ANAHOLA — As the Senior Olympics were played on O’ahu Thursday, Kaua’i’s team played on the cracked court on Anahola playground, hoping that next year they will have enough players to field a competitive team.
The Anahola team, which has members from Lihu’e to Hanalei, won a second-place medal in the 2000 Olympics, but this year, they didn’t have enough 50 and over players to field a competitive team, said Richard “Micky” McCleery, who is the leader of the loosely-formed group.
Thursday night, they only had 11 players, not enough to get the four three-on-three teams on half-court, the format for the Senior Olympics games. So they were playing four-on-four on one of half-courts, while others waited to get in a game.
“We haven’t had enough of a turnout to recruit and form regular teams,” said the 81-year-old. The Olympics has five-year age groups, so the team hopes that they can get enough players to field a number of teams.
The weekly Thursday-night three-on-three games “help keep us sharp by playing against other (age) groups,” he said.
“If we couldn’t send a competitive team and have a decent chance,” said McCleery, there was no reason to go over.
“We need people just to show up and play; practice so we can get team together” so they can run plays and get teams to gel, he said.
McCleery, who fell in love with basketball while at the University of North Carolina doing graduate work, got to see one of the greatest championships NCAA basketball history — the 1957 championship when UNC beat Kansas in three overtimes, he said.
“I’ve been idiotically hooked on basketball ever since,” he said. “I’m just a basketball fanatic.”
McCleery still goes out every Thursday to throw down his “amazing hook shot,” he said. “For the last 20 years, I can’t make a jump shot over” the younger guys, so the hook shot is his favorite weapon.
“This is not just my whole recreational life, this is my social life” as well, he said. He has been taking care of Anahola Park for years to keep the senior basketball team alive, planting trees and doing patchwork on the blacktop.
Anyone over 50 interested in playing basketball should just show up ready to play, McCleery said. The pick-up games start at 4:30 p.m., and many go until after dark, under the lights.
“I would love to get more 80-year-olds out here,” he said. Maybe then he could put up a jumper.
