RUARK TO TAKE A SHOT AT NATIONALS

Jay Ruark has been shooting a basketball for about as long as he can remember and he practices every chance he gets.

It perhaps should could as no surprise, then, that the 13-year-old recently qualified to compete in the International Shootout National Championship that will be held May 30-31 at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

"It's extremely exciting," said Jay of qualifying for the event. "I'm really looking forward to it."

Jay is the son of Mark and Rhonda Ruark of Cape Girardeau and Mike and Deandra Schreiner of Caruthersville. He is a seventh-grader at Caruthersville Middle School but lives in Cape Girardeau during the summer.

That Jay would take a liking to basketball at an early age is understandable. His father is a former girls basketball coach at Cape Central High who now serves as an assistant principal at the school

"When Jay was born, I was coaching boys basketball in Kentucky and one of his first gifts was a basketball," said Mark Ruark. "He's been around it all his life. From the time he could walk, he's been coming to practice."

Which suited Jay just fine.

"I've been playing as long as I can remember and I love it," he said. "I like other sports, but basketball has always been my favorite. I try to play every time I can and I work on my shooting a lot."

It showed during qualifying competition in April for the International Shootout National Championship. In a dazzling display of marksmanship, Jay hit 23 of 25 free throws (including 22 in a row) and 15 of 25 3-pointers from different areas on the court.

Last year, Jay attended the Tubby Smith basketball camp at Kentucky and received an autographed basketball for winning the camp's free-throw award.

One of Jay's goals is to some day play for Kentucky. His father doesn't know if that will ever happen, but he sees nothing wrong with setting lofty goals.

"Those are big goals, but as a coach I always tried to teach setting big goals and working to achieve them, and whatever happens happens," Mark said.

Jay knows what he'll be doing in the next couple of weeks until he goes to Las Vegas.

"I'm going to be shooting free throws and 3-pointers every day," he said with a smile.