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The painful truth: Injuries inevitable at Hoopfest

By Rebecca White rebeccawh@spokesman.com(509) 459-5039

There were half a dozen more injuries at Hoopfest this year than last year. Kevin Maloney, a spokesman for MultiCare, said there were 1,780 total injuries at Hoopfest over the weekend, about seven more than last year.

He said many people aren’t used to playing outside an indoor court, or haven’t played in years.

“I think the biggest challenge that people have is number one, they haven’t played basketball since high school and they’re a weekend warrior,” he said, “and the surfaces aren’t flat, and that brings in a whole new dynamic.”

While the overall number of injuries was close to the same, there were about 20 more fractures than last year. There were also twice as many concussions, with 14 this year to last year’s 7. Maloney said everything in the medical tent, including X-rays, was free for Hoopfest participants, and staff performed 113 X-rays on Saturday. He said many participants who needed surgery had an appointment for their procedure 15 minutes after they got an X-ray.

Maloney said there were a few hospitalizations from the medical tent over the weekend, but most of the people who had to be hospitalized were picked up directly from the court and taken to a hospital. People who had minor injuries were picked up with golf carts that had sirens, and workers with bullhorns.

MultiCare also had a live injury tracker on a flat-screen TV at the entrance of the tent, where passersby could see how many injuries there were in the past few hours, and over the entire weekend.

This year’s Hoopfest temperatures weren’t too far above normal, and Maloney said the medical tent didn’t see a spike in heat-related injuries.

The hottest Hoopfest on record was 2015, when temperatures reached 102 and 105 over the weekend. This year’s temperatures were much lower, with a Saturday high of 78 and a Sunday high of around 85, according to the National Weather Service. Over the history of Hoopfest, most weekends usually see temperatures in the mid-80s, with the occasional dip into the mid-60s.