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Lowellville senior wins national contest, $25,000 for village basketball courts
By EMMALEE C. TORISK
LOWELLVILLE
Theresa DeFrank admitted that she usually takes terrible photos.
When the photo she snapped of her youngest son, 18-year-old Domenic DeFrank, standing in front of their backyard basketball hoop was selected just a few weeks ago as the grand prize winner of Powerade’s “Rise With Rose” contest, she was shocked.
Her son’s winning photo submission meant a $25,000 donation to the village, which would be used to renovate a sports area of his choice. He picked the village’s basketball courts.
“To him, it’s important,” Theresa DeFrank said. “He grew up here. He was always down at those courts, and lived at those courts.”
For Domenic DeFrank, the decision to renovate the aging basketball courts where he spent much of his time as a child and a teenager was an easy one.
The senior at Lowellville High School said he simply loves playing basketball, adding that he’s hopeful “a nicer basketball court” in the village will attract players of all ages.
“It’s a small town, and I’m a small-town kid,” he said. “I’ve lived here for so many years, and it feels good to give back to everybody. I hope we can use this money well.”
The village will receive the donation, made in Domenic DeFrank’s honor, in eight to 10 weeks.
He acknowledged that back in June, when he first heard about the contest via Twitter, he knew his odds of winning were slim — but figured that he “might as well give it a shot.”
In line with the contest’s “How I Raise My Game” theme, Domenic DeFrank staged a photo of himself with a basketball in one hand, a bottle of Powerade in the other.
He recruited his mother to actually take the photo, then edited it, changing the background to grayscale. Only part of the photo — his head and the Powerade bottle — is in color.
“I made it look like the Powerade was reviving me,” he said. “I wanted to do something different, because I knew people were all going to do the same thing. None were edited like mine.”
According to the official rules of the contest, which was sponsored by Coca-Cola North America, the winning entry was selected by a panel of judges, including Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls. It was judged on creativity/originality, quality, adherence to the contest theme, and enthusiasm for sponsor brands.
Domenic DeFrank said he still can’t believe that his photo snagged the contest’s top prize, and acknowledged that when he received the first email notifying him that his submission had been picked, he thought it was junk mail.
He said he responded to the email just “for the heck of it,” but that a prompt reply made him wonder if he’d really won after all. After both he and his mother confirmed that he had in fact won the national contest, that’s when he realized the impact $25,000 could have on a small village such as Lowellville.
He added that he’s happy to help out, and help to maybe put Lowellville on the map.
Theresa DeFrank elaborated, explaining that these kinds of things don’t often happen in “small, close-knit” towns such as Lowellville — but said perhaps that’s why her son’s submission stood out to judges.
“You’ve got thousands of entries from all around the U.S., but this picture shows a hometown boy in his backyard with the basketball hoop. It’s your normal, everyday backyard,” she said. “Maybe it’s the Lowellville luck.”