Lady Miners motivated by giving

WALLACE — Not all motivation is created equal.

Sometimes a team needs to be screamed at, pumped up, or even ignored for them to find the motivation necessary to overcome the obstacles associated with a long a grueling basketball season.

Wallace’s Lady Miners seemed to need some motivation, but it wasn’t in the form of any of the previously mentioned ways, they needed something more philanthropic.

Coach Nichole Farkas and her squad had been (and still are) in the midst of a brutal schedule that had them sitting at 1-6, but then a phone call between Farkas and her sister changed things.

“I was talking to my sister Gretchen (last name Bensen, who lives in Minnesota) on the phone a couple of weeks ago and she was asking how the season was going. I told her that I have a fantastic group of girls to coach, but we have had a tough schedule and I was hoping that girls weren’t getting discouraged,” Farkas said. “She messaged me later and said, ‘Hey, I want to donate to your local food bank. Tell your team that I will donate $1 per point in their next game and I will kick in another $20 if they score more than 30 points.’ She thought this might be a fun way for the girls to play basketball without worrying about wins and losses. Sometimes is it just as much fun to play with another goal in mind.”

Something about that clicked with the Miners.

Following a dominant 49-17 win over Genesis Prep, the team raised $69 for that game, but Benson watched the game and was so impressed with the teamwork that she kicked in an extra $20.

The Miners almost seemed more excited about the money raised than the big win, which made Benson think that maybe they should do it again.

She upped the ante this time and decided that she would donate $2 per point.

Three weeks ago the Miners hosted Priest River and came up short in a game that many of their players felt they should have won.

With the added motivation, Wallace went into Priest River and grabbed a big 53-47 win and added $106 to their total.

But then an anonymous Wallace fan made the commitment to match Benson’s donation taking the total from the Priest River game to $212.

As of right now the Lady Miners have raised $301 for the Wallace Food Bank.

And they’re not done.

“Once again, I called my sister to tell her the news,” Farkas said. “She said, ‘Let’s do it one more time before the holidays.’ For the Kellogg game on Thursday, my sister wants to contribute $1 per Miner point and $1 per Miner rebound. I posted that on FB and already have another person willing to match.”

Farkas is so happy that her team is responding as positively as they are, but also that they are learning that there are things bigger than each one of them and her sister is bringing it out of them.

“Obviously my sister is a very charitable person. But mostly she thought it would be a fun way to teach the girls that they can have an impact on their community by doing something they love to do,” Farkas said. “It is important to learn that we can ‘win’ by giving back to others. I think it is a great way for the girls to come together as a team to be excited about something that doesn’t have to do with their record. They can be excited about seeing how much money they can squeeze out of my sister or whomever else wants to donate. We haven’t even had a chance to tell the Wallace Food Bank that the Lady Miners basketball team is playing for them. However, I think the Food Bank will be happy to know that our high school kids want to help out the community just the way our community continually supports our students. Our team motto is Winning Effort, we are definitely living up to the meaning behind that.”

Wallace hosts Kellogg on Thursday night at Wallace Jr/Sr High School.