Missed free throws are becoming an epidemic at every level of basketball from high school through the National Basketball Association.

Five local shooters declared their immunity Dec. 16, winning a Hoop Shoot free throw contest sponsored by the Sedona Elks Lodge at Sedona Red Rock High School.

Big Park Community School fifth-grader Helen Westervelt hit 13 of 25 to lead the five boys and girls champions.

“She did very nicely,” said Marsha Helton, Hoop Shoot director for the Sedona Elks Lodge. “She was very cool and calm.”

Westervelt will represent local 10- to 11-year-old girls Jan. 16. Her counterpart on the boys side of the age group will be McCauley King, while older sister Jackie King received the silver medal for finishing second among 12- to 13-year-old girls to Kylie Kincaid.

Kincaid, a starter with King on Big Park’s girls basketball A team under head coach Kirk Westervelt, hit nine free throws to lead her age group.

“I’m so impressed with how Kirk’s kids are trained,” Helton said. “I’ve seen them play, and knowing how to do what I would consider fairly intricate for 9- to 11-year-old kids — setting picks, their skill level passing the ball — I’m just kind of in awe of what they did. It’s not just running up and down the floor.”

Home-schooled Skyrah Wilmer, shooting her first free throws ever, hit eight to lead the 8- and 9-year-old girls.

“She had played some basketball but had little coaching before the game,” Helton said. “We had to move those kids 8 and 9 years old four feet closer to the basket. When I was 14, I thought I was closer, but some of them had to take two or three steps just to get the ball up there.”

Westervelt’s alternate, who received a silver medal after winning a two-round playoff tiebreaker, will be Mayra Parra.

“At the local shoot, each person shoots 10 free throws, then they shoot 15 more,” said Helton, a nine-year lodge member and past exalted ruler. “If there’s a tie, then each of them shoots five more.”

Parra hit three free throws to edge Malia Kincaid and Stephanie Medel.

Winners will advance to the Elks District Hoop Shoot on Saturday, Jan. 16, at Camp Verde Middle School. Following the District competition for 8- to 9-year-olds at 10 a.m., 10- and 11-year-olds will shoot at 11:30 a.m. and 12- to 13-year-olds begin at 12:15 p.m. Jan. 16.

Winners in the three age groups will advance to the state Hoop Shoot competition Saturday, Feb. 6, in Apache Junction. Winners will advance from there to the Regional finals two weeks later in Las Vegas.

“The goals of the contest are to introduce children to competition with other children,” Helton said.  “Parents and children connect in the training and development phase. The children are given the opportunity to taste success early in life.”

The National Elks Hoop Shoot’s winners in Chicago on Saturday, April 16, will have their name engraved in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

Helton helped publicize the event along with fellow Elks member Cindy Wilmer, Skyrah’s mother, who “knows a lot of families with home-schooled children,” Helton said.

“We give dictionaries to kids preschool through second grade,” Helton said. “For the middle school, although we are not allowed to give financial prizes, we do pay for kids’ transportation to various parts of the country for hoop shoot events.

“I just wish I had that opportunity when I was a kid and had a basketball rim stuck between bales of hay, which would be my backboard growing up on the farm. I was an athlete before it was fashionable.”

Helton was an Ohio girls basketball and softball player at the club level for five years.

Helton also prepared refreshments in support of fellow Elks member and past director Tod Christensen, who was master of ceremonies for the Hoop Shoot but no longer had the time to put in all the preparation required for the event.

“It takes a lot of work for these events,” Helton said. “My husband and I got up at 6 a.m. and fixed 100 hot dogs. We took them up to the high school with chips for the kids to eat.”

For the full list of local winners by age group, please see the Friday, Jan. 8, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.