Thanks to a couple basketball players, children in the Portland area — as well as those halfway around the world in the Philippines — will be able to do more than just walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.
They’ll be able to play basketball in them.
Nathan Holthenrichs, a 2007 Marysville Pilchuck High alum and former Tomahawks basketball player, and his friend Jared Mace have started Hope 4 Hoopers, an organization that seeks to collect used basketball shoes and donates them to potential hoopsters unable to afford a new pair of kicks.
“We created it because we realized if we didn’t have a pair of shoes we probably wouldn’t have pursued our dreams of basketball,” Mace said. “We’ve been trying to collect athletic shoes for kids to keep their hopes for hoops alive.”
The two met while playing basketball for the Warner Pacific College Knights, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics team, and realized that they got a lot of free shoes, way more than they needed. They wanted to figure out the best possible use for their extras.
And Hope 4 Hoopers was born.
The organization is based in Eugene, Ore., a couple hours’ drive from Portland where the two went to college — and played basketball — at Warner Pacific. Hope 4 Hoopers has clinics and events to try to gather as many pairs of shoes as possible.
One of those events, called “Playing 4 Kickz,” takes place 6 p.m. Saturday at Everett Community College when the Trojans host Olympic College. The EvCC men will wear specially designed shirts promoting the group, and Holthenrichs and Mace will have a booth where people can donate shoes.
For each pair of shoes donated, attendees will receive a raffle ticket for Hope 4 Hoopers shirts, basketballs and other prizes.
“When we were in high school and middle school we looked up to the high school players and then when we were in high school we looked up to the college players,” Mace said. “We would do what they said.
“We are connecting local athletes with their role models.”
Hope 4 Hoopers routinely holds events seeking to collect used shoes from the general public. They’ve partnered with every school in the 10-team Cascade Collegiate Conference, which is Warner Pacific’s league.
Mace and Holthenrichs also have hosted several basketball clinics with their former Knights teammates as well as Portland State players, including Holthenrichs’ good friend, and former MP teammate, Nathan Lozeau. The price of admission for these clinics: one pair of old shoes.
“As athletes in America we’re so blessed because we have resources to get a new pair of shoes every year,” Mace said. “And the next year, it’s not like those shoes from the last year went bad. Some kid who doesn’t have a pair of shoes would love to wear those.”
Holthenrichs graduated in 2007 from Marysville Pilchuck, where he played basketball for current head coach Barry Gould. Mace, who is one year older, hails from Boise, Ida. The two met at Warner Pacific where they graduated with business degrees. They decided to put those to use by starting their own company.
Both Holthenrichs and Mace have other jobs because they don’t make any money in their current business venture. Mace sells medical equipment for Miracle Ear and Holthenrichs works for My Binding, where he sells office machines and supplies.
“We like call ourselves regular nine-to-fivers by day and shoe collectors by night,” Holthenrichs said.
So far, they’ve been quite successful. Since starting the business last May, the two have gathered around 2,000 pairs of shoes — depending on which one of them you ask. The two men haven’t counted the exact total out, so they differ a bit on the final estimation.
“We don’t have an official count, but anywhere from 1200-1800,” Holthenrichs said.
“I would say on the higher end of that,” Mace countered. “I just came back with six-, seven-hundred pairs after the last event we had. Eighteen hundred to 2000 would be my guess.”
Hope 4 Hoopers has partnered with the local Boys and Girls Clubs as well as Big Brothers Big Sisters. But the two men had bigger aspirations. They wanted to make a difference in the world. They met another former Tomahawk, Natasha Borromeo, who suggested the Philippines.
Natasha’s father, Avel, was born on Camotes Island, one of the 7,107 islands that make up the Philippines. He moved to America when he was about 11 years old, and years later his family purchased a house on the island. When Natasha talked to him about bringing Hope 4 Hoopers to the Philippines, he immediately loved the idea and offered to help in whatever way possible.
Mace, Holthenrichs and Natasha Borromeo leave in Mid-March to spend 10 days in the Philippines.
“I really love what they’re doing,” Avel Borromeo said. “I just think it’s really, really cool. And I tip my hats off to these guys. They’re making a difference one shoe at a time.”
Borromeo says kids in the Philippines enjoy playing basketball, but don’t always have the equipment, like shoes, needed for the game.
“One of the things that Filipinos actually love is they love basketball,” Borromeo said. “They play without shoes or whatever. They still go play. The whole idea here is we can go in and be able to set up a camp where they can teach them all these things. … Basketball teaches them integrity, leadership and what you can accomplish by working together.”
Holthenrichs, who said MP head coach Barry Gould “definitely played a part in where I am today,” agreed.
“Basketball has taught me the things in life that have helped me get to where I’m at,” he said. “Hard work, discipline, teamwork.”
While at MP, Holthenrichs participated in a couple district tournaments, including one in 2006 where he had an encounter with a now famous individual. Sherwin Shayegan, better known as the “Piggyback Bandit” because he has jumped on the backs of high school athletes from here to North Dakota, was apparently a big Tomahawk fan.
“That guy used to be at MP all the time,” Holthenrichs said. “We’d travel to these random tournaments and he’d be there. He was a big guy. It was a district game at Jackson, I believe, and I was standing by the bleachers and he just jumped on my back off the bleachers. I never thought anything of it. I just thought it was weird. I thought he was a little off. I didn’t think any harm was done.”
The experience hasn’t diminished Holthenrichs’ love of basketball, or his desire to continue to collect shoes. He, along with Mace, hopes that the company continues to grow in the coming years.
“We want to make this a long lasting business that’s around for years and years,” Holthenrichs said. “Eventually we’d like to sit on the board and have somebody else run the thing.”
Mace called their endeavor “a lifelong kind of thing.”
“(It’s) not something that we’re just gonna be doing this one year,” Mace said. “It’s something we want to do for the rest of our lives. Whether we collect 100 shoes per year or 1 million shoes per year, it’s something we want to do for the rest of our lives.
“Each pair of shoes has an impact on a family.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
