While it may have not been the NFL draft, Dave Hart and Mike Rippee participated in this area's closest thing to it.
Hart, who is the football coach at Fernley High, and Rippee, who coaches at Douglas High, were given the responsibility of selecting this year's teams for Friday's Sertoma Football Game to be played at 7:30 p.m. at Mackay Stadium. Last spring a draft was held to select the teams.
Instead of selecting individual players, Hart and Rippee had the responsibility of selecting schools. Just like the NFL draft, Hart and Rippee had their charts, cheat sheets and scouting reports to determine which schools they would select. The draft even came with a time limit like in the NFL in which Rippee and Hart were given several minutes to make their choices.
Their responsibility was to make for as competitive of a game as possible and how well they did will be judged by Friday's result. Hart, who is coaching the Blue, and Rippee who is coaching the Silver, both said they believe their selections will lead to a competitive game.
The draft was instituted this year after last year's lopsided result in which the West beat the East 56-6. Not wanting another result like that, the organizers of the Sertoma game instituted the draft.
There was no denying that under the old format, another lopsided result was possible. The West would have had players from NIAA 4A State Champion Reno, Northern 4A runner-up Douglas, 3A state champ Manogue and McQueen.
Rippee still has players from Douglas, Manogue and McQueen. But Hart will have players from Reno and looking at the two squads, the matchup looks more even.
Since Rippee coaches Douglas he received players from his team and Hart received players from Fernley. Hart was then given the first choice and he chose Reno.
Rippee said his first four choices in no particular order were Carson, McQueen, Manogue and South Tahoe.
"It was difficult," Rippee said. "I knew who I wanted on the team. I'm happy with my team. A lot of fine young men. I feel very good. Win or lose, I've done my job."
"You set up what you want," Rippee also said about how he approached the draft. "You set up a wish list."
The draft also provided the chance for players from Carson and Douglas to play on the same team in the all-star game.
"I knew Carson was very high on my list," Rippee said. "They had some very fine players."
It also worked out that Rippee's staff was given the chance to work with Carson coach Shane Quilling and his staff.
"I made it known I was very interested in having Shane," Rippee said. "We're pretty good friends. We've had a lot of fun getting ready for this."
Rippee said practice has been like a clinic where he's been able to pick up ideas from Quilling and his staff. "Maybe he's doing the same thing," said Rippee about Quilling.
It also worked out that Rippee was able to draft his alma mater, Yerington. The Lions will be represented by Adam Ledbetter and Lucas Mudloff. "It was nice to see that old purple and white out there," Rippee said.
In addition, it worked out that Hart was able to draft Dayton, which was fortunate since Hart had already asked Dayton coach Rick Walker and his staff to work with his staff.
"We feel pretty good about the kids we got," Hart said. "We're trying to balance it out and it was a pretty good idea I think. We kind of put together a plan of what we wanted to do."
While Rippee said he liked the old format, he agreed with Hart that the draft has worked well.
"I think in the long run this will be a better way to do it," he said. "They don't want to see a game get out of hand. It's not very interesting. I think both teams are close."
Hart's team will feature six Reno players who are going on to play at Division I-A or Division 1-AA.
"One day working with these guys you can see why they were," said Hart about how the Reno players were recruited.
REAGAN REMEMBERED
Regardless of what one thinks of Ronald Reagan's politics, there's no denying that the former President who died on June 5 was considered to be genuine. Former Major League pitcher and Carson City resident Dick Green experienced first hand how genuine Reagan was.
In 1975 Green was the general manager of the Reno Silver Sox Class A minor league team that was affilated with the Minnesota Twins and the San Diego Padres. Green came up with a promotion that involved the season's first ball being signed by the Governors of the three states involved with the team: Minnesota's Wendell Anderson, Nevada's Mike O'Callaghan and California's Jerry Brown.
Anderson and O'Callaghan graciously offered their signatures, but Brown would not, considering such requests as frivolous as reported in People Magazine at the time.
So Green went to Brown's predecessor, Reagan, who not only signed the ball but insisted on treating Green to lunch and a signed publicity photo as People reported. "Probably the nicest person I've met in all my life," Green said.
Contact Charles Whisnand at cwhisnand@nevadapppeal.com or 881-1214.
