Donkey Basketball

OK so when you live in a small town sometimes finding entertainment is not an easy thing. But when something does come up you kind of jump at the chance to go. Tonight happened to be Donkey Basketball. The Hemphill Booster club wanted to raise money for their scholarships for students in athletics. So this was the brain child of Stacey.

Stacey saw this once a few years back at another school and thought it would go over well here. She contacted the person that coordinated it at that school and was told they made a ton of money. A ton equals over 4 thousand. That is a ton to a small town. She got the particulars and brought it to the booster club meeting and they voted and it was a definite Yes.

Stacey sent me an email asking if I would be able to help out. I told her I would love to so I was placed in charge of the ticket sales at the door.

I got there at 5:20 PM ready to go. The game did not start until 6:30 so I thought I would have a little peace before things started to pick up. I was wrong. It started right off. People were coming and coming and coming. And I had no help. One of the other ladies saw the mass at the door and was gracious enough to come and help me.

Lets put it this way...I really did not see the first half of the game. The stream of people did not stop. They just kept coming. I did hear the laughter and Ohh's from the crowd though. Every time I would look over to see on of the riders on the floor after being thrown off, bucked off or just plain fallen off their gallant stead.

At half time I took the money bag and counted the nights take. Any one who decided to come after I left my post received the gift of the second half of the game for free. I sold 108 tickets at the door. And took in over 250 pre-sold tickets from people. No for a little town that is pretty darn good. All in all we took in over $2100. And that is not including the concession stands earnings.

I did manage to to see the last quarter of the game. There was one donkey that just decided he was not going to do any more. The rider tried and tried to get the animal to go but he was not going to budge at all. The rider even got off and tried to give him a push but the donkey was having none of that. And not to mention a few that were thrown off because their donkeys were just rebellious and decided to buck.

Now the riders were the coaches from Hemphill High against I really do not know who they were. But they all played a very good game. Well for being on the back of a donkey trying to shoot baskets. I will not mention the fact that the Basketball coach could not make a single basket. Oh wait, I did mention it. Yes it is true. Every shot he attempted missed the basket by miles. My son actually got a kick out of this. Since this is his Drivers ed teacher.

So if you ever have the opportunity to see a donkey basketball game I do recommend it. It is a real hoot. Plus you might also be contributing to a good cause.