Hi-Line Living - Holiday Hoops for education

Havre Public Schools alumni had their chance again this year to get back on the basketball court with the Havre Public Schools Education Foundation's annual Holiday Hoops event.

Last Friday Havre High School hosted the 14th Annual Holiday Hoops, with many Blue Pony Alumni coming out to play basketball with fellow former students.

Havre High's SkillsUSA was at the event working the concessions stand for the game. Technical education teacher and SkillsUSA Advisor Tyler Kropf and two of his students, Wyatt Golbin, a senior, and Hunter Velk, a sophomore, staffed the stand.

Education Foundation President Jack Maloughney said that the admission fee for the event was a non perishable food item, and those donations were set to be dropped off at Havre Food Bank Monday.

Raffles for a Blue Pony basket and a New Year's basket were held during the event

The foundation moved the date this year for the Holiday Hoops event to a Friday to help attract more people, Foundation Treasurer Julie Monson said, adding that she thought attendance was up this year.

Monson, who is a 1985 Havre High graduate, added that this was the first year in about five that the alumni game was held in the high school gymnasium. She said Holiday Hoops originally took place in the high school gym but for a while was moved to the middle school because the high school is normally refinishing its floors at this time of year.

The Education Foundation provides funding for small grants and manages scholarships for donors.

In schools, Maloughney said, if teachers want to do some projects throughout the year but they don't have any money for it, the Education Foundation reviews the teachers' requests and, if approved, provides funding for these projects.

Maloughney said the teachers have an application process they have to go through, and have to explain how many students the project would affect and what the goal is, he said.

Monson said one of the teacher projects that the Education Foundation helped fund in 2018 was with Havre Public Schools Physics Teacher Mike Leinwand. She said he was doing a bridge test that had students make bridges with balsa wood and test how durable their bridges were.

"All the money we raise goes right back into the public school system," Maloughney said. "... It's basically to help fill in the gaps."

The nonprofit foundation was founded in 2000t.

The foundation also raises money through the Blue Pony Spirit Club - at the beginning of the school year people donate or pledge money on hallmarks in different sporting events like number of football touchdowns or number of basketball three-pointers - and through sale of Blue Pony license plates. Monson said that the foundation has many different small fundraisers throughout the year to help raise money for the foundation.

Maloughney added that some of the other events put on by the foundation are the Fossil Festival and the Touchdown Club.

Maloughney said the foundation has a few events they are beginning to plan for 2019.

He said they are lucky enough to have many different scholarship donors. He added that the donors are the ones who select scholarship winners. Maloughney said that in the spring before high school graduation, the foundation holds an awards ceremony where they present approximately 22 scholarships to the selected students.

The scholarships range from $250 to $5,000, Monson said.

Foundation Secretary Mary Pizzini, a 1978 Havre High graduate, said that if the donors do not select a student a scholarship committee, made up of approximately five or six staff members of the high school, makes the selection.

Maloughney said his favorite part of the Holiday Hoops events, is seeing people from different age groups and graduating classes play basketball with each other.

"It's such a wide spread," Maloughney said, "and you get a good turn out, a lot of it is people who come home from the holidays. ... It's kind of neat."

He added that what he likes about the foundation is hearing about all of the cool projects the teachers want to do with their students.

Maloughney said he is not a Havre Public Schools graduate, but rather graduated from Seeley-Swan High School in 1996. He said he wanted to get involved in the foundation because he knew what the foundation did and foundation member and friend Wells Laney got him interested.

He added that his two kids are Blue Ponies and his wife, Kari, who was on the 1998 Blue Pony state volleyball championship team, made him want to be more involved with the Havre school system.

2008 Havre High School graduate Grayson Winsor said he was having fun but felt a bit out of shape. He said he has been attending the Holiday Hoop event since he graduated and his favorite part of the event was watching graduates, young and old, play together and have fun. He added that the Holiday Hoopsa was a good way of bringing all the alumni back to Havre and was good family function for the community.

Winsor said he played two years of high school basketball as a forward center and that he felt great about getting back out their and playing. He said since he graduated he hasn't played very much basketball so he was just happy for the opportunity.

Jason Castillon, also a 2008 Havre High graduate, said he has only missed two of the Holiday Hoops events since he had graduated. He added that he liked seeing old classmates and that events like Holiday Hoops are important for a community because they are a good way of reminding people of where their roots are.

Sports, he added, have a lot of community spirit.

Castillion said he was happy to be playing again and was proud to bring his daughter, Sophie, 2, with him to the event.

The oldest participant in the Holiday Hoops event was John Shennum, a 1984 graduate. He said he has been playing in the event for the past four to five years and likes to be around the other former players.

"It's fun, keeps me young," Shennum said.

One of the youngest players in the alumni game was Kaylee Nystrom, who graduated last year. She said she played on the high school team for three years and her senior year the Havre High School team was the state Class A champion. She added that she hasn't played much basketball since she graduated, her time mostly being spent studying in the Montana State University-Northern agricultural program.

Nystrom said she missed the game and she was having fun with the other alumni. She added that before the event she was excited about playing because some of the some of the other former athletes were people she always wanted to play with, or against.

"Especially Grayson (Winsor)," she said, laughing.

She said it was also nice to see people she knew in high school.

Morgan Mazurkiewicz, a 2015 graduate, said that this was her third year playing in the alumni game. She said it was nice to meet up with people and see how they have been doing and what they have been up to.

Mazurkiewicz added that she lives in Billings studying occupational therapy at Rocky Mountain College.

She said events like the Holiday Hoops are important for a community because it brings people together.