Spoljaric To Go Barefoot For Charity Pike basketball coach Phil Spoljaric will be without his shoes Wednesday night when he leads the Red Devils onto the floor against Carmel. The reason? So needy children around the world will have a pair of shoes to wear. Coach Spoljaric is amongst the dozens of youth and college basketball coaches around the country raising awareness for Samaritan's Feet. The charity was first made famous in basketball circles by IUPUI basketball coach Ron Hunter, who also happens to be the father of Pike basketball player R.J. Hunter. (From IndyStar.com) Samaritan's Feet gained worldwide attention last January when Coach Hunter went barefoot for a game at IUPUI. The gesture brought more than $30,000 and 140,000 pairs of shoes, and Hunter and his team traveled in August to Lima, Peru, to deliver the shoes. Hunter will coach barefoot again in IUPUI's Jan. 17 game against Centenary, and he is asking all other coaches at every level to do the same in a game next weekend. Coaches from the NCAA's Horizon and Summit Leagues already have agreed to go barefoot. "I know there are others that have expressed interest," said Samaritan's Feet marketing director Todd Melloh. "We're asking all the college, pro, high school, youth and AAU coaches to do it. I think the majority of them are going to do it." Melloh said more than 100 youth coaches in Indiana, and more than 200 in Charlotte, where Samaritan's Feet is based, would go barefoot. He said Samaritan's Feet did a 1,000-person shoe distribution in Indianapolis -- 500 pairs at Shepherd Community Center and 500 at Wheeler Boys & Girls Club. Melloh also said going barefoot isn't limited to basketball coaches. He talked to Gov. Mitch Daniels' press secretary and learned Daniels may go barefoot Jan. 16.