Dennis Throne and Lyn Jones will serve as the coaches for the Saint Xavier Alumni basketball games on Dec. 22, 2018.

The coaches were introduced at Saint Xavier High School Tuesday morning.  The announcement was made in Lyn Jones’ classroom by school officials, alumni and former coaches. It was a surprise for Jones who had not been told beforehand. Chuckling he stated, “I’m always surprised in my room. It’s kind of good though, good to see some old faces.”  Jones is retiring at the end of the current school year. During his time at Saint Xavier dating back 28 years he has coached at either the junior high or high school level basketball, football and scholar’s bowl.

Throne coached at Saint Xavier for seven years in the 1980’s. He remembers a huge win for his high school boys basketball team over Bennington in the finals of the Class One-A Regional tournament in 1986 that propelled the Rams on to the substate tournament. ” That was pretty exciting, and then I coached on the girls side and had the good fortune of coaching two D-I athletes, Megan Majerus and Leslie Wahle, who played D-I volleyball. “Throne later taught in Council Grove, and still coaches today at Council Grove High School.

The Alumni event on December 22nd will include both men’s and women’s basketball games in the Bradley Gym featuring alumni. Being planned in conjunction with the event will be a mass, an evening meal, and the basketball games at 7 p.m.  Saint Xavier alum Dan Zoeller is working to coordinate the event, with support from Saint Xavier School Principal Shawn Augustine.

The first Alumni basketball games in 2014 drew a big turnout to the school. Organizers Tuesday estimated that attendance in the 1,000 to 1,100 range.