When Montgomery County High School recently issued the new Bright Light Scholarship for the 2024 graduates, scholarship committee members came up with an hilarious fundraiser – a donkey basketball game.

The event was held on April 7 at Ballew & Snell Court and it turned out to be a successful one as a large crowd saw many participants ride – and fall out of – donkeys while attempting to shoot a mini basketball through the hoop.

“I thought it was phenomenally successful,” said Kista River, one of the committee members. “It was so much more than I thought it was going to be. We were so excited about the turnout. There was a lot of community support here. It’s going to help our graduates this year. It’s going to help us get a few more scholarships this spring, so we’re really excited.”

There were four teams in the donkey basketball event — two high school teams and two adult teams. Each elimination game had two eight-minute periods and the championship match had one eight-minute period.

The winner was an adult team called Hoofs and Hoops as it defeated Dunk Dynasty 2-0 in the finals. Roxanne Sellenriek, a former MCHS girls basketball standout from the late 1990s to 2000, scored the only basket during the final minute of the championship match for Hoofs and Hoops.

“That was a blast,” Sellenriek said. “We were all scared. Everybody was scared because nobody rode a donkey ever. But everybody had so much fun. It wasn’t as scary as we thought. But I was lucky that I didn’t have the scary donkeys. I didn’t get the rough donkeys, so that worked out in my favor.”

The other members on the Hoofs and Hoops team were Jace Beattie, Shannon Brock, Ashley Luke, Jewett Ellis, Courtney Harris, Jared Carroz, Josh Johnson, Ryan Poston and Sara Johnson.

There were eight donkeys in the event. They all came from the Dairyland Donkey Basketball Show of Chippewa Walls, Wisc.

“I didn’t know how it was going to work because I knew that they could screw up the gym floor,” said MCHS senior Destani Eversmeyer, who played for Dunk Dynasty. “I didn’t know how it was going to go, so I’m glad it turned out good.”

Eversmeyer scored two baskets in the first match against the Bucking Ballers. She said she enjoyed riding a donkey for the first time.

“It was really fun,” Eversmeyer said. “It is hard to control donkeys a little bit because they are stubborn, but it’s really fun. I hope we continue doing this.”

River said Joe Garrett suggested bringing donkey basketball back to MCHS. The school held a donkey basketball contest back in the 1970s.

“The rest of us haven’t heard of it before, so we weren’t really sure what we were really getting into,” River said. “But it seemed like a great idea. It seemed like everybody had a really good time, so I think it was a good call.”

River said she hopes the event comes back for another year.

“It will be awesome,” she said. “We know some places do it every year and some places do it every other year. We haven’t talked about what our plans are going to be yet. But I think it was very successful that we’ll probably do it again.”

Besides the donkey basketball game, there was also a 50-50 drawing as well as an event in which the top three-earning riders got an opportunity to kiss the donkey.

“They did such a great job,” Sellenriek said. “What a fun fundraiser. I have never seen (a donkey basketball game). I didn’t know it was real. I thought it was fake. I couldn’t have imagined it being a real thing. But kudos to them for putting on such a great event.”