Local Elks Lodge to host Hoop Shoot for kids on Jan. 5
The annual Elks Hoop Shoot free throw contest for kids ages 8 to 13 is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 5, at LT Cook gym on North Smith Street, across from the junior high school. The local competition will be hosted by Elks Lodge No. 1480.
Participation in the Hoop Shoot is free for boys and girls. The contest is divided into three age groups — 8-9, 10-11 and 12-13 — for the boys and the girls. The age groups are based on the participants’ ages as of April 1, 2025.
Awards will be presented in each category, and the winners will be eligible to participate in the upcoming district contest. The Elks Lodge will provide gas money for that trip. The winners from the district contest will go on to the state competition in Carrollton in February. The regional hoop shoot will be held in Dallas in March, and the national contest will be in Chicago in April. Everything above the district level will be an overnight trip, and the participants and their parents will get to attend the events as guests of the Elks.
Six national winners — a boy and a girl in each age category — will be named. The national winners will each receive a trophy and have their name inscribed on a plaque in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The top-scoring boy and girl will be named the national champions and will receive the Getty Powell Award.
In the 2024 contest, two Breckenridge kids won first place at the Elks Club District Competition in Arlington advanced to the state championship in Dallas. The district, which includes the Breckenridge Lodge, includes nine lodges. Millie Walling won first place in the girls 8-9 division, and Pate Gill won first in the boys 10-11 division. Also, at the district competition, Sam McClymond won third in the 8-9 boys division and Ian Hitchcock won second in the boys 12-13 division.
According to the Elks Lodge organization, the contest gives kids the opportunity to participate in spirited competition, develop relationship with peers and travel statewide, regionally and nationally at minimal expense to their parents.
For more information, call Wayne Justus at 254-477-3941.
(Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
