Lakewood Ranch Elks Hoop Shoot puts youth basketball in the spotlight

One hundred free throws was all that was standing in the way of kids aged 8-13 years-old from making it into the national spotlight.

Of course, most of those have to go in.

For six Lakewood Ranch-area kids, that number has now been whittled down to 75.

The Lakewood Ranch-Sarasota Elks Lodge hosted its annual Elks Hoop Shoot Dec. 9 at Carlos E. Haile Middle School in East County.

The rules of the Hoop Shoot are simple. Contestants have five warm-up free throws before proceeding to shoot two rounds of free throws — one round of 10 shots and one round of 15 shots. 

Whoever makes the most free throws in those 25 attempts wins his or her age bracket.

Winners of each age bracket (8-9, 10-11 and 12-13 for boys and girls) now advance to the district tournament in Sarasota. The overall event is funded by the Elks National Foundation.

From there, they will have the chance to move on to the state, regional and national levels.

Xavier Ulhinger is no stranger to the Lakewood Ranch-Sarasota Elks Hoop Shoot. He competed in it for the third straight year, making 22 of 25 free-throw attempts to win the boys 12-13 age group.

“I won it last year, but I had a better score this year, so it shows I’m improving,” said Uhlinger, who doesn't go to bed many nights until he makes at least 20 out of 25 free-throw attempts at the basketball hoop at his house. “There’s a personal pressure."

Uhlinger was joined by his younger sister, Ariana, who won the girls 8-9 year-old age group by making 15 of 25 free-throws. Her reward of post-competition ice cream was all the motivation she needed to participate.

Other group winners included Liam Goutos (17 of 25 free throws in the boys 8-9 age group), Claire Bullock (20 of 25 free throws in the girls 10-11 age group), London Robinson (20 of 25 free throws in the boys 10-11 group) and Mia Posada-Wilcher (15 of 25 free throws in the girls 12-13 age group). 

However, none of those contestants would have had a chance to compete in this local competition if not for the persistence of event organizer Randy Volkart.

Volkart, a member of the Lakewood Ranch-Sarasota Elks Lodge, is a former high school basketball player who wanted to restart the Hoop Shoot in the area after it went on hiatus for a few years.

“I started calling every place I could think of,” he said. “I finally found Wave basketball, and I called (Luis Morales), and he was all excited about doing it. This is our third year doing it (since the event returned). Our first year we hardly had anybody because we didn’t know what we were doing. This is our best turnout yet.”

Morales is the founder and owner of Wave Basketball Academy, an AAU program in the Bradenton/Sarasota area, and he’s been a driving force in reviving the Lakewood Ranch-Sarasota Elks Hoop Shoot.

He said only about five to six kids showed up for the first year back in 2022, but that’s since grown to 21 participants – most who play for one of his Wave teams.

“I love basketball, I love our community, and I want to help it grow,” Morales said. “It’s great to see kids be successful.”