LI RampShot inventor hosts charity tournament
Jason Collins and his daughter, Emma, of Wading River, are the models on the RampShot game box. Credit: RampShot
Gym teacher Josh Bonventre of Center Moriches was encouraging his fifth-grade students to create outdoor games when he took his own advice -- he invented RampShot, and on Saturday he's hosting the first parent-child RampShot competition at 4 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Field, 4 Beachfern Rd., Center Moriches.
RampShot is played in teams of two, and for this event, teams must be a child between 9 and 14 and a parent or guardian. Entry is $10 per team, with proceeds going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Suffolk County. Teams should register by Sept. 18 at rampshot.com.
The event is a family fundraiser. Winners of each match earn two raffle tickets, and losers earn one. "You could lose for two hours straight and still win one of the raffles," Bonventre says.
RampShot was chosen this year by the National Sporting Goods Association to exhibit the game in front of top retailers in the sporting goods industry. RampShot is sold for $59.99 on Amazon.com and is recommended for players 10 and older. "It's best played out in the yard or at the beach," says Bonventre, 37.
The setup is akin to a beanbag toss, with a twist. Team members stand across from each other with the ramp on the ground between them. One team member throws the palm-sized ball toward the ramp, attempting to get it into the net in the middle of the ramp to score three points. If the ball ricochets off the back, the thrower's teammate behind the ramp can catch it for one point. But if it hits the front of the ramp and flies back toward the shooter, an opposing team member standing in the middle -- called the "stealer" -- can catch it. The first team to score 15 points wins.
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
