CLAY MOYLE AND SON CALEB
My former BainbridgeHigh School teammate, Dave Campbell, and I are heading for Spokane this Friday. Once we arrive we’ll join forces with another former Spartan, Mike Livingston, for our second crack at Hoopfest, the largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the world.
Come Friday night, the city of Spokane will once again close off its streets and more than 450 half-court hoops will be set up within 42-square city blocks so 7,000 teams can go at it over the next two days.
Two of us were hurt when we tackled this event for the first time last year, so it should be a lot more enjoyable this time around. Campbell had hurt his calf two weeks prior to the event and was reduced to limping around the court during his limited minutes. My back had gone out beforehand so I was popping pain pills and could barely bend over to tie my shoes let alone move very well on a basketball court.
To make matters worse, we couldn’t find a healthy available former Spartan to join us as our required fourth teammate, and finally had to settle on a little five-foot-eight fellow we’d never seen play to replace another injured teammate we’d planned on playing who stood six-foot-six. The little man was heading over to watch his son play and at least gave us another body, albeit a relatively ineffective and non-scoring one.
We played in the over 50-year-old competitive division and found ourselves badly undersized and in a world of hurt as a result of our injuries. I wouldn’t say we embarrassed ourselves, but we lost our first two games something like 21-13 against the ultimate division champion and 21-16 before enjoying a three-point range shooting frenzy and winning our final consolation match.
So, I’m anxious to see how we’ll do this year now that everyone is healthy, at least by 57-year-old standards. We’ve replaced our former 5-8 teammate with the current rowing coach at GonzagaUniversity, who I’m told is six-foot-five and approximately 250 pounds.
Unfortunately, our first game at Hoopfest will be the first time either Campbell or I will have laid eyes on our new teammate, so it remains to be seen how well we’ll play together. But, Livingston tells us he had a chance to watch him in action, if only for 15 minutes, and he has a nice touch inside and is BIG.
If nothing else, I have to believe we’ll be in much better shape as a result of that size in place of the diminutive last minute add-on we ran with last year.
So, we’ll see what happens.
I’m just excited about the possibility of playing in the tournament uninjured. I’ve been working like a dog to get in shape for this, playing and running as often as I can. The past five Friday’s I’ve been meeting with a 27-year-old for grueling sessions of one-on-one play and figure that after holding my own against that young man it should be a welcome relief to match up against other Half-Centurions.
As usual, there were a few bumps in the road as we prepared for the tournament. A while back, Campbell was shooting at an outdoor playground when a group of young men asked him to join their game and he suffered a slight concussion when an opposing player ran him over on a drive to the hoop, causing him to bang the back of his head on the court. Around the same time he was also involved in a minor traffic accident that set him back for a few weeks, but he seems to be in relatively good shape now.
As for Livingston, he told me he’s suffering from a longtime bum ankle that makes it difficult to run and jump, and has to warm it up for about 30 minutes so he can bend it. So I guess it’s a good thing we’re playing half-court.
I slightly rolled my own ankle two weeks ago during one of those one-on-one games with the young man I mentioned previously, but I can run, cut and jump on it without any problem, so I think we’re about as ready to go as we can be at this point.
Let the games begin.