Maybe He’D Trade Beads For Buckets

Chris Ray owes his mother $130 for his Hoopfest hair-do.

That includes the $10 tip.

There can’t be that many 13-year-olds willing to spend that kind of money on their hair.

Ray’s head is decorated in 75 tiny braids with colored beads on the ends. He was inspired by a friend as well as tennis-playing sisters Venus and Serena Williams.

His beads are red, white, blue and black in the spirit of Fourth of July.

Ray, who will be an eighth-grader at Medical Lake Middle School, had his hair done at Jazz Salon and Day Spa.

The charge: $40 per hour.

It took four hours, but Ray got a deal.

“She only charged us for three hours,” he said, smiling.

Ray is playing with friends in this weekend’s 3-on-3 basketball tournament for the team The Barking Frogs. It’s his first Hoopfest. Ray’s main sport is tennis.

So far, he has earned $80 to pay back his mom but he plans to wait and repay her in one chunk. He paints and mows the lawn for his grandfather to make money.

Ray has been thinking about going for the braids for two years since one of his friends came back from Mexico with them.

They do attract attention.

“They just point and stare,” he said of the reaction of people on the street.

At school, “some people think they look weird and some people think they look cute.”

He said the braids are supposed to last until the end of the year. He hopes so, to make it worth the money.

“I better keep them in for a while,” he said.

Taking a break

The attorney for accused serial killer Robert Lee Yates Jr. needed a relaxation day Saturday.

Richard Fasy spent the day at Hoopfest.

“I’m always thinking about the case,” Fasy said during a women’s elite game on Spokane Falls Boulevard. “It weighs heavily on my mind. It’s important to maintain your sanity and stability. Things like this are part of that.”

Fasy’s sister, Marianne Harrison, is in town from Northern California so he wanted to spend the weekend with her.

Fasy hit the streets as a spectator at 8:30 a.m. He had friends to watch but admitted he didn’t plan the day as well as he could have. He wasn’t sure of their court times or sites.

Fasy said he had planned to work on the case Saturday afternoon with other lawyers but “I forgot to bring my cell phone, so I guess it will have to wait until tomorrow.”

`Hoopfest duty’

The majority of people strolling the streets of downtown Spokane this weekend are dressed in shorts, T-shirts and sneakers.

So Scott Young looked out of place in his navy blue sport coat and tie, white-collar shirt and charcoal gray slacks.

“I don’t have a choice,” but to stand out, he said.

Young was working security in front of the Bank of America Financial Center. Orange plastic fencing blocked access to the bank.

“I have Hoopfest duty,” he said. “I do crowd control, keep kids off the planter and help with questions when I can. I make sure everyone obeys the rules.”

He hadn’t had any problems a couple hours into his shift, which went from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

It was his first time working Hoopfest.

“I have a good view of the games,” the 29-year-old said. “I can walk around and see any game I want. I like basketball but I can’t play basketball. It’s fun to watch and I enjoy watching the kids go out there and give it all they’ve got. That’s what it’s all about, having fun.”

Go, bro

This would have been Andrew Gayda’s first year playing in Hoopfest. But the 10-year-old fell rollerblading in May and broke his right arm.

“It’s a compound fracture, that means two bones are broken,” explained Gayda, who will be a fifth-grader at Spokane’s Jefferson Elementary. “The bone was sticking out, but it didn’t go through the skin.”

Since he couldn’t play, Gayda spent Saturday cheering for his 12-year-old brother, Eddie, and Eddie’s Spokane Raptors teammates. Their father, Robert, coaches the team.

Gayda kept score and videotaped games.

“Go, Eddie,” he screamed Saturday morning.

A couple minutes later he pumped his fist when the Raptors scored.

Gayda will have his neon green cast with red smiley faces taken off July 10. Then he plans to get back into basketball - his favorite sport - and swimming.

He’s eager.

“Basically I sit around and play Game Boy,” he said. “That’s all I can do.”

A long haul

Hoopfest is a new excuse for John Halverson to get back to his hometown at least once a year.

The 1982 graduate of Gonzaga Prep works in the marketing department for the United Parcel Service in Seattle. He left Spokane 15 years ago.

UPS has started to do more local promotion in community settings, Halverson said. He spent Saturday passing out balloons and blow-up basketballs on the corner of Washington and Riverside.

Halverson, 35, had never been to Hoopfest so he didn’t know what to expect. He only brought 5,000 balloons and 1,000 blow-up basketballs.

He will be more prepared next year. He hopes to have a mobile UPS truck with a side that flips up.

“I don’t get back here enough,” he said. “My mom still has a house on the South Hill. I try to get back once a year with my family.”

Quotable

“I’ve never watched. The girls are so much rougher than the guys. They’re going to fight one of these games.” - Former Ferris High School and Community Colleges of Spokane basketball player Karie Pruett, who will continue playing at Central Washington University.