The following article is in response to a plea from Doc Wierwill for more stories about the old State Line League.

The Pony basketball team of 69-70 didn’t have the size or physical maturity of the previous year’s team. Coach Squibb installed a version of the swing offense that was effective. Our biggest problem was on the defensive end of the court. We didn’t handle the bigger, more mature teams well - Ed Engen, Mark Anderson, Mike Curtis and Mark Wainwright were among the opposing players that caused problems for us.

The make-up of the Monticello varsity was essentially Randy Zuber and a group of players that would have benefitted from a year of extensive JV experience. After losing a scrimmage against Hollandale, we lost our first league game and then 16 more in succession.

Our game day plan included going to Coach Squibb’s home for a dinner of orange juice and toast with honey. The initially upbeat pregame encounters at the coach’s home took on a darker pall as the season wore on. While expectations for basketball success were not high, they were not nearly low enough to match our record. As the season went on the young coach and younger team struggled with the emotions from the mounting losses.

The expectations for athletic success at Monticello had been set a year earlier. In the summer of 1968, Jim Zweifel resigned his job as teacher and basketball coach at Monticello High School to take a job in administration at Loyal (WI) High School. Zweifel was a Monticello native and had been an all-state basketball player for the Ponies in the late 1950s.

Lacking a coach for the 68-69 season, the school board hired a young Dennis Squibb, a 25-year-old coach and biology teacher, to replace Zweifel. Squibb was a former division 3 basketball player from Central College in Pella, Iowa.

Squibb inherited a team that graduated only 3 players and had 9 returning seniors. Except for 5’11” Jerry Wettach, all ranged between 6’0” and 6’4”. The team was led by Roger Gibbons and featured Mark Hefty at point guard. The supporting cast of Updike, Huntley, Hammerly, Karlen, Wahl and Wagner were solid. Coach Squibb quickly figured out the roles for each of his players and got each to do his job. In the ten-team State Line League, the Ponies played home and away with each opponent and ran the table, finishing the league 18-0. This record included victories over good teams at Black Hawk, Blanchardville and New Glarus. While the cupboard was well-stocked, the season record was above expectations and the coach, students and fans were riding a wave of euphoria.

Dennis Squibb handled the coaching duties for volleyball as well as basketball. He was knowledgeable about volleyball and schooled us well in the fundamentals. The only other State Line schools with volleyball teams were Brodhead and Albany. Beyond that, the coaches arranged games with the Janesville and Madison schools among others. Our young team competed hard in the fall of 1969 and enjoyed a good season. This volleyball success did nothing to prepare anyone for what lay ahead in basketball season.

After that disastrous 69-70 basketball season (and controversy about Lettermen’s Club initiation), Coach Squibb found himself looking for new personal and professional opportunities and accepted a job coaching in a Colorado high school, where he eventually won a state championship.

Monticello, again found itself without a basketball coach - and then came Woody Wilson.