Friendly Competition Valley’S 3-On-3 Basketball Tournament May Be Smaller, But It’S Filled With Fun

Hooop It Up isn’t Hoopfest, which is all right with Steve Williams and his young 3-on-3 basketball charges.

But the Spokane Valley YMCA-sponsored tournament, which helps fund the organization’s scholarship program, is gaining in popularity.

This weekend, 170 four-player teams on 19 courts, and their followers, will crowd Spokane Valley Mall for two days of sun and competition.

While a far cry from the 341 courts and nearly 5,300 teams and 21,000 competitors of Hoopfest in Spokane, participation in the Valley event has increased 23 percent over last year.

“It’s catching on,” said YMCA associate executive director Pat Estes.

Williams, who has been involved in both 3-on-3 tournaments as either a player, coach or court monitor, likes the intimacy this weekend’s Hooop It Up provides.

“Hoopfest is just so big they’re tough to compare,” said Williams. “One of the advantages of Hooop It up is it’s a little more family oriented, more of a fun tournament. Hoopfest gets a little ugly.”

Not that his young players at this weekend’s tournament aren’t competitive.

Williams’ seventh-grade son, Jason, along with Ryan Ristau, Scott Pinkerton and Cody Brincken, won their division of Hoopfest last month.

With Brincken unavailable this weekend, the players are splitting up to form two teams. Ristau and Pinkerton have joined forces with AAU teammate Jason Espinoza and a friend, Adam Smith.

Jason Williams will play with Bryce Hartzell, an AAU player and former Hoopfest teammate, Cody Nowak, a South Pines Elementary classmate, and Williams’ younger brother Chase, “who hasn’t gotten to play Hoopfest,” the elder Williams said.

A meeting sometime during the tournament is possible.

“The majority of these kids have played together since kindergarten, first in YMCA and then AAU beginning two years ago,” said Williams.

His wife Kathie comes from a YMCA-involved family. Her father was a director in Yakima and her brother is a director in Wenatchee.

Williams himself played basketball at Medical Lake High School and Spokane Community Colleges.

So being involved in Hooop It Up is a natural for the Williams family for a variety of reasons.

“One of the benefits of this tournament is that all the proceeds go to the Y,” Steve Williams said.

Another benefit has been the move to the Spokane Valley Mall. This weekend marks the third tournament there. Prior to that, Hooop It Up was located at University City.

“I think the move has been in our best interests,” said Estes. “We’ve been able to put up a big display in the mall. Shopkeepers have shown a willingness to display posters. The parking is wonderful and the surface is wonderful, too.”

He recalled that mall marketers approached him about the switch at about the time U-City had rented out its parking lot to another event.

“Valley Mall’s special events manager was interested in having us and we had been keeping our eye on it as well,” said Estes. “It turned out to be a great match.”

Now with the opening of the new Valley YMCA building, the two entities are practically neighbors.

Spokane Valley Mall marketing director Mike Ferguson cited increased foot traffic benefitting the merchants and a desire to help out the YMCA as reasons they were happy to accommodate the tournament.

“They are our neighbors now and we want to be involved with them,” said Ferguson. “It was not a hard decision to say, `yeah, come on out.”’ The courts are set up in the northwest parking lot near the entrance to Sears.

There has been an increase in food court sales, Ferguson said, and merchants have welcomed the event. Because of the number of stores, participants and followers tend to stay at the mall and make a day of it, added Estes - if only to take advantage of the air conditioning on a hot summer weekend.

Despite the heat there’s basketball to be played by both adults and youngsters, like the team of the South Pines classmates.

Jason Williams is the lone Hooop It Up veteran on his team.

“It’s a lot smaller and you’re not lost in a huge crowd,” he said. “You know all the players.”

The others are looking forward to it and he promised not to go too hard on his younger brother, who is in his first-ever 3-on-3 competition.

“I think it will be a lot of fun,” said Chase. “I’m looking for fun more than anything.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: THIS WEEKEND Hooop It Up

What: Annual 3-on-3 Valley YMCA-sponsored basketball tournament

When: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday

Where: Spokane Valley Mall Needs: Volunteer court monitors and cleanup crews both days.