SPOKANE - Sometimes, you just get to a point where, as a basketball player in your mid-40s, you can't guard someone in his 20s on the elite courts of Hoopfest anymore.

Whether it be the young, old - well, not that old - or those elite players playing in 110-degree temperatures (according to the thermometer at Nike Center Court), nearly every player in the 26th annual Spokane Hoopfest 3-on-3 basketball tournament probably had that same feeling on Saturday.

ONE FOR THE OLD GUYS

As longtime Priest River High golf coach Scott Salesky put it, Country Fair's opening win by forfeit was probably "the best old man win ever."

"We'll take that," Salesky said.

Country Fair, comprised of Salesky, Troy Barrett of Priest River and Bryan Chase and Todd Bitterman of St. Maries, won its afternoon game against Primo Time to advance to a quarterfinal game today at 9:30 a.m.

"We played last year with Scott and thought it would be fun to do it again this year," said Chase, who coaches boys basketball and golf at St. Maries High. "Last year, with the 25th anniversary, we all had a good time, so we thought we'd give it one more shot."

Bitterman, who played at Whitworth, has competed in 20 of the 26 Hoopfest events.

"We needed a body last year and picked up Scott after playing with our St. Maries men's league team for a while," said Bitterman, who coaches softball at St. Maries and is a District 1 basketball official. "Now we're expanding and recruiting."

"We've all coached together through the years, and Bitt's reffed a few years," Chase said. "We're excited about playing. We were trying to figure out a uniform for today, but green and orange didn't go together very well. They'll play great together though. We're going to have a good time.

"They're just a bunch of good guys and like to compete against other 40-plus people," Salesky said. "We used to have a nucleus of guys from Priest River that did the open division and it's been passed down to our kids now. For me, you just get to a point where, at least for me, you can't guard a young guy anymore, so it's time for someone else to do it. This is still a lot of fun with these guys."

MAKING MUSIC ON THE PAVEMENT

It has been a few years since Post Falls High standout and recent University of Puget Sound graduate Malcolm Colbert had stepped onto a competitive basketball court.

That wait ended on Saturday when Colbert joined with Cory Hendershott, Josh Wilhelm and Mike Rouse to form Pocket Passers, a group of Post Falls High alums.

"They had to convince me to play," Colbert said. "I hadn't played in a long time because I had some knee injuries in college that I didn't want to get fixed. I spent too much money in high school getting them fixed, so I kind of stopped playing. These guys hit me up and I haven't played with them in eight years. It's a good group of guys to get back into playing with. Who better than them and playing with my friends."

Colbert was part of the Trojans' state 5A championship team in 2010. Pocket Passers lost its opener, but bounced back to win twice on Saturday afternoon and advance to a loser-out game today at 8 a.m.

"I wore down my knees too much in high school," Colbert said. "The surgery they did on me the last time really didn't fix much. The doctor told me to keep playing until you can't anymore. I got hurt during my sophomore year, and it was just time to walk away. They told me the surgery I was going to get wasn't guaranteed, so I was cool with that and not playing anymore."

Colbert has spent his time since graduating searching for work in his second love - hip-hop music.

"It is kind of my second passion other than basketball," said Colbert, a singer-songwriter. "I put everything into basketball and I'm a little behind on the music side of things, but it will get there. It's hitting pretty good now. I'm doing shows in Seattle and Tacoma right now, and hoping to start doing shows here in Spokane really soon."

HOMECOMING OF SORTS

ESPN anchor and Washington State graduate Jaymee Sire had never been to Hoopfest until this weekend.

This morning, she'll be right in the middle of it as SportsCenter "On the Road" broadcasts live from Stevens and Spokane Falls Boulevard.

"Being from Montana, I always went home for the summer," Sire said. "I'd always heard classmates of mine talking about it, especially those from Spokane about how much fun it was. It just never worked out with summer jobs to make it over."

Thanks to a vacation of another anchor, Sire stepped in to be here alongside fellow ESPN anchor Matt Barrie for the live show from 7 to 10 a.m.

"It kind of fell to me and it couldn't have worked out any better," said Sire, 34. "I have a lot of friends from school in the area still and I was really excited to come here. Knowing how important it is to this community, it's a lot of fun to walk around and see the fans when we're here. It's going to be really cool when we have our live show."

With an estimated 250,000 people in town and 42 city blocks closed with courts this weekend, the experience has been everything Sire thought it was going to be.

"I think it's awesome," said Sire, who has been an ESPN anchor for two years. "The best part to me is how much the entire community gets involved and how important this event is to the community. To those that have been working on it from its inception 26 years ago, I just love the vibe, the buzz and the energy it has. Everyone comes out, and I think you can feed off that."

FUN FOR THE MONITORS

In only his second year of volunteering as an official on the elite courts, Post Falls native Mike Floch enjoys himself - no matter the competition.

"It's a blast," said Floch, who is a District 1 high school basketball official. "There's good people and good basketball. I really enjoy coming here. The big crowds are fun and you get to work with guys you've worked with all year long."

But those Elite guys, they don't mess around.

"They're a little more serious than the other guys on the other courts," Floch said. "Two games ago, I was working the game with (Matt) Santangelo and (Blake) Stepp, and they're both taking this very seriously. They're here to win this thing. There's not a lot of screwing around and it's a lot of fun to watch."

On the elite courts, the monitors actually do the officiating. On the other courts, the players call their own fouls.

As temperatures increased from 75 to 110 by noon, Floch noticed early a different in the play from this year to last year.

"There's a lot of guys subbing in and out early," Floch said. "It's fun, but with the lumpy roads and the heat, they're going to get tired. But it's a lot of fun to watch."

FROM COACH TO TEAMMATE

Corey Symons, who will enter his second year as head men's basketball coach at North Idaho College, didn't just encourage his players to play in Hoopfest.

He joined them.

Symons and NIC players Jordan King and Zaquan Satterthwaite made up the Elite team of "Always Eating Fresh."

"You don't want to get injuries, and nobody does," said Symons, who played at Falls Christian Academy, Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Ore., and Northwest College in Kirkland, Wash. "But they're going to play. Whether it's here or in the park in Coeur d'Alene, they're going to play. I like it because it teaches you how to play tough, and you've got to be tough to play in this division."

Symons missed the team's first game of the morning due to his son's Little League district tournament game. Always Eating Fresh lost its first game, won its second and third game to move on to a loser-out game today at 8:30 a.m.

"I'm just going to stand in the corner and shoot, but I'm not afraid to get in there and bang a little bit," Symons said. "If they don't call fouls, I'm in good shape. I'm a little out of shape, but it's fun lacing them up and getting back out on the court with the guys."