquaintance of such a fine man. * Photo provided by Bruce Buskirk * |
