Clymer eighth-grader Alexis Neckers put up a free throw in her driveway. Submitted photo

A basketball, a hoop and a driveway can be a beautiful combination.

Especially during a global pandemic.

The Chautauqua Fusion AAU basketball program is learning that all too well right now.

With spring travel basketball programs across the country shuttered due to the coronavirus, Fusion head coaches Chris Dole and Mike Engdahl have been coming up with unique programs to keep the collective competitive fires of their girls burning from March through May.

The Fusion roster consists of 38 girls from fifth through 12 grades on four different teams. Dole, Maple Grove head coach Bill Price and Rod Brink coach the upper-level Blue Team while Engdahl and Tracey Riley coach the Orange Team. Tiffany Holthouse coaches Neil’s Propane No. 1 while former Chautauqua Lake head coach Eric Schuster, former Thunderbird and Jamestown Community College Jayhawk Jesse Zenns and former Panama star Brittany Lenart, who played her college basketball at Houghton College, coach Neil’s Propane No. 2.

Panama's Mandy Brink P-J file photo

The upper-level teams are made up of a virtual who’s who of varsity players from a number of area schools.

Members of the Fusion include Sherman’s MacKenzie Gratto, Paige Gratto and Hayden Fisher; Panama’s Mandy Brink and Maddie Lisciandro; Clymer’s Mikala Einink and Emma Wiggers; Falconer’s Grace Lundmark and Rachael Harper; Randolph’s Kyra Pence; Maple Grove’s Madi Price and Erin Mansfield; and Jamestown’s Mickia Freeney among others.

Earlier this month, Dole introduced his players to the Frees and 3s Challenge, which consisted of making 50 free throws and 50 3-pointers each day for as many days as the athletes could.

During a team Zoom meeting Tuesday night, Dole told the group that Kate Lindsey, Alexis Neckers, Brooke Warner and Lundmark “stood out the most.”

“I did it with them and shared videos with the kids so they knew that I was out there too,” Dole said Tuesday night following the meeting. “We had 103 entries into that, which is a pretty good things … because it was less than a month and there were some pretty cold days.”

Sherman's MacKenzie Gratto P-J file photo

The Fusion followed that up with the Around The World Challenge, which Lundmark is “running away with,” according to Dole.

“In the beginning, Mike and I had been talking a lot,” Dole said. “We’d been knocking our heads together trying to figure out what to do with the kids.”

But come May 1, the players will undertake their most difficult competition yet.

His interest piqued by an article in the Wall Street Journal, Engdahl introduced Dole to the “Top Gun Challenge.”

Each player received a chart with 21 spots to shoot from on a half-court basketball court. Players are required to make 10 shots from 19 of the spots and five apiece from the final two spots for a total of 200 made shots.

“We can’t force them to do this challenge, but we have some alpha girls out there,” Dole said. “I kept looking at the Frees and 3s Challenge, and over and over you’d see the same names popping up on a daily basis.”

Each player then records the number of attempts it took them to make the required shots into an app that produces a spreadsheet for Dole and Engdahl to monitor their progress.

“We have been having participation across the board,” Dole said of the different age levels. “The older ones are really saddled with the stresses of homework so the older they get, the harder it gets. Time management for the older kids isn’t as dictated like it is for the younger ones.”

After fundraising and having many of their five tournaments already canceled, the Fusion decided to give out prizes for players who reach certain made-shot thresholds.

If players make 5,000 or more shots, they are rewarded with a personalized team T-shirt. If they make 10,000 or more shots, they are rewarded with a personalized long-sleeved T-shirt.

The top shooter for the month of May will receive a personalized hooded sweatshirt.

The competition begins May 1 and to make 5,000 shots, players will need to complete the cycle at least 25 times. To reach 10,000 shots made, players will have to complete the cycle at least 50 times.

With just 31 days in the month of May and Western New York weather only allowing athletes a certain number of days to get outside in the sunshine, the challenge may be quite daunting.

“I probably shot 500 to 1,000 shots per day growing up. I would get up in the morning and shoot before school, then during school in study halls, and then come home and shoot again,” Dole said. “I lived in the middle of nowhere with no cellphones, so that was what I did.”

Regardless of whether the players receive team “swag” or not, Dole just hopes to make them better players for when they go back to school and compete in high school basketball next winter.

“We’re trying to build their skills up. We want to make sure they have that skill base when they do come back,” Dole said. “We want to make them better for their schools.

“We have a board member, Mike Graham, who said ‘I want to hang championships banners in this county.’ That’s what we want to do,” Dole said. “It’s not about one school or another school, it’s about the kids.”

NOTES: Members of the board include Engdahl, Dohl, Graham, Darcy Lyon, Jill Gratto and Josh Gratto. … In addition to Neil’s Propane, Engdahl, the Sherman NY Youth Foundation, SKF, SKF UAW Local 338 and Dr. Brent Deuink sponsor the teams.