Two former teacher/coaches featured at HHS reunion

Capping activities at this year?s 10th annual Hillsboro All-School Reunion was a dinner program attended by 180 people Saturday at the Hillsboro Menno?nite Breth?ren Church.

Featured were two former USD 410 teachers and coaches, Lee Albrecht and LeRoy Schmidt.

Emcee Brad Penner, class of 1974, introduced Albrecht as a friend of many.

?He has been around a long time in Hillsboro, married 55 years this September?and so he has a little experience,? Penner said.

Albrecht taught in Hillsboro for 22 years. He graduated from Pretty Prairie High School in 1957 and from Bethel College in 1961 with an industrial arts degree.

Albrecht started teaching at Hillsboro fall 1961. In 1966, following unification with Lehigh and Durham, he and several other teachers went to Lehigh for junior high. Albrecht started the junior high football program there.

Penner said Albrecht?s only losing season at Lehigh was the first one. His overall record there was 70-29 with a 21-0 run over a three-year stretch.

Albrecht coached girls? basketball at Hillsboro High School from 1978-79 to 1983-84. His first season, he led the girls to the state tournament for the first time in school history. They finished third with a 20-5 record. During his six seasons as girls? coach, his teams compiled a 68-58 record.

In 1991, when the HHS boys won the school?s first state basketball championship under head coach Darrel Knoll, Albrecht was part of the coaching staff.

Although Albrecht no longer teaches, but still drives bus for the district.

?In fact, he drove the bus the whole time,? Penner added. Albrecht and fellow teacher and coach Wilbur Fast drove the junior high teams back to Hillsboro after practice, as well as to football and basketball games and track meets.

Penner said, ?They did it all?and now he is transporting kids to school in Kansas City.?

In his remarks, Albrecht said, ?I appreciate that I made a lot of friends?and probably some enemies. I did enjoy coaching sports, and I guess that?s what kept me in the teaching field as long as I was.?

Albrecht noted the 21-0 run over three seasons, but he said he doesn?t know if he could take much credit for it.

He also mentioned an article that appeared in the Kansas City Star about one of his junior high games ?that almost didn?t end.?

?The score was tied 16-16 with seven overtimes,? he said.

A winning field goal by one of his players was nullified by a penalty, but in the seventh overtime the team prevailed, 30-28.

?I was really proud of them,? he said.

Changes over 50 years

Penner also introduced Schmidt, whose career in coaching started in 1962. He coached in Hillsboro from 1963 to 1967 as head football coach and assistant coach in basketball and track.

Following his coaching career, Schmidt went into banking as a loan officer.

?He and his wife, Vicky, now live in McPherson,? Penner said. ?They have three children and they have twins?he is a twin, too.?

In his remarks, Schmidt thanked Cindy Fleming and Joel Klaassen for including him in the Class of 1964, which had gathered for its 50th-year reunion.

Schmidt?s theme as guest speaker was the 1964 class motto: ?This far and farther.?

Schmidt said so many changes have happened over the past 50 years, including mothers entering professions other than nursing, teaching and secretarial.

?They went into whole new types of vocations primarily because of the technology field, and many went back because they wanted to have other things a job would bring you,? he said.

Technology revolutionized the future, he said, noting the rise of computers, cell phones, Internet, GPS, iPhones, iPads, Skype, Facebook and Twitter.

Schmidt told a story about one young man who accomplished his goal to earn his AB degree. But when the young man sat down with a prospective employer, he was told he now needed to learn the rest of the alphabet.

?Isn?t that kind of the way life is?? Schmidt said. ?Maybe life is the rest of the alphabet.?

The dinner was catered by Sharon?s Corner Kitchen Catering.

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