They make Hoopfest a must-stop

Osh Spoonhunter knew she wasn’t in Kansas any more.

Morningstar Pelcher, Amber Tucumseh and the more than two dozen others from Mayette, Kan., had the same sensation when they experienced Hoopfest for the first time.

They are part of a 30-strong contingent from the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation that has made the world’s largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in downtown Spokane the centerpiece of the Boys and Girls Club senior youth summer trip.

“I was surprised they had the whole area blocked off. I thought it would be in a big open area,” said Spoonhunter, a chaperone and player. “It’s huge. It’s not like anything we have back home. The downtown thing is pretty cool.”

Osh Spoonhunter played co-ed with her husband Roy, and two other chaperones, including three-year veteran Tecumseh.

“It’s fun, traveling, getting to see all kinds of places,” said Tecumseh, who is 19 and now a chaperone. “I like to play basketball and I like to travel.”

Roy Spoonhunter, Osh’s husband, is the unofficial spokesman for the group, having left the Yakima Valley to attend college in Kansas and staying after he fell in love.

Spoonhunter was in the tribe’s environmental planning and protection department when he was asked to join the first excursion that evolved after an internet discovery of Hoopfest.

“It created a lot of excitement,” he said. “The kids still talk about it. The first year a lot came just for the trip.”

Only three members of the traveling party are not on one of the seven teams.

“I was real excited about the trip when it first started, playing was kind of second,” said Pelcher, 17, the only student three-year veteran. “It’s fun, just to see how other people play and see the sites. Some people are awesome to watch. I like to watch as much as play. I want to keep coming.”

From the veterans to the newcomers, one thing stands out.

“It’s pretty cool how all these streets are blocked off so you can play basketball,” Jaime Farias said. “We practiced every day for a whole week straight.”

Farias plays on a team of junior high players with Pam Johnson a 2-year veteran.

“The idea is just to have fun and do our best,” Johnson said before the team, Hard Knocks, lost its opener.

In addition to the astounding sites of Hoopfest, the caravan stops at Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota, Yellowstone National Park and Seattle. The Space Needle was a hit but missing out on a ferry ride has some already planning to return.

“We just moved to the reservation and I started going to the club,” Farias said. “They said it’s a good trip. It’s been fun, but it was a little boring during the ride. We’ve seen good sites. I like the mountains, I’m from the plains.”

Roy Spoonhunter said, “I tell them it’s something you may never experience in your life. It’s a once in a lifetime experience.”

Mayette is in northeast Kansas, 2,500 miles from Spokane.

Nathan Hale, a chaperone who played with the Spoonhunters, has also made all three trips.

“I was blown away by the amount of people,” he said. “I played in Kansas City before. It’s not as big and the atmosphere isn’t as good. It’s been real hospitable everywhere we’ve gone. It’s always been fun.”

Members of the group try to get to each other’s games, but all that trekking around does create some anxious moments: “It’s like trying to swim upstream,” Roy Spoonhunter said.

The adults spend more time worrying than preparing to play.

“The kids wanted to run around and check everything out,” Osh Spoonhunter said.

“We lose some of our people,” Tecumseh said, “but everybody has cell phones.”

Roy Spoonhunter was logging after graduating from Wapato in 1990 when he learned about Haskell Indian Nations College in Lawrence from friends.

“I do miss it but I’ve grown accustomed to the area,” he said. “I get home at least once a year.”

He played one year of college basketball before getting on with his life.

“I wouldn’t say Indian basketball is a big deal in Kansas,” he said. “This has helped generate interest. The sport of fastpitch softball in the Midwest is as big as basketball is in the northwest.”

All the players hope the Hoopfest tradition continues, though next year there could be a conflict with the North American Indigenous Games.

“We might not have as many players,” Hale said.

But given the experience, such as Tecumseh’s team playing for the championship last year, there will be many more trips.

“The reason we come is for games like that,” Hale said. “That’s a story that still gets told.”