Teutopolis has never seen a victory dance like the one being performed this year by the Wooden Shoes.
The team has topped the wire services` Class A polls for four weeks.
For 25 games, the undefeated Shoes (enrollment 356) have fired the hearts and imaginations of their small southeastern Illinois community. The school gym holds 1,800 people, 600 more than the town`s population, and in all but two games this year the stands have been overflowing.
This could be the year the Shoes finally clip-clop their way to Champaign.
”I know we`ve had some big seasons here, maybe 25 or 26 wins,” said fifth-year coach Ken Crawford. ”But we`ve never won a sectional tournament in history.”
Maybe Crawford knew something after he returned four starters from a 21-7 team last year.
”I told the players they could go 34-0 this year if they put things together,” said Crawford. ”I thought we had a chance to do that when we beat Casey 48-36 in the finals of the Charleston tournament.”
Teutopolis has four players averaging in double figures, led by 6-foot-6- inch Bob Zerrusen (18 points a game), 6-6 Ted Wiessing (15), junior guard Todd Kroeger (12) and 6-3 Theo Hemmen (10). Guard Kevin Ruholl adds about 9 points a game. Zerrusen gets 12 rebounds a game and leads the team in steals.
”Our defense has carried us all season,” said Crawford, whose team is averaging around 68 points a game while allowing only 43. ”We don`t play too many Class AA schools because there aren`t that many bigger schools in the area. But we`ve beaten Mt. Zion, Effingham and Charleston twice.”
Getting Downstate won`t be easy for the Shoes, who are seeded first in the Flora regional. The host school has only lost twice this year, as has Dieterich. The last school to beat Dieterich was Teutopolis in early December. Teutopolis has come close to winning girls` state championships the last two years. It lost a 56-53 overtime game to Quincy Notre Dame in the 1984 title game and lost 58-56 to St. Edward in the 1985 finals. This season, the Lady Shoes are again among the top three teams in Class A.
”We`ve just got a lot of gifted athletes in the school right now,” said Crawford. ”Our junior varsity hasn`t lost a game for two years.”
Teutopolis is a center of German-Dutch settlers and, at first, the phrase Wooden Shoes was used as a term of derision. ”I guess they thought as long as we`re being called that, we might as well use that name for the school teams,” said Crawford.
