Daily Sitka Sentinel

Fundraisers Planned for Basketball Machine

By GARLAND KENNEDY

Sentinel Sports Editor

Basketball players in Sitka might have a chance to train with some high-tech assistance later this year if fundraising efforts this summer go as planned.

Longtime basketball instructor Sid Eubanks is organizing fundraising events and hopes the new equipment will not only serve as a training aid, but also will encourage involvement in afterschool activities.

“Basketball programs in general, or any afterschool activity, whether it’s drama debate or whether it’s volleyball, for some of the kids ... it’s probably the most important class that they take,” Eubanks said.

Using money he plans to raise through a basketball tournament and several other events, he’d like to purchase and install a Dr. Dish basketball shooting machine. Mounted over a conventional basketball hoop, the contraption catches balls and passes them back to the player. A computer installed on the machine keeps a tally of shooting statistics as well.

“It’s a machine that will catch the rebounds – you can load five balls at a time and it will pass to the player so he can just shoot and get rebounded and passed to all the time,” Eubanks said.

But what’s really neat about this machine is that it has a computer interface, Eubanks said.

“You can make a profile on your phone, and a player can go in and keep track of his progress and his percentages,” he said. “And what’s even cooler than that, is coaches and parents can go and see what their kids have been doing or their players have been doing. So, for instance, if the kid gets up 500 shots every day in the summer, the coach would be able to see that.”

While Dr. Dish manufactures a broad spectrum of basketball machines, the one Eubanks wants to acquire and install costs about $8,000.

While he considered placing the machine at Sitka High, he plans to have it installed at the Hames Center.

“They have racquetball rooms that aren’t being used, and I’m working with the manager to try to get this thing placed in there, which means they’ll have to get a hoop as well. So that’ll add to some cost but it won’t be hard to get a hoop. Hopefully, the goal will be that they’ll be able to go in and sign up for a half an hour and get this machine to themselves and then go in and get 500 shots up,” he said. “The reason why I think it’s important (that) it’s at the Hames Center is because during the season kids might not be able to get access to their high school gym because there’ll be other teams practicing.”

Between a fundraiser basketball tournament July 29 and a July 30 rap battle, Eubanks thinks he can raise the $8,000 needed for the Dr. Dish installation.

“I do have costs to pay for the artists coming in and I pretty much had that covered,” Eubanks said. “Like I said, I took out a loan (to finance the tournament and festival) but I think I’ll get there and if not, if I don’t quite get to $8,000, then I have some clinics and a three-on-three tournament afterwards in August that I’m planning and I think I’ll get there then.”

His basketball clinics are co-ed and open to high school athletes. Eubanks worked as an assistant coach for the Sitka High basketball team for several years before the pandemic.

Tickets for the tournament are for sale at the Hames Center and at Russell’s on Lincoln Street. Rap battle tickets are for sale at Russell’s and the Fisheye Cafe, while tickets for an afterparty at the Mean Queen are on sale at the Mean Queen.

If things go well, Eubanks doesn’t plan to stop at the purchase of a basketball machine. He’s considered forming a nonprofit for the benefit of the Sitka High basketball squads.

“I was trying to figure out a way that I can coach and raise money, because when I did coach a high school program, I know that they have to raise about $40,000 every year and that’s on the coaches,” he said. “Hopefully, with this festival that I’m starting (I can) make it an annual thing, it can be a moneymaker to where I can give the programs some money to help them with their seasons coming up.”

After the disruptions caused by the pandemic, Eubanks hopes programs such as basketball can reinvigorate a sense of community in Sitka.

“For the kids it’s fun because the community gets involved, but just especially after COVID and everything we’ve been through, it’s time to get a lot of that stuff going and that’s another reason why I dove in to do this. We need to bring those things back… Anything that just brings people back together I think is super, super important.”