BILLINGS — A pair of Billings siblings are celebrating after excelling in a statewide, two-month long basketball dribbling competition.
Easton, 12, and Hadley Hill, 10, were among the 54 participants from around the state in the competition, with Hadley finishing second in her age group. Both dribbled for longer than 1,000 minutes.
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Their mother, Courtney Hill, said she couldn't be more proud of their determination.
“It’s so self-driven," said Courtney on Monday morning. "They just really wanted to hit their minutes."
The competition was created by the athletic director in Fairfield, Mike Schmidt, who set the original challenge for each participant to reach 1,000 minutes of dribbling in two months. Easton and Hadley were among the 13 who met the goal.
More importantly, their mother said it was a test of their discipline and also helped improve their abilities.
“There were days that it’s just a grind," Courtney said. "Skill development, and they just had to do it as part of our after-school schedule, but it took some work."
Both Easton and Hadley said when they first heard of the competition, they had to think about if it was worth making the commitment.
“I thought I wanted to do it, but then I thought that might take up a lot of time of my day,” Easton said.
His younger sister agreed.
“I was like 'Oh no, this is going to take up a bunch of my time, and I’m going to be slammed,'” Hadley said.
Eventually, both opted to participate — knowing it would be beneficial for their young basketball careers. The siblings said that the hours spent have already paid dividends.
“It helped me get a lot better at my dribbling skills," Easton said. "I can do a way better left hand now."
Their mother said it took an entire family effort, with much of the time spent dribbling inside their house.
“We did a lot of dribbling in the house, which drove a lot of us crazy,” Courtney said with a laugh. "But we made do, and then the weather warmed up and we were outside, and that was when it got very fun."
It was a headache their mother said was well worth it, and both children said the best part was working towards a goal together.
“The funnest part about it was either getting to spend more time with my sister," Easton said. "Just interacting with her or getting better at a sport that I probably wouldn’t have done."
“If I didn’t want to do it and my brother would go out, it was funner to just go out with him instead of by myself,” Hadley said. "It made it a lot easier to not do it alone."
