pic: Pyramid of Basketballs at West Michigan



Mentor Ryan Quellet took this photo Saturday morning before opening ceremonies. Some volunteers had time on their hands.

That was awesome. I walked in and did a double take. Glad someone took a picture.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if those balls are decommissioned? They look pretty beat compared to the ones we played with in Week 1 and that I volunteered at in Week 2. (The logos also seem like taped over?) Just wondering what to expect in Week 4, though I’m told (at least in MAR) each even starts with new balls.

That was a mix of the out of commission balls and the new ones, I believe. Also, the picture is a little blurry which lends itself to the balls looking more beat up than they actually are.

In MI I believe “used” balls are used for practice.

Each event then uses a set of new balls at the start of qualifying and rotates in new balls as they get damaged.

I need time lapse of this going up. So I might laugh as it crashes down at least once.

The ones on the bottom were decommissioned balls, the ones in the middle were slightly used but still useable and the ones on top were brand new. The tape on the balls were there to figure out which balls were which so that the field reset could quickly set up the field after the MC knocked it down.

that’s a tetrahedron, not a rectangular pyrmid.

I can easily see something like this becoming an opening ceremony surprise entrance stunt involving Blair.

I was sincerely disappointed to discover that our MC was NOT located in the middle of that pyramid ready to jump out.

However, it was a very neat thing to walk in to.

Even more amazing was that the MC removed quite a few balls and the pyramid didn’t collapse.

…that would be an amazing idea for state. But I doubt we’ll get him to sit there for a few hours before Opening ceremonies.

I know you won’t get that particular MC to do it.

It Was my Idea. I was Field super. at Traverse City and pack the dead game pieces for west Michigan where I was also F.S. So after the first day at West Michigan I had the amount needed and a sidekick (Ren) to help build. We think we used 75 balls.

If my math serves me correctly, you should have used 84 balls.

1
+3
+6
+10
+15
+21
+28
=84

Awesome idea!

-Mike

Epic.