Blake Whitley (Photo courtesy Bonnie Whitley)
(April 29 update: Blake is the national champion for boys ages 8-9, after making every shot at the Elks Hoop Shoot finals competition. He and another boy each scored 25 shots, then faced each other in two more rounds of five free-throws each. Blake made all 10 of those shots, while the other boy missed one. Blake's name, and those of the other national champions from each age division, will appear on a plaque at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, which the family plans to visit this summer. Blake will also attend a summer basketball camp at the University of Maryland in June. Scroll down to see a picture of his trophy.)
Nine-year-old Blake Whitley of Mechanicsville topped the free throw competition for his age group in local, district, state and regional 2019 Hoop Shoot contests run by the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks fraternal organization. On April 27, he’ll test his skills against 11 other winners from around the country in the national finals in Chicago.
Blake, a fourth-grader at Hanover County’s Rural Point Elementary School, will travel to the Windy City with his parents, Tim and Bonnie Whitley, and older brother, Andrew Bledsoe, and attend a banquet and White Sox game that weekend.
“He’s over-the-moon excited,” says Bonnie Whitley, who credits Blake’s physical education teacher, Joncie Albright, with getting him started in a school competition that propelled him to the Elks contest and supporting his efforts to practice. “He takes at least 100 shots a day, weather permitting, mostly in our driveway.”
Lynn Rutherford-Snow, Hoop Shoot director for Virginia, says that since the program started in the state in 1972, nobody from the greater Richmond area has won the national competition. (There was a winner from Petersburg in 1998.)
Blake started playing basketball in kindergarten with youth leagues and is playing this spring on an Amateur Athletic Union travel team with RockIt Sports. His dream, Bonnie Whitley says, is to play basketball or football for Texas Tech University’s Red Raiders.
Blake Whitley (center) celebrates his national championship win with (from left) Virginia Hoop Shoot Director Lynn Rutherford-Snow, brother Andrew and parents Bonnie and Tim Whitley. "He feels good that all his hard work and determination paid off," Bonnie Whitley says. (Photo courtesy of Lynn Rutherford-Snow)
