Donkey basketball returned this year on Nov. 21 as a fundraiser for the senior class of 2024. Newport has not had a donkey basketball fundraiser since the 2018-19 school year.
Donkey basketball has all the general rules of regular basketball with just a few alterations. Rather than four quarters, the games are played with two ten-minute halves. To shoot the ball at the net, the player must be riding the donkey. There is no shot clock or traveling penalties, so players can pass the ball around until they are ready to take the shot.
The class of 2024 organized four teams for the event: a senior team, an underclassmen team, a teacher team, and a Newport alumni team. A lottery decided on the underclassmen team membership before the event. In the first game, the alumni shut out the underclassmen 6-0. The remaining senior and teacher teams battled it out in game two. The teachers put up more points than any other team in a single game in this matchup, winning 12-3.
This pitted the senior and underclassmen teams against one another in the losers bracket. In a shocking turn of events, the seniors scored with just over two minutes left on the clock and then played defensively to send them to overtime with a score of 2-2. The underclassmen then won a best-of-five free throw competition, making the final score 3-2.
In the championship game, the teachers played the alumni. Nobody was able to score against either team’s defensive efforts. Unable to handle the pressure, the alumni finally let up two points and allowed the teachers to win 2-0.
Senior participant Zach Bellis saw some of the challenges with the event but still enjoyed it. “Dealing with the donkeys was hard,” explained Bellis. “The donkeys are like, ‘I don’t like you’… but overall I thought it was a pretty good time.”
Class of 2024 advisor Mrs. Shomper commented, “Donkey basketball is always a good fundraiser, and it went well. Having been five years, it took the students a little while to assimilate into the role. They weren’t quite sure of how to [play].” Regardless of any hiccups, the fundraiser was a success, according to Shomper.
