Sarasota man makes history in Florida Senior Games

Swish. Swish. Swish.

Repeat that three-onomatopoeia sequence nine more times, and you will replicate the sounds Sarasota resident Ronn Wyckoff heard at the Florida Senior Games in Clearwater on Dec. 8. Wyckoff went 30 for 30 in the Basketball Individual - Free Throw competition to win the 75-79 age group.

That’s not even the most remarkable part. Wyckoff, 76, also went perfect from the charity stripe in the 2015 event. By doing it again, he became the first person in Florida Senior Games history (the event began in 1994) to get a perfect score in the competition twice. He has competed in the Games six times, and won five gold medals overall.

It’s tougher than it sounds. The way the event is conducted, a participant shoots 10 free throws, then waits for everyone to shoot theirs before shooting 10 more, and the process repeats once more. The hot-and-cold nature of the event makes it difficult to maintain a rhythm, Wyckoff said. Only five people have ever gone 30 for 30 once, let alone twice.

“I’m proud of it, with as much ego as I can muster at this age,” Wyckoff said. “It means nothing to anyone else, but in the shooting community, I have received some ‘Way to go, Ronn’ and some ‘Attaboy!’

“At this age, you can win or lose at any given time. But it is nice to prove I can still hold my own on the court.”

Wyckoff, who has coached basketball both domestically and overseas, takes the Games as seriously as any athlete takes his or her sport. Wyckoff arrived in Clearwater a day early this year just to “get a feel for the gym,” he said.

Wyckoff, who also got a silver medal in the Basketball Individual - Spot Field Goal Shooting (“Hot shot”) competition, practices at Colonial Oaks gym every day. He will shoot 100 free throws a day, but when it gets closer to competition time, he cuts down to shooting 11 free throws at a time, to match the rhythm of the competition (participants get one practice shot before their set of 10).

Sometimes, he said, he will switch things up and practice at LA Fitness, where he is more likely to run into teenagers who try to make fun of him. So he will challenge them to a game of “Horse,” or free throw shooting. Wyckoff has never lost, he said, laughing. They stop their talk after they lose.

If you look at free throw shooters in the NBA, Wyckoff said, seniors at the Games make a higher percentage than all of them.

The reason for that?

“We don’t have anything better to do than practice,” Wyckoff said, laughing.

Wyckoff said his next Senior Games goal is to get a perfect score — 15 of 15 — in the hot shot competition, and if he can do it while also maintaining his perfect free throw score, that would be ideal. He is trying to get back in three-point shape for that competition, he said. He typically shoots standing still, but is re-introducing his jump shot for shots beyond the arc. It is still in the “formative stages,” he said.

“It’s like that song from ‘South Pacific,’” Wyckoff said. “If you don’t have a dream, how are you going to make a dream come true?”

For Wyckoff, being on the court is all he needs to keep going.