CHS Ball Kids program highlights best parts of school sports

COEUR d'ALENE — It's easy sometimes to lose sight of the value of team sports in schools.

Winning and losing, highlight plays, statistics and awards get all the attention these days.

But the core value can come back into focus after meeting or spending a little time watching the elementary school kids who serve as honorary Ball Kids at the home games of the Coeur d'Alene High School varsity basketball team.

The youngsters have fun. They're eager to be part of something bigger than themselves. They humbly accept their role, give maximum effort — and in return would only ask for a chance to do it again.

On Saturday night, those Ball Kids were from Dalton Elementary, including fourth-grader Olivia Naccarato, third-grader Maddox Le, third-grader Kaylee Streeter and first-grader Ben Murray. They wiped up sweat from the floor and rushed towels and water to referees during timeouts. A fifth Ball Kid, fifth-grader Payton Smith, sang the national anthem, bringing the gymnasium crowd roaring to life just before tip-off.

It was their night to shine. That included a pre-game introduction, a courtside seat and maybe a high-five from a star high school player like Joey Naccarato.

Olivia Naccarato couldn't wait to get down on the court for the big game. Her brother is Joey Naccarato.

"I always have to sit up high" at the games, Olivia said Friday. "So I can't see everything very well. I'm just really excited because I have a view of everything."

Parents of the Ball Kids have watched the excitement building all week.

"He's excited to watch the game and be close to the action," Buddy Le, Maddox Le's father, said at the game. "We're big CHS Viking fans."

The Ball Kids aren't the only ones who benefit from the program. The players do, too.

Joey Naccarato and teammates Justin Kofmehl and Bryce Bronson were honorary team ambassadors Friday at Dalton Elementary. The players shot hoops at recess with the younger kids and then grabbed lunch in the cafeteria, folding their large frames onto seats at undersized tables.

"What I love about the Ball Kid program for the players is that it holds them to a little bit higher standard" as role models, said Doug Jaworski, who organizes the program for the team. "We encourage them to be good students, good athletes and good citizens."

In a way, that message struck a similar tone to one in his pre-game speech to the Ball Kids.

"Remember, you are junior Vikings today," Jaworski told them. "But you are also representing Dalton Elementary."

Joey Naccarato said the Ball Kids program is a great way to get the elementary students excited about the high school team. He and the other players, during their visit to Dalton, passed out free tickets to Saturday's game.

"It's kind of fun coming back, because it doesn't seem too long ago we were this young," Joey Naccarato said Friday. "It's kind of nice to give back, also."

Except for the singer Payton Smith, the Ball Kids for Saturday's game were chosen randomly from Dalton Elementary, although each had to correctly answer a trivia question about basketball or the high school to get into the pool of eligible candidates.

"So they had to be smart and lucky," Brandi Meade, a second-grade teacher at Dalton, said Friday. "Every day this week we've picked one. We've made it a whole week thing trying to build interest."

Each elementary school that participates in the Ball Kids program decides how their representative students are chosen.

Meade said teachers like the program because it gives the younger students something to aspire to.

"You want to be Joey, you want to be Justin, you want to be the kid who gets to come and hang out" at the elementary school and be a role model, Meade said.

Bryce Bronson, a junior, said he had a blast interacting with the Dalton students. He and the other players soaked up the positive energy, which was in abundance both on the playground and in the cafeteria.

"It's fun to see that the kids are so enthusiastic about wanting to be a part of our games," Bronson said.