BUCKFIELD — Organizers of this week’s fundraiser to help send a local basketball player overseas to further realize his sports dreams hope it’s a slam-dunk.
Fifteen-year-old Zack Grover of Buckfield is a sophomore at Buckfield Junior-Senior High School and was one of 15 players chosen from across the United States for the Student Athlete United World Games in Austria.
A fundraiser will be held from 8 p.m. to midnight tonight at the Silver Spur at 272 Lewiston St. in Mechanic Falls. Skösh, Hurricane Mountain and the Rockin’ Roadrunners will provide the music. The BYOB event is $10, and there will be raffles and food for sale.
When Grover received the invitation to play basketball in Europe with some of the country’s top athletes in his age group, he thought it was a joke.
“First, I didn’t believe it; it’s just a fluke,” he said Monday. He said his mother, Vickie, contacted the tournament organizer and they realized it was true.
“Oh, my God — I was just so happy,” Zack Grover said. “Now I just want to go.”
He plays for the Bucks and Amateur Athletic Union in Portland, where he travels for practice three to four times a week. He played with the AAU team in Massachusetts earlier this year and piqued someone’s interest.
“I got noticed and someone recommended me, but I don’t know who recommended me,” Grover said. “It’s confidential.
“I pretty much play every position,” he said. “The coach is like, ‘Hey, I need you here.’”
He said his basketball coach, Brandon Carbone, and his teacher and baseball and soccer coach, Kyle Rines, sent letters of recommendation for him as part of the application for the United World Games.
Rines first coached Grover as a sixth-grader and has watched him grow up through middle school and high school. He described Grover as “a charming young guy” who works really hard on and off the court.
Grover commits a lot of time to basketball and understands the only way he’ll improve his game is by practicing, Rines said. The sophomore missed three of his team’s soccer games earlier this season due to injury, but came back when he was still recovering, played entire games and never complained.
“He’s definitely very tough and plays with a lot of heart,” Rines said. “All that translates well to basketball, whether it’s AAU, here (in Buckfield) or next summer in Austria.”
Grover will meet his fellow teammates for the first time when he arrives in Klagenfurt, Austria, in mid-June.
It will be his first trip to Europe.
“I am pretty excited,” he said. “Once I get there, I might be nervous,” he said. “It might take a couple of days to talk to everybody.”
Grover has been playing basketball since he was in first grade when he started with a recreation league. He said he’d like to play professionally.
His favorite player is Boston Celtics center Kelly Olynyk, who Grover has been watching since Olynyk played in college.
“I looked in the mirror and I saw him,” Grover said. “We look so much alike.”
Both basketball players are tall, and sport long, light brown hair and strong jawlines.
As for his professional career path, Rines said Grover is focusing on short-term goals. But playing ball for a living isn’t out of the realm of possibility because the coach knows a couple of athletes from Maine who play basketball overseas. While they don’t earn the same large paycheck as NBA players do, it’s still a good paycheck, he said.
“There’s a lot of opportunity for it for sure,” Rines said. “It’s definitely a reality.”
Grover said if he doesn’t get the to play in the NBA, he’d love to play professionally overseas.
The rising basketball star estimated it will cost around $5,000 for him to travel and stay and Austria next summer.
Those who can’t attend Friday’s fundraiser can donate through Grover’s GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/zy2mcyec.
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