Dwight Morrow girls basketball hosts Hoops for Autism by Bob Schwalb for The Record
Whenever Lou Wejnert sees his granddaughter, Leah, he offers her $10 if she’ll say, “Hi Grandpa!”
Unfortunately, Leah is autistic and cannot speak.
“We joke that someday she’ll say, ‘Hi Grandpa! I can talk now and you owe me $1,000’,” Lou Wejnert said.
“Hopefully it’ll happen. It’d be the best thousand dollars I ever spent.”
Eleven-year-old Leah Wejnert is tall, pretty and sharp as a tack.
She’s also the inspiration behind “Hoops for Autism.”
On Dec. 17, Lou Wejnert’s Dwight Morrow girls basketball team hosted the all-day charity event, featuring 14 teams and seven games.
Wejnert held Hoops for Autism during the last three seasons of his 20-year run as River Dell’s coach. After retiring and then deciding he “didn’t like being retired,” Wejnert took the job at Dwight Morrow last year and rebooted the event this month.
“My wife (Maryann) and I do this because we want to keep autism at the forefront,” Wejnert said. “People keep working on it and hopefully they’ll find a cure someday.”
According to Autismspeaks.org, autism is a general term for a group of complex disorders involving brain development. It’s characterized by difficulties in social interaction and verbal and non-verbal communication.
Leah Wejnert makes sounds and can pronounce words when prompted. She has difficulty socializing.
Leah’s parents, Lora and Jason (Lou Wejnert’s son and long-time assistant coach) are also key players on the Hoops for Autism team. Wejnert calls his wife “the brains behind the operation.”
Wejnert’s extended “basketball family” plays a major role as well. This family consists of the many friends he’s made during his decades-long career. Included are coaching counterparts like Old Tappan’s Brian Dunn, Passaic Valley’s Jeff Jasper and Secaucus’ John Sterling.
As always, Wejnert didn’t charge a fee for teams to participate in the event. Instead, teams were asked to raise money, make a donation and bring as many fans as possible to support the cause. Wejnert said there’s a waiting list of six or seven teams that want to take part and that the field is always rotated to keep things fresh.
“Everyone is very generous and glad to help,” Wejnert said. “So many people step up and a lot of them go above and beyond.”
Wejnert started his own day at 7:30 a.m. and finished up at 9:30 p.m. He said it was “tiring but worth it.”
Over these 14 hours, dozens of individuals donated their time and efforts. Volunteers ran 50-50s and held a tricky tray. Others worked admissions, cleaned up, ran concessions, worked security, announced the games, played music and so on.
Wejnert said all the referees worked for free and that his players helped out before and after their midday game.
Hoops for Autism also got donations from a large group of local businesses that were raffled off. One company printed T-shirts that were distributed to all the players and workers while another donated trophies for the MVPs of each of the seven games.
Wejnert estimated that his “basketball extravaganza” raised roughly $8,000. Coach Karen Keyes’ Ridgewood team made an event-record contribution of $600.
As always, the Wejnerts will distribute the proceeds three ways: To the national organization Autism Speaks, to Leah’s school (Bergen County Special Services New Bridges Middle School/High School) and to a local school in Englewood that works with autistic children.
If Leah Wejnert could speak, she’d say “Thank you” to everyone.
Unfortunately, Leah could only attend the event and be her usual cute self. Lou Wejnert said she’s a regular at the Dwight Morrow games.
“We have another family joke,” Wejnert said. “When Leah comes to our games, there’s just one rule. She has to be quiet when my kids are shooting fouls.”