Local Elks National Hoop Shoot set Dec. 9 at MCHS

Local Elks National Hoop Shoot set Dec. 9 at MCHS

Nov. 25, 2000

STAFF REPORT

The 2000-2001 Elks Hoop Shoot competition promises to be the best yet.

Local competition for the 29th annual National Free Throw Shooting Contest will be held Dec. 9 in Ron Wright Memorial Gym at Montezuma-Cortez High School. Doors will open at 7:30 a.m. for registration and getting kids assigned to their proper age group.

Contestant age groups (8-9, 10-11, and 12-13) will be determined by their ages as of April 1, 2000. Contestants under the age of 8 or over the age of 13 on that date will be ineligible to participate. Proof of birth date must be verified with a birth certificate, baptismal certificate or passport. This is needed so that all contestants may be assigned to the proper age category thereby eliminating any disappointment that might arise on a technicality. This event is open to the public at no charge and all boys and girls in the 8-13 age group are encouraged to participate.

The event is sponsored locally by Cortez Elks Lodge 1789.

More than 3 million youngsters from throughout the 50 states entered last year’s competition. Each contestant has 25 shots at the hoop. The boy and girl in each age group with the best scores (made shots) advance through four tiers of competition to qualify for the national finals which will be held April 29-22 in Springfield, Mass.

Local winners will compete against other contestants in the District event at Delta on Jan. 27. Those winners will advance to the State event in Salida Feb. 24. Regionals is set for Denver March 17. Winners there will advance to Nationals.

Names of the national winners will be inscribed on the Elks National Hoop Shoot plaque on permanent display in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.

Last year’s Cortez Elks Lodge local competition winners who advanced to the District competition in Hotchkiss were Derick Steppe, Michael Schmidlap, Ronica Stanley, Ryan Mortensen, and Brittany Presnell. Mortensen took the first-place title there in the Boys 12-13 age group and went on to compete at State.

The Elks National Free Throw Contest is the largest and most visible of the many youth activities sponsored by Elks Lodges (The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks) throughout the country. The Elks Hoop Shoot has served to highlight the Elks National commitment to youth.

The Elks National Free Throw Contest was started with as a result of a local activity in Corvallis, Ore., in 1946. Years later out of that local program grew the national program, now in its 29th year. Each of the more then 2,200 lodges were encouraged to establish its own local contest involving boys from ages 8-13.

In the first year of 1971, boys from 19 states participated. Two years later, more than 750,000 boys from 42 states took part. In the following year (1974), girls were added to the competition. And the program has continued to grow ever since. Today, all 50 states and the District of Columbia hold competitions.

From the millions of young people who participate, only six champions are named — one boy and one girl — in each age category. The winners receive a trophy and their inscribed on the national plaque. National finalists average more than 90 percent of their shots.

The Elks Hoop Shoot has been effective not only in developing champion shooters but character as well and the opportunity to develop new friendships. Educators and parents have endorsed the program and as one parent wrote, "It teaches a person how to win in good grace and how to accept the moment of defeat without bitterness..."

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is one of the oldest and largest fraternal organizations in the United States. Today there are more than 1.6 million members in the 2,250 lodges found throughout all 50 states and the District of Columbia. They provide recreation facilities for the entire family. Lodges are often the focal point for many community service and charitable programs that have become an Elks tradition.

The Elks National Foundation is presently spending more than $7.5 million each year supporting many different charitable programs, veteran programs, drug awareness, and other programs such as sponsoring scouting, and youth baseball. Educational and vocational scholarships for deserving high school students are given out each year.

Patriotism is the hallmark of the Elks. In 1907, the Elks became the first fraternal organization in the nation to mandate the observance of June 14 as Flag Day. More than 40 years later, fellow Elk and U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed into order a declaration naming Flag Day as an official national holiday.