Very few basketball fans have watched a game go down to the wire and made the comment “If only the team had made those free throws.”
South Bay All-Starz coach Lamont Carr knows the importance of success at the charity stripe and stresses the discipline at the earliest ages.
Carr and Redondo Elks Lodge No. 1378 are hosting the annual Elks “HOOP SHOOT” Free Throw Contest, a free contest open to boys and girls ages 8-13 to be held Saturday, Dec. 20 at Redondo Union High School.
The Elks “HOOP SHOOT” Free Throw Contest is the largest most visible of the many youth activities sponsored by Elks lodges with over 3 million boys and girls participating this year.
Registration starts promptly at 8:45 a.m. and participants must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Proof of age is required (birth certificate or passport) to determine age division as of April 1, 2015.
“Free throw shooting is different from the rest of basketball shooting,” said Carr, who has been involved with the Elks HOOP SHOOT since 1997. “That is to say, free throw shooting is a ‘game within a game’ much like putting is in golf, and field goal kicking is in football.
“Free throw shooting, like putting, is a closed skill that requires mental toughness (Kobe Bryant/Tiger Woods), a consistent shooting ritual (Steve Nash/Justin Tucker), and the ability to focus and concentrate, like Dr. Tom Amberry, the Guinness world-record holder, who sank 2,750 consecutive free throws without a miss in 1993.”
Carr was the subject of the 2003 Disney film “Full Court Miracle” which was inspired by the University of Virginia basketball star who found the kids of The Philadelphia Hebrew Academy in search of a basketball coach. Carr, sidelined by an injury, agreed to coach the team.
Winners of the Local Contest earn a berth to the District Shoot to be held at Staples Center on Jan. 10, 2015. District winners advance to the Regional Contest in Las Vegas. The National Championship will be held in Springfield, MA, home of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Recent local winners to advance included Alex Garcia and Benny Gealer.
Earlier this year Garcia, 11, from Parras Middle School clinched the California State Championship and earned an all expenses paid trip to the National Regionals in Las Vegas.
In 2013, Palos Verdes’ Benny Gealer who won the Southern California Section State Championship in the 8-9 division, only to lose to the Northern California Section State Champion by one free throw, making 23 out of 25 attempts.
Tickets are available for the South Central Coast District HOOP SHOOT which will be held at 7:45 a.m. on Jan. 10 prior to the 12:30 p.m. game between the Los Angeles Clippers and Dallas Mavericks. Ticket holders will be able to witness or be part of the S.C.C.D. HOOP SHOOT from 8-10 a.m. Then, after vacating the building for final security measures, will be permitted to return as early as 10:45 a.m. to watch the Clippers warm-up/shoot around.
The Elks organization is also working on the possibility of a “Fan Tunnel” where the HOOP SHOOT competitors can line up and give “high fives” to the Clippers team as they are announced and come out on the court just before the NBA game starts.
For more information, visit elks.org/hoopshoot or contact Lamont Carr, 310-844-4477.
