Katz fourth-graders show off their hoops skills

Elementary school students take trophies in shooting contest

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Two fourth-graders from Katz Elementary School, Jordin Walker, 9, and McKenzie Crowell, 9, represented their school as well as the city of Las Vegas at the state level Elks Club Hoop Shoot contest held Feb. 11 in Hawthorne.

Jordin finished second in the state competition while McKenzie took third.

The two students qualified for the state competition by winning the Las Vegas district event held in Henderson after advancing from the lodge event held in late November at Hyde Park Middle School.

Although he did not win his own school's Hoop Shoot contest -- Edmund Concepcion took that honor -- Jordin was one of the top shooters from Katz, 1800 Rock Springs Drive, and ultimately qualified for the state contest by winning the Las Vegas district contest.

Joe Sill, the physical education teacher at Katz who has been holding this contest for over a decade now, explained the winners advanced.

"I sent my top winners to Hyde Park and then the winners at school here all get a trophy, but he (Jordin) came in second or third (at Katz) but still ended up winning that (city of Las Vegas) contest," he said.

Sill talked about the talented 9-year-old who hit 17 of 25 shots in the district competition.

"Jordin is a tremendous little athlete," he said. "He tries so hard and he concentrates and he does real well. He just seems like a natural."

Representing the girls in her 8- to 9-year-old age group in the city after winning the district competition was McKenzie, who employs a unique but effective shooting style that NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry, the second-best free throw shooter in NBA history, would be proud of -- the underhanded technique.

"She does a granny shot," Sill said of McKenzie, who was joined by Haeli Fields as the other 8- to 9-year-old winner from Katz. "And she was intimidated when she got to the championships last Saturday because all of the other girls were shooting overhand and they were all bigger than her. And she's just a tiny little girl and she ended up winning.

"And I gave her a big hug at the end and said, 'You know what? I'm so proud of you because you were scared to death when you got there then you changed your shot then you went back to the granny shot because I told you to and you ended up winning.' And it was something she was really scared about because she saw all these other older and bigger girls shooting. And she was watching the 12- to 13-year-old girls and one of the other little girls came over and gave her a little boost and said, 'You're the smallest girl here. You should be proud you made it this far.' And she ended up winning."

Although neither student qualified for the regional contest to be held in Las Vegas, the two made memories and learned they may be pretty good at the sport of basketball.

The Elks Hoop Shoot Competition began as a local Elks Lodge (No. 1413) event in Corvallis, Ore., in the late 1960s, and was instituted by the Oregon Elks as a statewide activity in 1970. Girls have been included in the contest since 1974.

Now the largest such event in America with more than one million kids participating, the Elks Hoop Shoot Program is bigger than ever.

Sill said that many players from Katz who have won the Hoop Shoot contest have gone on to bigger and better things, including Marcus Banks, who now plays for the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves after strutting his stuff at Cimarron-Memorial High School and UNLV; and Palo Verde High School senior Nate Schulte, the MVP in the Sunset Region for the 2003-04 season and one of the top prep players in the Silver State.

Last year's 8- to 9-year-old winners, Lindsey Murray of Tipp City, Ohio, and Brenden Truman of Santa Clara, Utah, both connected on 24 of 25 shots to be named national champions. Winners of all age groups get their names engraved on the Elks Hoop Shoot plaque that hangs permanently in the NBA Hall of Fame.

The Elks National Hoop Shoot Finals are scheduled for April 20 at the NBA Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.