Nashua's Lexi McGuire concentrates as she practices for this weekend's National Elks Hoop Shoot Finals in Chicago. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Matt McGuire and his 13-year-old daughter Lexi were driving around Portland, Me.on a Friday night last month, on a mission.

Their quest: find an outdoor basketball hoop or court that Lexi could practice shooting free throws on, since most indoor spots were closed. They finally thought they had found one.

“Uh, Dad,” Lexi said to her father, a former Nashua High School basketball player. “I think this is some kind of prison.”

It may have been a juvenile detention center, but the bottom line was it turned out Lexi didn’t need the practice for the next day’s Elks New England Regionals Hoop Shoot contest. The Fairgrounds Junior High seventh grader shot a perfect 25 out of 25, and that’s why this weekend she’s in Chicago along with her her family – Matt, her mom Becca and younger brother Myles – to compete Saturday in the Elks National Hoop Shoot Finals in the 12-13 girls age division at Wintrust Arena, home of the WNBA’s Chicago Sky. Some 72 competitors combined in the boys and girls age divisions will be competing for their respective titles and having their names inscribed in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

McGuire beat out the state winners from Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Vermont.

McGuire is the 12th player from the Nashua Lodge of Elks #720 area competion in the history of the event to make it to the nationals. The others were notable names: The Nashua Elks have sent 11 to the Elks National Hoop Shoot Finals: Steve Piwowarski, Missy Ayotte, Debra Killmon, Ellen Tipping, Ryan Robinson, Ryan Sullivan , Michael Panagoulias, Caleb Donnelly, Max Coleman, Tom O’Hearn of Hudson and Tilak Patel of Nashua. Only Hudson’s Donnelly won the national championship, that occuring in 2006. And McGuire is said to be the first girls regional champion from New Hampshire since 2003. She’ll go up against the champions from the 11 other regions around the country.

“I’m really excited,” McGuire said, “because I’ve never gotten this far before.”

This is about her fourth year in the contest, and McGuire could never have dreamed of this. One year she was entered with a friend on the local level, and were the only competitors in the age group they were competing in, shot well enough to earn trophies but were suddenly told they had to give the trophies back because they were entered in one age level below where they should have.

“They just like took ’em,” McGuire said chuckling. “We were in the 8-9 and were supposed to be in the 10-11. We were really confused.”

There was no confusion this time. McGuire had never gotten past the city level until this year. She hit 18 of 25, then moved on to the District contest in Keene with 21 out of 25. Then the state finals against all the other district champions. And hit the jackpot at the Regionals.

“I was practicing way more,” she said. “I knew there would be more people and better competition.”

And this year she made it a goal to win it since it would be the last year she’d be eligible.

“I didn’t really take it that seriously,” she said. “But then I said, ‘I can do free throws.’ It’s my last year, I want to go out with a bang, you know?”

McGuire has been playing basketball since she was around 7, starting with a beginner program that her AAU team the Crusaders has, then Nashua Park-Rec biddy leagues with her father Matt coaching, and also plays on the Fairgrounds team, plus travel basketball in the off-season. That in addition to volleyball in the fall and track in the spring. In other words, she’s an athlete.

But basketball is her game. Playing all winter helped her be in prime form for the Elks competition, via practice with her teams and in games.

“It did,” she said. “In practice we did running and then we take the free throws. It definitely helps with pressure – you’re tired and then you have to shoot. It helps calm yourself down.”

At the state competitionin Plymouth, McGuire took her time to size up the competition.

“You want to realize who you’re going up against,” she said. “It’s hard to tell based off the practice (warm ups). Some girls do really well in the practice, then they get into the actual competition and they don’t do as well. Or it’s the opposite.”

So what does a Hoop Shooter have to do to handle the pressure? Depending on what level, the stands are full of fans, family and friends, but when a competitor is at the foul line, there’s dead silence with officials and ball retrievers watching.

“There’s six people, three counters and three rebounders,” McGuire said, noting she doesn’t get nervous. “I’m shooting the ball, I don’t think about who’s watching me.”

Ironically, McGuire said she might think about a foul shot in an actual game more, but not to the level that it affects her nerves. It is, however, a lot of waiting. For the later levels, contestants arrive early in the morning and with McGuire being in the last age group, the wait could be as long as three to four hours, with about a half hour of practice. At the district and state level, the crowds were mostly gone by the time the last age group would compete.

“I try not to think about it, I just watch (the other age groups),” McGuire said. “And I try to motivate myself. I’ll sing songs in my head.”

She’ll listen to music on the long rides to the competition, and Matt McGuire will do what he can to get his daughter’s mind off the event.

“We’ll talk about it, and I’ll say, ‘Do you know how many you’re gonna need?'” he said. “And she’s already done her research, telling me ‘Well, the past winners hit, 20, 19. So if I can do 20 or 21, we should be good.’ And for Regionals, 23 was her number, but I said, ‘Well, just go for all of them, it’s only two more.’

“And she said, ‘Well, yes, I guess I could do that.'”

And she did. McGuire goes to the Elks Hoop Shoot website and checks out the numbers that are listed.

When it’s time for McGuire’s age group, she doesn’t watch those actual competitors during their shoots.

“I look at the floor, look at the ceiling,” she said, adding she doesn’t even know their scores by the time it’s her turn.

No distractions.

“I don’t want to think about that because it will make me second guess myself,” she said. “It’s just like you’re in a practice, just shooting by yourself.”

OK, then when she’s at the foul line, what does she think about? How does she focus?

“Usually I’m just like calm about it,” she said. “I’ll just think about my routine, and then it just goes in.”

What’s her routine? She takes the ball, spins it, then dribbles three times, spins it again, dribbles twice, “and then I just look at the hoop and I shoot it. It’s a rhythm. I feel if I’m not in that rhythm, then I tend to like mess up. I like listening to the beat of the ball, it makes me concentrate.”

And it’s her same technique in games.

Not knowing the other scores, when she’s done, Lexi doesn’t actually know whether she has won or not. At the state competition, the girl next to her told her, “I think you won.”

But at the Regionals, even though she hit all of her free throws, she thought another competitor did as well so there’s be a tiebreaker round. In all the shoots, all the competitors take 10 free throws, then they start again and all shoot 15.

“Apparently she missed the first one on her second round of 15,” McGuire said.

When she made all 25, her reaction was, ‘Wow I just did that, that’s pretty cool’” she said. “I was thinking ‘It’s not something new, I shoot all the time, just like I practice all the time.'”

While Lexi can remain calm, you can’t say the same for her fans watching.

“Oh it’s nerve racking,” Matt McGuire said. “I’d rather be out there shooting. I usually stay out of the way so she can’t see me. I was amazed. She puts in a lot of work.”

Since the started in December, McGuire says she’s put in anywhere from two to five hours a week practicing, usually at the Nashua YMCA.

ROYAL TREATMENT

The Regionals, McGuire said, was a fun experience, not just because she won, but because of the first-class Elks treatement. Food all the time – beginning with a pizza party the night before, the day of, and after the competion a banquet. Nice buses to the University of Southern Maine’s gym where the competition was held.

Once inside the gym, McGuire said she was starting to feel the drive to win.

“You start to realize I’ve gone really far, there’s a bunch of other people I’ve beaten out,” she said, “and you just want to win it. You want to go all the way, and you want to win.”

It was her fifth shot when she realized she had the right rhythm. “I was, ‘I’m making a lot of these,'” she said, “And then I just kept going. After I hit all 10 at first, I said that’s pretty good; I’ve got to just hit all 15 and I can win.”

There was probably about a half hour before the others were done for her to shoot her 15. She was the leadoff shooter, so it was a bit of a wait.

“I knew they were all watching me, so I said I’ll just hit all of them,” she said. “I liked it better, because I’m not worrying about what the person before me got, because I’m before everyone. Then after I’m done shooting, then it’s over.”

McGuire is a fan of college women’s basketball. “LSU and Iowa are amazing teams,” she said. “Angel Reece and Caitlyn Clark, they’re really talented. I want to play at that level someday.”

First there’s another year at Fairgrounds, and she’d be headed after next year to Nashua South. But while she’s watching the college players, she compared free throw styles. “They all have their different routines and techniques,” she said.

The day after she won the Regionals it’s when it really hit her. Off to Chicago.

“I’m super excited,” she said. “I thought I could go far, but going to Nationals, that’s just crazy.”

The family was sheduled to fly out to Chicago on Thursday – expenses picked up by the Elks — and the activities were slated to feature a “Friday Night Funfest” – a tour and dinner at Chicago’s Soldier Field, plus there was to be practice time Frday at Wintrust Arena. Each region has their own time slot for that and Region 6’s was to be Friday morning at 10 a.m. Saturday is the “Breakfast of Champions”, then the competition, and an awards banquet that evening.

And of course, McGuire has done her research on the competition, about 13 competitiors.

“I think the competition is going to be pretty good,” she said. “I know the girl who won it last year is competing again. You think five’s a lot, and this is 13.

“I think if I won it, it’d be a great way to end it. But even getting as far as Nationals is a really good thing. I put in a ton of practice.”

And, at least in her effort to get to Chicago, Lexi McGuire’s practice made perfect.

LIVESTREAM

Hoop Shoot fans can follow the event as there is a shot tracker at elks.org/HoopShoot and a livestream is also available at enf.elks.org/HSLivestreams.

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