1934 Basketball Team

Astoria's state championship basketball team of 1934 is the yardstick against which all Fishermen teams since have been measured.

Sure Astoria won state hoop crowns in 1930 and 1932, but not with the dominating manner of the 1934 unit. Astoria stormed to a gaudy 35-4 season record, mowing down its last 18 opponents, climaxing it all with a 24-13 rout of the Pelicans of Klamath Falls in the championship game of the state tournament.

John Warren's cagers were 21-1 at home. Their only loss on Clatsop County soil was to the Oregon State University Rooks. The last 18 games overall went into the win column. Warren had assembled a cast of characters that sounded like a "Who's Who" of Oregon high school basketball.

Sophomore Ted Sarpola, one of the most prolific scorers in the state during the 1930's, got his first full year with the varsity off to a rousing start, pouring in 335 points. Almost seventy years later, Sarpola's effort still stands as the Fishermen's sophomore single-season scoring leader.

Sarpola was named to the first team All-Tournament squad, his first of three such honors.

Astoria's first two players off the bench were juniors Wally Johansen and Henry Nilsen. Both athletes stepped into starting roles as seniors and gained Hall of Fame status in later years.

Leland Canessa, the previous year's leading scorer (249 points in 34 games) returned for his final season. Canessa was a second team all-tournament selection a year prior.

Rounding out the starting five was Bobby Anet, who later won honors with the University of Oregon national championship team of 1939; senior Harold Wright, who poured in a career-high 14 points in the Fishermen's 32-25 over Kelso, and Bob Rissman, a giant in the mid-1930's at 6-foot-6.

Astoria's undefeated JV team of 1933 would send numerous players on to varsity stardom. This was the same JV unit that trounced Clatskanie's JV's 70-0.

Astoria served notice to the rest of the state that they would be a force at the state tournament by annihilating the field at the District Tournament, scoring at a 40 point per game clip and holding five District foes to just 10 points in the outing.

On the season, Astoria held its 39 opponents to 668 points, an average of 17.1 points per game. Twice during the year, the Fishermen gave up a season high of 26 points, and lost both games.