The New Orleans Hornets will host their annual Summer Hoops Basketball clinics at locations across Louisiana throughout July. Their last stop will be July 31 at Fritchie Park In Slidell.

These Basketball clinics are open to boys and girls ages 7 to 14 and include three hours of Basketball instruction and fundamentals, appearance by Hornets forward Rasual Butler, Hugo, giveaways, contests and more. The registration fee for the clinic is $10 per child.

"Our Summer Hoops clinics allow us to interact with our younger fans and provide a fun, interactive way to learn the game of Basketball," said Chad Shinn, Hornets executive officer of the board. "We are excited to bring the excitement of Hornets Basketball to kids across the entire state."

Space for each clinic is limited, so fans must pre-register online at Hornets .com. The clinic on July 29 at the Comeaux Recreation Center in Lafayette is from 1 to 4 p.m.; every other clinic starts at 9 a.m. and finishes at noon. On-site check-in is one hour before the start of each clinic. Each participant also will receive a Hornets Summer Hoops T-shirt for completing the camp.

For information about Summer Hoops, please visit Hornets .com, call the Summer Hoops hotline at 504-593-4991 or e-mail summerhoops@Hornets.com

--- GOLF ---

Living the Word golf tournament

Living the Word International will present the Mighty Men of the Word second annual men's conference, No Retreat, No Surrender beginning today through Sunday.

The church also is sponsoring a 2009 Golf Classic on Friday at 8 a.m., at Oak Harbor Golf Cub. Prizes are a 2009 Lexus ES350 and $10,000, ensured by a hole-in-one. For information, call 649.4687 or send e-mail to www.ltwi.org.

--- FISHING ---

Youth Fishing catches on

The weather cooperated and the fish were biting at the 2009 Bogue Chitto Youth Fishing Event. Over 170 kids age four through twelve participated in the event, held in observance of National Fishing Week.

Ethan Duckworth won the event with a 28.5 inch catfish. Samantha Mosley had the longest fish in the 10- to 12-year-old category, a 28-inch-long catfish; Sophie Gildhouse won the 7- to 9-year-old category with a catfish slightly more than 25 inches; andElise Goss won the 4- to 6-year-old group with a catfish almost as big as she was, 24.5 inches.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Friends of Louisiana Wildlife Refuges Inc. hosted the event at the Pearl River Turnaround, part of Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service encourages the use of fishing and other wildlife-oriented recreation on more than 500 refuges nationwide. Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge is part of the Southeast Louisiana Refuges Complex, headquartered in Lacombe, Louisiana.

Sponsors included Lafarge, Textron, Sams, Wal-Mart, Cleco, Shell and Office Depot. Volunteers from Lafarge assisted with pole and bait distribution, the Backyard Bass casting game and the overwhelming task of pole repair.