This year's Hoopfest brackets are full of food-inspired teams.
If you search "meat" on the Hoopfest team tracker, eight teams come up — including names that do not make me want to play basketball, like Meatloaf All Day and Meat Sweats. Curry has nine results (though some are probably tributes to Steph), while cheese has 10 results, like Swish Cheese, Kareem Cheesers, Cheese Ballers and Cheese Ballerz. Chicken has a grand total of 13 results, including Chicken Noodle Hoop and Chicken Nuggets, perhaps an unexpected and lucky reference to the new NBA champions. A completely scientific search, not biased at all by my favorite foods, revealed some other delicious team names, like Fruit Hoops, Basket Robbins, Nacho Basketball, Shawarma Sweatin, and Green Eggs and Slam.
A few local ballers responded to my bizarre Facebook message asking them to explain the inspiration behind their sweet and spicy nicknames. Some even shared some of their favorite places to fuel up around town after a sweaty game in the grueling summer heat.
TEAM: AVERAGE TOAST ENJOYERS
BALLER: ERYNN GORES
"My team was scrambling to come up with a name a couple of hours before the registration deadline so we were all just texting whatever came to our minds in our group chat. One of my teammates came up with this name, and we were all so confused by what it meant that it just kind of stuck. We figured who doesn't like a piece of average toast?"
TEAM: ROOT BEER FLOATERS
BALLER: CODY BRINKMAN
"Dylan is one of our teammates, his parents own an A&W location, and they're sponsoring our team. So we're all going to wear A&W gear, and of course they're famous for their root beer floats so that is where the name comes from!"
TEAM: FISH N CHIPS
BALLER: MAECIE LIERMANN
"Well, we wanted to come up with a funny co-ed team name so at first we had balls n dolls... they shut that down real quick, so then we came up with Fish n Chips. But you can also never go wrong with fish and chips from any restaurant in this area! But locally the best fish and chips (sweet potato) are at Sawmill [Grille & Spirits] in Post Falls — so, so, so good!!"
TEAM: HOT SAUCE
BALLER: JOHNNY MITCHELL
"It was my brother Tim's nickname growing up — the word 'hot sauce.' He passed away from a heart attack on March 9 so I chose the name to honor him."
TEAM: TOMATO STREET BALLERS
BALLER: STACY CLINESMAN
"It's the best restaurant in town! And my family owns it."
Do you ever eat Italian food before you play?
"Never. But maybe the night before or after." ♦