From Prank to Prodigy

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Last 5 posts in Sports

• Girls Lacrosse: Branching From the Basics - February 23rd, 2010
• Super Bowl XLIV - February 5th, 2010
• Athletic Opportunities for Sports Medicine - January 25th, 2010
• The World Cup Effect - January 21st, 2010
• Going for the Gold in the Cold - January 19th, 2010

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January 27, 2010 • Kayleigh Loeffler  
Filed under Sports

          What happens when you mix a high school girls’ basketball coach, a prank, and tickets to the Final Four? One incredible shot.

            Students at Olathe High school in Kansas never expected that the prank they planned to pull on their high school girls’ basketball team coach, Joel Branstrom, would end up coming back on them. During the half time of one of the season’s games, the students planned to have Branstrom attempt to make a shot at half court while blindfolded. If he made it, he would win tickets to the Final Four. The young coach, who had played as a walk-on for the University of Kansas in 1997, was willing to give it a try.  His team had been the No. 1 ranking team going into the NCCA tournament, but lost one game short of the Final Four. Perhaps this would be his opportunity to finally go. The real prank was that the crowd was instructed to cheer wildly after he shot, leading him to believe that he had actually made it—a shot like that is virtually impossible. 

            But their clever trick back fired when Branstrom beat incredible odds and made the shot.  The crowd, genuinely amazed, roared with excitement as the students who had set up the prank came rushing out onto the court. Unfortunately, there happened to be no Final Four tickets. Branstrom was informed that the whole thing had been a joke, and the only thing that the guilty students could give him was a gift card to a Mexican restaurant. 

            Branstrom took it in stride and admitted that he thought something had been up and suspected that the crowd would have cheered no matter what, his biggest fear being that he would be smacked in the face with a pie. It took until a little while afterwards to finally accept that he had, indeed, made the shot.

            As news of the story became world wide, some generous fans offered to donate tickets to the Final Four, so perhaps the young coach will get his reward after all.