District Hoop Shoot winner honored by Elks Lodge

Aaden Mendez from Breckenridge has advanced to the state competition in the Elks Hoop Shoot Contest after coming in first place in the district competition in January. The state championship will be held the weekend of Feb. 16 at R L Turner High School in Carrollton, Texas.

Mendez, 10, won the district championship in Arlington last month for his age group. Now competing for state, if he wins he will go to the regional competition, which is to be held in Dallas in March. If he wins first in the regional, he will travel to Chicago to compete in the national championship, which will be held on April 27.

The winner of the national competition will have their name put in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Elks Lodge #1408 Vice President Wayne Justus, who is also the director of the Hoop Shoot Competition locally, said he and the lodge are proud of Mendez and what he has accomplished.

“The lodge is behind him,” Justus said. “We are very excited … and we hope that Breckenridge will become excited also because we do this yearly.”

Justus said Mendez shoots around 200 shots a week to practice, calling him a serious and nice young man.

The Breckenridge Elks Lodge #1408 has been around since 1924. The Hoop Shoot program has been going on now for 46 years, according to the Elks website. The Hoop Shoot contest is a free throw competition for youth, specifically from the ages of 8 to 13. Justus said to his knowledge he could not remember anybody from their local chapter making it to state. Last year, four participants from Texas made it to the national competition, three of them from San Antonio.