Dan Slagle
It is with regret that I will not be able to attend the August 25th service.
It is the date of my 45th wedding anniversary and my children are headed here to help celebrate it in Tri Cities, Wa. I know exactly what Coach Harmon was doing August 25, 1973. He was attending our wedding at the Annie Wright Chapel, yes in Tacoma. But this is not about me but my football coach. I played football for the Waterville Shockers for Coach Harmon.
Waterville High in the fall of 1966 and 1967 back then was a basketball town. Coach taught us how to hit/tackle in a technique that would today would be illegal but was very much legal back that. He would say "stick that face mask in the numbers and hit with sufficient force to go right through that running back". He taught us to be tough minded. He worked us hard in practice as Waterville's elevation is over 2800 feet and the other team would be gassed in the 4th quarter. My senior year in the fall of 1967, we only had 4 seniors on the team and mostly were made up of juniors. We took 2nd in league that year and won 6 games and lost 2 and for a time were ranked in the Class B rankings. For me personally I appreciated having a winning season in football. That meant more for me than the basketball state tournaments that I got to play in. I was Coach's starting inside left linebacker. So I played the same position (linebacker) as Coach had played.
I do remember an instance after we beat an opposing team at their homecoming.
One of the opposing players shoved one of our players as both teams walked back to locker room. Coach became quite animated and defended his Shocker player.
He stuck his face in the helmet of the that wayward player and told him he would have to go through the coach first. Coach drew blood on his own head...he was defending his player. Thankfully the other player backed down.
As a coach and teacher, he was much appreciated for his football intensity and he
was successful at doing it. Being a good tough coach is my fond memory.
Dan Slagle R.Ph. Waterville Class of 1968 He called me Danny.
