Dropoff nothing to worry about

For the first time in its remarkable 15-year history, Hoopfest saw it’s year-to-year participation numbers drop this weekend.

The number of players entered in Hoopfest 2004 was 23,916 – down just a little over 500 from last year’s record total of 24,677. The number of teams slipped from 6,245 in 2003 to 6,120 this year. And the number of courts erected on the streets of downtown Spokane slipped from 397 to 395.

But Rick Steltenpohl, Hoopfest’s executive director, said he is not concerned by the marginal dropoff in participation. And he added that organizers are preparing to accommodate even a record number of teams next year – should they register.

“We knew we would eventually reach a point where it would peak out,” Steltenpohl said. “But I’m not sure we’re there just yet. (Co-founder) Rick Betts has always said we want to take as many teams as want to play, as long as we can get the streets and the volunteers we need. And that’s what we intend to do.

“If participation had dropped a lot, we would have been concerned. But it looks more like things were just a little flat this year.”

Steltenpohl pointed out that his organization still does very little in the way of promoting the event outside of the region.

“We send out some e-mails, and a lot of people know about us,” he explained, “but we’re not going out and actively marketing this thing. If we did, who knows what might happen.

“For now, we’re pleased with what we have. But we still have the philosophy that whoever wants to come and play, we’ll take.”

Steltenpohl said nearly all of the early reports he had received from this year’s Hoopfest were positive – especially those concerning such new additions as the Youth Center Court and the High School Elite Division, and the reinstatement of the Family Division.

“Being kind of the anniversary year that it was, it felt really good to look back a bit and see what we’ve accomplished,” he said of an event that started in 1990 with just 512 teams and 2,009 players competing on 35 courts. “It was nice to recognize some of the players who have been here all 15 years, and next week we’re going to honor some of our 15-year volunteers.

“We’ve been around a long time now, but we don’t want to just sit back and let it continue to happen. We want to drive forward. You’ll notice that we’ll be even better next year.”

Cars ‘R Us

For the second time in three years, a member of Team Windex won the car that has been given away in Hoopfest’s Shootoff Contest that has been sponsored for the last seven years by the Inland Empire Toyota Dealers Association.

This year, it was Joe Hodges who dropped in two consecutive 3-point shot attempts to win a sudden death playoff and a 2004 Toyota Celica GTS valued at $27,000.

Two years ago, Hodges’ teammate Justin Shamion won a Toyota Matrix in the same contest.

At that time, Shamion said he was going to sell the car and share the money with his teammates, which he did. And this year, Hodges – who drives a 2003 Nissan Ultima – said he will do the same.

Hodges, from Ione, said he plans to drive his new Celica for a week and then sell it back to a local Toyota dealer.

“Hopefully, they’ll give me about $20,000 for it,” he said, adding that he and his teammates, including Jordan Robinson, practice diligently for the Shootoff each year.

All seven of the finalists in this year’s event missed their two shot attempts from half court. Under contest rules, all seven then moved up to the 3-point line, from where five made their first attempts.

Hodges, however, was the only one to make his second try, thus winning the car.

“I didn’t feel all that good from half court,” said Hodges, who admitted he shot about 100 3-point shots just before the finals. “But once we moved up, I was pretty confident.”

Thurl-y impressed

Former Utah Jazz standout Thurl Bailey flew back to Salt Lake City Sunday afternoon, secure in the belief that Hoopfest – Spokane style – is everything he heard it would be.

“This is really a first-class event,” said Bailey, who is planning to start a similar 3-on-3 street basketball event in Salt Lake City in 2005. “It’s remarkable how (Hoopfest organizers) opened their hearts and ideas to us. It’s obvious they have a real love for the event.”

Bailey was in Spokane on Friday to watch the setup procedures for Hoopfest 2004, but had to return to Salt Lake City on Saturday to attend the funeral of Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan’s wife, Bobbi, who died last week of cancer.

He returned to Spokane on Sunday in time to watch some of the actual competition, and said he is looking forward to bringing a similar event to Salt Lake City, where he has his own business.

“We realize we’ll have to start slow – just a few courts and few teams at first,” he said. “But, hopefully, we can eventually build it up to something like you have here.”

Courting the young

For the first time in the 15-year history of Hoopfest, high school competitors had their own center stage on which to perform.

The Dairy Farmers of Washington sponsored that stage – better known as the Youth Center Court – which was erected along Spokane Boulevard, next to the Riverfront Park Turnout.

The Youth Center Court, like the Nike Center court in Riverfront Park, which plays host to the men’s and women’s Elite division of Hoopfest, was constructed of Sport Court interlocking plastic tile and featured a glass backboard, a small set of bleachers and an electronic scoreboard.

Blair Thompson, the consumer marketing manager for the Washington Dairy Products Commission, said his organization decided to sponsor the court after getting some additional money from its 3-A-Day of Dairy promotion.

“With that and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, it just felt like all of the planets came into alignment – from a marketing standpoint, at least,” Thompson said.

The Youth Center Court was constructed near the same spot where the Nike Center Court used to be. And while most competitors who used it liked the atmosphere, some were put off by the fact that court sloped considerably downhill toward the curb-side basket stanchion.

“I liked it because it made you feel like you were something special with the bleachers and everything,” said recent Ferris High School graduate Joel Wukelic, a member of the Mighty Koalas team that came back through the losers’ bracket to win the boys’ High School Elite Division on the Youth Center Court.

But Wukelic and his teammates – Ryan Shelby, Kyle Yonago and Jeremy Templeton _ were also highly critical of the court surface for being too slippery and too slanted for their likes.

“We’d rather play on the asphalt,” they said, almost in unison.

Thompson acknowledged the new Youth Center Court had some problems.

“Maybe next year, we can build a ramp toward the curb and level it out,” he said.