I mentioned I was gobsmacked when I first discovered a guy (Steve Cleaves) who scored 545 points for the Oil City High School basketball team in 1920.  I didn't think anybody scored that many points in a basketball back then, let alone one from Oil City, which is not known for scoring.

The Oilers have had only one (male) 1,000 points scorer, Ben Schill in 1996. And only two others had even reached 900 -- Logan Way in 2014  and Chris Jasiota in 2003. Compare that to the 33 who have hit 1,000 in District 10 in this year ALONE before the playoffs began this week. That's according to Tom Reisenweber of the Erie Times News, who keeps track of that stuff. 

Now 99.9% of these players who get to 1,000 are usually getting their feet wet on varsity  as freshmen and racking up a handful of points to get started -- and then scoring a little more each season until they get to the promised land. If the Oilers play Harbor Creek Tuesday, they'll see such as player in 5-5 J.T. Delasandro, who has in the neighborhood of 1,500 points and is bidding to become his school's all-time leading scorer.

That is not the case of the Oilers' own Nevin Stinson, who was on the junior high team in ninth grade, and who on jayvees as a sophomore saw limited varsity action while scoring only 17 points.

But he really came on the varsity scene in a big way as a junior, scoring 407 points -- only the eighth Oiler in history to get to 400. (Very nice, I thought. If he about duplicates that as a senior he'll become only the 19th player to get to 700ish, joining such recent contemporaries as Holden Stahl, Cam Van Wormer, Jake Hornbeck and Judias Johnson.

Dutch Burch, believed to be the only District 10 player ever to be drafted by an NBA team, is on that list too with his modest 757 points in 1950.

But Stinson's senior season this year has been something else and has put him into contention for more heralded achievements  before leaving the program. He had a December to Remember, averaging 25 ppg,  and carried that into January. As things stand now he has an excellent chance to break Mike Emick's "modern" single-season scoring record, and a decent chance to break Cleaves' all-time single-season scoring more and even an outside chance to reach 1,000.

​Going into the Cathedral Prep game -- and he's guaranteed at least two more outings -- he has 495 points this season and 919 for his career, despite missing two games.

And that brings me back to Cleaves. Cleaves -- always sounds to me like he should be the butler -- played in the early 1920s where teams had a designation free throw shooter. Cleaves was that guy for Oil City. (The rule changed in like 1923 or 1924). I always said you play with the rules you're given and Cleaves didn't have a three-point line. ) 

Then I got the game-by-game season's records out for Stinson, Emick and Cleaves. Put them side by side, and I have to admit some of those numbers for Cleaves  are weird looking: 1 field goal, 18 for 32 from the line, 20 points. So I can see why anyone would be hesitant to give him the "school record." Still, he did score more points in one season than any other Oiler ever.

Oh, and that is another thing. Guys back then couldn't shoot free throws to save their souls. Why, I don't know. But they were terrible. A little over 50%. Neither Cleaves nor the guy who followed him in 1921, Ellis Hall, were very good. Stinson shoots 84%. You can do the math on how many points their shooting either giveth or taketh away, but Stinson would have well over 600 points this season if he could shoot all of the Oilers' free throws.

Anyway, so the charts on each player follow. I thought you might find them engrossing.

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Oh, and one more little thing: Cleaves' record is not 545 points. It's 541. An error was made in putting in the numbers for one of his games, so I corrected it. 

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