Twenty-three is a good number for Anthony Flint.
For the fourth time in the 2016 Elks Hoop Shoot competition, the Durangoan had a 23-for-25 free-throw shooting performance at the Elks National Hoop Shoot Final. The latest performance came Saturday in Chicago and was good enough for a second-place finish.
Competing in the 12-and 13-year old boys division, Flint missed his first shot of the first round. But, after nerves settled down, he got hot and made nine in a row. In the second round, Flint missed his fourth shot but again rallied for the rest of the final round.
“(Saturday) I was nervous but excited,” Flint said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “I was satisfied, but I was a little disappointed when I missed the first shot. After I missed my second, I had more fun.”
Flint shot 23-for-25 in each competition leading up to regionals in Denver, where he hit 22-for-25. Flint represented Elks Lodge No. 507 in Durango.
“It’s a different stage at the national level,” said Ken Flint, Anthony’s father. “He pulled it together during the competition and represented our community very well.”
For the entire competition, Flint, who is 12 years old, shot 91.2 percent. With that success rate, Flint is often times the designated free-throw shooter for his Durango traveling team when the opposing teams are charged with a technical foul. This is Flint’s fourth year in the Elks Hoop Shoot, and this was his best finish ever.
Since he’s been to the state qualifier so many times, the Miller Middle School student said he was only nervous at the regional and national competitions.
Shooting in front of so many people posed a greater challenge on a national platform.
“It was pretty hard; it was quiet and everyone was watching,” Flint said. “But you get into a zone and block out the other stuff.”
To get to the national level, practice was done. Flint spent three days per week practicing free throws. Each practice consisted of 100 to 125 shots broken up into 25 increments. Flint said the best he did was make 33 in a row.
Flint thanked God, his mother Abbey and his dad. He also thanked his older brother, Marcus, who is a freshman at Durango High School.
Flint also said his national success wouldn’t be possible without Vic Romano of Elks Lodge No. 507.
With the competition done and nerves back to normal, Flint lived it up in Chicago. While there, he visited Wrigley Field and watched the Colorado Rockies beat the Chicago Cubs 6-1 on Wednesday.
“It feels great, it was such a cool experience to come to Chicago,” he said. “It was really cool because (Wrigley Field) was so historic. The manual scoreboard was cool.”
Cameron Orr of Glens Falls, New York, won the 12- and 13-year-old boys competitionwhen he shot 24-for-25. Orr represented Elks Lodge No. 81.
jmentzer@durangoherald.com