By John Rittenhouse
The basketball season has been over for more than two weeks at Hills-Beaver Creek High School, but that didn't keep a large crowd from showing up at the school for a benefit game Monday night.
In what has become an annual event at the school, H-BC faculty members entertained the KELO-TV Almost Stars in a game to benefit the Patriot Partners organization.
The teams played in front of a crowd that nearly filled the grandstands on the south side of the gym as well as the stage on the north side of the gym.
According to Ann Boeve, one of the Patriot Partners in charge of the event, the support for the game was overwhelming.
"It was very well-received. There had to be 500 to 600 people there. You never really know how something like this will go, but I think it must have been the right time of year because people were looking for something to do," she said.
The Patriot Partners plan to use the $1,280 they raised to pad the high school locker room fund. New locker rooms are on the community's wish list, and events like these, along with the $200,000 the H-BC School District will donate to the project, could make the project a reality.
The night started with a Burger King Whopper Feed from 5 to 7:30 p.m.
With Sioux Falls radio personality Ben Davis providing pre-game music as well as doing the game's play-by-play announcing, the contest tipped off around 7:30, after the national anthem was sung by the H-BC Elementary School Singers Edition.
When the first half was complete, with the Almost Stars sporting a slim lead, the H-BC Elementary School Cheerleaders and H-BC Dance Line provided entertainment throughout the intermission.
H-BC's junior parents and After Prom Committee sold concessions throughout the game, which ended in a deadlock when the faculty members staged a second-half rally.