Story by Ed Townsend
GRAHAMSVILLE — March 12, 2013 — More than $1,000 was raised at the Amy Paes Scholarship Basketball games Saturday at the Tri-Valley High School.
Pride and enthusiasm is also a big part of this fundraising event for the four sixth grade teams in this "Moving Up" competition.
An added highlight of this annual sports fundraiser is the popular Tri-Valley Alumni/Faculty game featuring odd-numbered year graduates vs. even-numbered year graduates.
Amy Paes was a fifth-grader at Tri-Valley and involved with the Bear Cub Basketball program when she passed away in the summer of 2003 after a battle with cancer.
Money raised from these games as well as previous years are used to create scholarships for one boy and one girl. To qualify for this scholarship, the graduate must have played Bear Cub basketball and attend college or a trade school.
The sixth graders participating in the "Moving Up" games are now considered graduates from the Saturday Bear Cub Basketball Program and many look forward to Tri-Valley's seventh-grade modified basketball.
Started in 1994 by Andy Taggart, the Saturday Bear Club program is now under the guidance and management of Scott Mickenson.
In the girls’ competition, the Red team coached by Larry Whipple, Monty Carmody and Samantha Whipple pulled out a 21-20 victory over the Blue team coached by Gary Buley and Julie Starner.
Girls team players included Jillian Mungeer, Morgan McHugh, Heather Foster, Catie Brooks, Brianna Goetschius, Haley Stanton, Kathryn Jones, Katerina Plescia, Autumn Buely, Britney Lee, Smily Starner, Sam Raymond, Dakota Deck, Rebecca Reynolds, Julianna Smith, Cheyenne Brooks and Alysa Hernandez.
The boys’ Blue team coached by Amanda Vansaders and John Shamro defeated the Red team coached by Dominick Scanna and Bill Hendrickson 26-16.
Sixth grade boys’ team players included Gabe Bragg, Julius Colon, Aidan Mentnech, J. R. Dertinger, Matt Ryan, Jake Scanna, Jacob Allison, Ryan Giminiani, Dakoda Van Dunk, Joseph Edwards, Dylan Hummel, Mark Bell, Adem Gray, Jake Wilson, Thomas VanSaders, Imaan Khan and Cody Shamro.
The Tri-Valley Alumni/Faculty game turned out to be a barn-burner with lots of offense and not very much transition defense. The Red team jumped out to a large lead, but suspect defense combined with outstanding shooting by Ian Exner allowed the Blue team to even the score at 63 late in the fourth quarter.
That’s when the game ended in a tie. Exner suffered a deep cut above the right eye and the Blue team was left with just four players. Exner was high scorer with 32 points and Fred Moore had 26 points for the Red team.
Participants in the Alumni/Faculty game along with Exner and Moore were Ted DeGraw, Joe Lee, Kevin Delaney, Andrew Yager, Ross Bonnell, Tyler TerBush, Brendan Walsh, Andrew Garigliano, Tim Martin and Bill Hendrickson.
The proceeds of $1,022 from this event goes to the benefit of the Amy Paes Scholarship Fund which will result in two $500 scholarships.