Hoops for Habitat: Charity 'show ball' game raises money for veterans' homes

It was a basketball game, combined with some comedy sketches, and a brief foray into professional wrestling.

The Harlem Ambassadors, a "show ball" team -- think the Harlem Globetrotters -- played the Habitat Hammerheads, a team made up of community and business leaders from the Coast. The game on Sunday was a little bit about sport, more about show and mostly about supporting funding for veterans' housing.

The crowd of around 200 at Our Lady Academy in Bay St. Louis cheered almost as loudly for the Ambassadors -- professional, skilled at ball handling, funny -- as they did for the hometown team -- some former athletes, less polished, also pretty funny.

The money raised will go to Habitat for Humanity Bay-Waveland to provide critical repairs and weatherization for homes of military veterans.

"The idea was to get some local celebrities, they're all good sports, to play against a good team," said Wendy McDonald, the organization's executive director. "It's a lot of fun."

This is the first time that chapter of Habitat for Humanity has hosted such an event but the Harlem Ambassadors travel to similar fundraisers nine months out of every year.

They help various organizations raise money and the games themselves are community events. The team especially makes sure to get children involved, said Brittany Dorsey, the team's "show performer" and only female member.

Between the first and second periods, the team invited children to participate in a race that included running, sit-ups, push-ups, putting on shoes, dribbling the basketball and shooting the ball.

Courtney Cavalier, 6, won after the team pulled her past the obstacles and then lifted her to the basket so she could make a final shot.

During the second period, Dorsey, who was the only player wearing a microphone, enlisted a woman in the audience to act as her mother and offer an alibi to a referee who called her for fouling Hancock County Treasurer Jimmie Ladner -- by pinning him in a fake professional wrestling move.

The Hammerhead players themselves also scored some points -- including a few dunks that drew large cheers.

Besides Ladner, the team also included Diamonhead Mayor Thomas Schafer, former Louisiana State University football player and St. Stanislaus graduate Zach Elkins, military veteran Shane Nixon, former University of Southern Mississippi basketball player Jason Forte and Bay-Waveland Middle School Principal Cherie Labat, among others.

"The biggest difference is this is not a competition, it's entertainment," Dorsey said. "We allow them to shine as much as they allow us to shine."

All the Ambassadors players have college experience and several have played professionally. Dorsey played for four years at Providence College and then professionally for two years in Ukraine.

But they also need to be entertainers. They need to dunk the ball and shoot from long range. To impress the audience with their ball handling skills and also their dance moves.

The audience on Sunday seemed to appreciate those.

This story was originally published February 21, 2016 at 6:30 PM with the headline "Hoops for Habitat: Charity 'show ball' game raises money for veterans' homes ."