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Basketball team hits 1001 shots, raises $3,000

Two weeks ago they shot the lights out in more ways than one. On Monday, the Sunshine Coast’s girls junior basketball team is letting it rain. On Jan.
basketball
The Chatelech/Elphinstone Junior Girls Basketball team celebrates after making 1001 baskets. Team members (from left): Tiana Hoile, Audrey Spithoff, Rachel Fuhrmann, Evie Clark, Mika Kliewer, Gracey Hemstreet and Sedona Allen, with Vesna Molder kneeling in front with team assistant Beya. Coaches Daren Spithoff and Meaghan Spithoff flank the team.

Two weeks ago they shot the lights out in more ways than one. On Monday, the Sunshine Coast’s girls junior basketball team is letting it rain.

On Jan. 11 the combined Chatelech and Elphinstone Secondary Junior Girls Basketball Team, comprising Grade 9 and 10 players from both high schools, held a “shoot-a-thon,” raising $3,000 for a local non-profit and to cover team expenses.

Donors sponsored the team of 10, who were tasked with making 500 lay ups, 400 free throws, 100 three pointers and one half-court shot at the Chatelech gym.

They managed the feat in just over three hours.

“And that was with the power going out in the gym partway through,” said coach Daren Spithoff. They were 45 minutes into the event, he said, when the lights stopped working. Luckily, the shoot-a-thon took place during the day, so they opened the doors in the gym rather than stop the play.

“We had a little bit of light coming in. Enough to see the rims,” he said. “The girls were troopers.”

Half the money will be used to cover expenses for an upcoming tournament and the rest was raised for Together Against Violence (TAV). Run through the Sunshine Coast Community Services Society, TAV provides housing and shelter and offers counselling and other support programs for women on the Sunshine Coast.

Spithoff, who coaches the team with his wife Meaghan, said the idea for the fundraiser was driven by their coaching values. “It’s not just about the team, it’s about our larger community,” he said, adding that raising the money for TAV “really resonated with the girls,” since it will be used to support women locally.

The team will be presenting a cheque to TAV manager Denise Woodley during halftime at their final home game of the regular season on Jan. 27 at 4 p.m., against Howe Sound Secondary. The event is open to the public.

Woodley told Coast Reporter in an email the money raised will be used to support programs such as Women’s Counselling and Women’s Outreach, which provide free services to the community.

“It is great that young women in our community are engaged with the broader issues of violence against women,” she said. “I would like to thank the Chatelech-Elphinstone Junior Girls Basketball team for their time, energy and awareness.”

Spithoff, in turn, expressed gratitude “to everyone in the community who jumped in and supported us.”

This was the first time the team has organized a fundraiser since the Spithoffs began coaching at the high school level two years ago. It’s also the first time Chatelech and Elphinstone players have competed on a single team.

Recently Elphinstone hasn’t had enough players to field a team consistently. “We’re hoping to change that,” said Spithoff, who has also been coaching club basketball with Meaghan for four years.

“We have a number of coaches who are getting involved with girls basketball and are starting to build it from the grade school and club level up, and through the high school level,” Spithoff said. “We’re just trying to rebuild girls basketball on the Coast.”