50 years ago, Abe Mast pulled off a serious upset in a different time
By Dave Mast
December 14, 2015
680
Fifty years ago, Abe Mast was handed the keys to a pretty solid Hiland Hawks boys basketball program.
He saw plenty of success, fashioning a 52-24 record in his three-year stint at Hiland, but the game certainly is much different today than it was back in those days.
When is the last time you saw a slow-down team win a state title, said Mast. Everyone wants to get out and run and fast break in todays game.
That was not the case when Mast joined the coaching ranks back in the early 1960s. Fresh out of a hall-of-fame playing career at Bluffton College, Mast joined the coaching staff at Northwestern High School and gained some valuable coaching chops under the tutelage of legendary coach Roy Bates. During the 1964-65 campaign, Bates led the Huskies to a 25-1 record and a Class A state title by playing some serious slow-down basketball. According to Mast, the team never, ever ran fast breaks, instead opting to get the ball over mid-court and work it around to find the very best possible shot.
Everyone wants to rush to get off a shot in todays game, said Mast. I think that is one huge difference in todays game compared to back then.
With Mast on the bench beside Bates, a state title helped pave the way for the Hiland Hawks to bring Mast on board as the coach they felt would be good to replace legendary coach Robert Schrock, who had taken the Hawks to the Class A state finals in the 1961-62 season.
Masts first year at Hiland was the 1965-66 season, which would have been 50 years ago.
A half-century has passed since that time, and while he liked the run and gun game while playing in college, his time spent with Bates meant gaining a new perspective in the art of the fundamentals of the game.
Mast said that there were three factors in Hiland bringing him on board. The first plus was the reputation of his dad, Abe H. Mast, who coached legendary walnut Creek players like Bob Troyer, Dick Hochstetler and Piney Hershberger.
He was a legendary coach at Walnut Creek High School, really successful, and he had the respect of a lot of people in the area, said Mast.
The second reason was his first head coaching gig at Shreve, where he took over the reins in the 1962-1963 season. They didnt win many games that year, but one game he did win was against the Hawks, who returned a load of talent from their state final team.
The next season, Shreve morphed into Triway, where Mast served as the Titans first head coach.
The third factor was Hiland fans seeing Mast coaching at the state tournament with the Huskies.
With the reputation of my dad, and the fact that we beat Hiland at Hiland on homecoming night, coupled with people seeing me down on the state tournament floor winning a championship, I think that was what got me the Hiland job, said Mast.
Having grown up playing a fast-paced game, Mast tried to implement that style at Shreve, but it didnt pan out. Then he got a taste of what disciplined, fundamental basketball was all about while coaching under Bates, and that sold him. The idea that teams that work for the best shots and do all of the fundamental things right would win games was ingrained in his head.
With great intention, his teams at Hiland, and then later at Strasburg, never ran fast breaks. It worked well, as he compiled a nice 42-24 mark at Hiland before excelling even more at Strasburg.
It was all about controlled shots and working the ball around to get good shots, said Mast. I think the one thing that has changed the game more than anything since then is the 3-point shot. Now, everyone hangs around the arc looking to throw up a three. We used to really work hard to get guys open in the paint for short jumpers and lay-ups. I remember telling our guys so many times, no matter how tight the game got, that we couldnt panic and needed to get a good shot.
Mast said in those days, the league schedule was a great deal tougher than it is today, and the area teams were very highly competitive across the board.
He noted that in his first year at Hiland (17-6), the six games they lost were all to very good opponents.
Still, the philosophy of good shots, playing hard-nose defense and making sure they were checking out on every single shot were the backbone of his style of play.
That style did not get the Hawks through sectionals in Masts three years, but another difference back then was Ohio only had two classes, A and AA, and sectionals were a lot more difficult to advance through. In addition, there was no seeding in sectional tournament. It was all luck of the draw.
In Masts first season at Hiland, the Hawks had the bad fortune of earning the last pill in the tournament draw. Inevitably, that meant they would get to play the areas best team in the opening round, that being highly touted Dennison-St. Mary. Boasting 6-foot-8-inch All-Ohioan Tom Crosswhite as well as a 6-foot-6-inch forward and another 6-foot-3-inch athlete who could sky, Masts mini-Hawks had to rely heavily on the principle of the good shot, along with the gutsy play of their undersized Hawks, which were led by All-Ohioan John Hochstetler.
A couple of fans were anxious to find out who the Hawks had drawn for the tourney opener, and when Mast told them of their misfortune, their rely was simply I guess we may as well go out and beat the best.
That is exactly what happened, as Masts slow-down game allowed Hiland to take the good shots they wanted to get, and Hiland forged a 37-32 lead through three quarters. The Blue Wave kept coming throughout the fourth, and trailing by one, Crosswhite had a chance to put them up by one, but his jumper in the lane missed the mark. A jump ball later, Hiland had possession, and Hochstetler, who did his best Curly Neal impression, dribbling around center court on one knee and in a nearly prone position until he was fouled with time running out. Hochstetler missed the front end of the one-and-one, but amazingly, Merle Mullet outwitted the giant Blue wave players and tipped the ball back to Hochstetler. He missed again, but there was now next to no time for the blue Wave to do anything but heave the ball down court. Hiland had pulled off one amazing upset, winning 50-49.
We probably had no business winning that game, but that team had a lot of heart, and John Hochstetler was the greatest player I have ever coached, said Mast. I bet a lot of people dont realize just how great a player he was.
Because of the rule changes in the game and the way teams rush to get shots off today, Mast finds it almost difficult at times to watch todays game.
He said the one team he does enjoy watching today is the West Holmes Lady Knights. He said he respects all of the area coaches in the area today because of the time they are willing to put in, but he noted that Lady Knights coach Lisa Patterson runs to one program he loves watching.
One intangible I see is that her girls love her. You can tell Lisas kids all really enjoy playing hard for her and have a lot of respect for her, said Mast. But if I coached today, Id like to think that her style and the things that are important to her are the way I would coach today. That is as close to the way we played as any team Ive seen. She tends to really work to get a good shots inside.
Could Mast coach in todays game? He thinks probably not, since it has changed so much. He did steer the Hiland Lady Hawks varsity team from 1982 to 1986, where he guided the Lady Hawks to their first Inter-Valley Conference title.
Much later, he took over the reins for Central Christians girls program, but had to step down due to health reasons.
But once a coach, always a coach, and even today, he watches games and cant help but think up plays that would work with various personnel.
Weve had hugely successful programs in our area, and much of that is because of work ethic, said Mast. Im not sure my style would work today or not, but any time you play sound, fundamental basketball and work to get good shots, I have to believe youre going to come out ahead.
