Knights of Columbus members from St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Seal Beach teamed up with Knights at St. Hedweg in Los Alamitos Monday afternoon for the presentation of trophies to the winners of their most recent annual Knights of Columbus Basketball Free Throw Competition.  The free throw being basketball’s most basic skill.

All youngsters ages 9 to 14 were eligible to participate, with each of them allowed 15 throws.  Competition at the local level (Council Championship) is the beginning of what could be a journey to the district, regional, and state, provincial levels of championship.  From there, some make it to the top of the heap¾the international level of the contest.

Grand Knight Pat Giacomo from Seal Beach council 9594, and Grand Knight Richard Guerra at St. Hedwig council 5586, were on had to present the awards at St. Hedwig’s Quinn Hall.

Nine-year-old Jacob Coughin took home a trophy in his division.

Brooklyn Soto won the top spot in the 10-year-old girls’ division, while Brady Karich’s tossed in 13 baskets to score a win for the boys.  In the 11-year-old division, Molly Bancroft won for the girls, and Kaden Minter nailed-down a win for the boys.

Twelve-year-old champs in the girls’ and boys’ divisions were Annie Karich and Lorenzo Capitan, respectively.  Molly Clarke and Donny Smith each scored 12 baskets in the 13-year old division, enough for each of them to bring home a championship trophy.  And both Chloe Allen and Riley Jenkins put enough balls through the hoop for each of them to come home a trophy in the 14-year-old division.

The Knights of Columbus, with over 1.9 million members in 15,100 local councils is the world’s largest Catholic lay organization. Last year, Knights donated over 70 million volunteer hours and $167.5 million to charitable and benevolent causes, sponsoring projects to benefit their church, councils, communities, culture of life, families, and youth.