From left to right: Dean Scherer, Clay Moyle, Johnny Johnson, Mike Livingston, Dave Campbell
I just completed my first experience at Hoopfest in Spokane and I have to say it certainly is an incredible event. If you love to play and watch basketball I can’t imagine a better way to spend a weekend.
On Friday night they close the downtown area and 456 basketball courts are setup over a space of 42 city blocks. Come Saturday morning, over 7,000 three-on-three teams and approximately 28,000 ballplayers of all ages lace up their sneakers and begin playing ball. The first games begin at 8:00 a.m. upon the conclusion of the playing of the national anthem over the public address system and for the next two days a total of some 14,000 games are played before a sea of humanity estimated at 225,000.
I can only imagine how much work must go into coordinating this event but with the assistance of 3,000 local volunteers everything seems to run like clockwork.
One of my teammates had registered our team under the name B.I. Spartans for the competitive over-50 division but somewhere along the way there was a loss in translation and by the time we showed up for our first ballgame the court monitor asked if we were the Bi-Spartans.
We might have worn rainbow colored t-shirts if the latter were our intention, but instead we showed up in white t-shirts with a photo of our coach directing traffic from the sidelines in the mid-1970s pictured on the front. He (Dean Scherer) and his wife (Jackie) made the trip to Spokane to see how many steps some of his former team had lost in 38 years.
Heading into the final week before Hoopfest, three of us were battling to recover from injuries in an effort to participate in the event for the first time. One team member finally threw in the towel four days before the event and advised us there was no way he was going to be able to make it. His back just wasn’t cooperating. Unfortunately, he was our tallest player at six-foot-seven and that left us with a roster with one player at 6-4 and two at 6-0 and under.
Thus began a frantic two-day search for a fourth man, ideally a tall one. But, time and again we learned of individual’s inability to participate because of various ailments or other commitments. Finally, with seemingly no other option, we picked up a 5-8 half-centurion a friend referred us to because that individual was going over to watch his son play anyway and he was willing to join our team on short notice. None of us had ever seen him play and all I was told when I inquired as to his ability was that he was “ok.” It didn’t matter, we needed another healthy body no matter how small or ineffective he might be.
Upon our arrival in Spokane, we learned the team brackets had been established when our roster included a 6-7 player with college experience, and we’d been placed in a division comprised of teams with taller players.
When we went to bed Friday night we were anticipating we would be playing ball in 90-plus degree heat for the next two days. But, we awoke Saturday morning to the sound of thunder and lightning and by the time we arrived at our court it was all wet.
Our first opponent turned out to be the team that would go on to win our bracket’s championship. They trotted out a starting lineup that featured a fellow who must have been all of 6-9 or 6-10 tall and at least 330 pounds to go along with two others who had to be at least 6-7and 6-4.
In the meantime I was playing on pain pills and muscle relaxers for my ailing back and our second tallest player at 6-feet, my former Spartan backcourt mate Dave Campbell, had a badly strained calf that essentially crippled him and limited his minutes. He really shouldn’t have been on that leg at all.
We were forced to start our relatively ineffective 5-9 replacement along with myself (5-10) and another former Spartan teammate, Mike Livingston (6-4).
The only hope we had was to try and use our over 50-year-old little guy’s quickness to our advantage and rain two-point shots against them from behind the arc.
Unfortunately, the wet court didn’t really make it very easy to make quick cuts and we shot poorly in that initial contest.
The ballgames are played to 20, or for as long as 25 minutes, whichever comes first. On more than one occasion during that game I found myself caught behind the 300-plus pound monster in a futile effort to keep him away from the hoop. We went down in flames by a score of 20-12 in that contest and were sent to the loser’s side of the bracket.
We returned to the court at 2:30 that afternoon to face the next round of giants. Livingston took on the assignment of guarding a very physical big man while I gave up 10 inches against a less physical 6-9 skyscraper.
Once again our only real hope was to get hot from the outside on the wet court and while we were more successful than earlier in the day we came up short by a score of 16-13.
Those two losses relegated us to a single remaining game on Sunday morning against the only other winless team in the bracket for an opportunity to play for the highly coveted “Loser King” T-shirt. I don’t know when the tradition began, but apparently at some point in time someone came up with the idea of awarding “Loser King” shirts to the winners of the final game between the winless wonders.
David (Clay Moyle) guarding Goliath at Spokane Hoopfest
The shirts traditionally feature a Jester type of crown and the words “Loser King” hidden inside a basketball beneath that. The shirts are so coveted by some it’s said some teams will tank the first two games to earn a shot at playing for them.
I’m sorry to say we didn’t have to tank our first two games. We earned a crack at those treasured items honestly.
We awoke to a bright sun on Sunday morning and thankfully found a bone-dry court when we arrived for the final 10:00 showdown. Although we were once again vertically challenged in comparison to our opponents, we finally found our shooting touches and Livingston and I were able to convert ten-two pointers behind the arc on our way to a 21-13 victory.
The coveted “Loser King” shirts were ours.
We enjoyed the experience so much that we plan to return next year. Hopefully, we’ll all be injury free at that time and our roster will include another quality big man.
All applications are welcome but I suspect that any of those from individuals over 6-3 would somehow find their way to the top of the pile.