The rain came.
But that hardly put any sort of damper on the first-ever ShoWare Shootout 3-on-3 basketball tournament, which played out Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 7-8, amidst grey skies and sporadic rain showers. The 160-team, 16-division tournament that took place in the parking lot of the ShoWare Center brought players from as far away as Yakima and Spokane, Everett and Marysville.
By the time all the championship games for each division wrapped up late Sunday afternoon, the buzz had died down, but the excitement for what the tournament was — and what it could be in the years to come — remained.
“I thought it was pretty fun,” said Logan Goethals, a freshman-to-be at White River High. “It was neat that more kids got to play, and it didn’t matter how good you were, everybody got to play. The crowds were really big … all the parents came and everything. I would definitely do it again.”
The 3-on-3 tournament followed the blueprint established by the Spokane Hoopfest, which take place at the end of June each year and draws more than 5,000 teams and 25,000 players from around the nation.
“I thought it went excellent. Everybody got a lot of games, a lot of basketball,” said tournament director Steve Turcotte, who spearheaded the event.
“The only thing (that didn’t go well) was that the weather didn’t cooperate.”
The final numbers, however, proved to be bigger than what was first anticipated. Two weeks before the tournament tipped off, roughly 60 teams had signed up to compete. Three days before tipoff, that number soared to 160 teams and 600-plus total players.
“I thought if we got 100 teams, it would be a real success,” Turcotte said. “We could comfortably put 300 teams down there (at the ShoWare Center).”
The event is expected to grow for next year.
“We’d like to get over 200 teams next year,” Turcotte noted. “It’s the first event I’ve ever done with that many people, and I thought it went well. We’ll make some tweaks for next year.”
The 160 teams spread across 16 divisions played out on 17 different courts in the ShoWare Center parking lot. The adult men’s recreation division was the largest with 31 total teams. There were divisions for both genders along with all ability and age levels. During the two-day basketball festival, 323 games were played.
“I liked the location,” said Don Goethals, who coached two ninth-grade boys teams in the tournament. “You don’t have to drive over to Spokane to play. The Hoopfest is so much bigger that you can’t really compare. It really overwhelms the entire city of Spokane. It would be fun if (the ShoWare Shootout) got to that point.
“It definitely has room to grow.”
The rain, however, wasn’t a problem.
In fact, it was kind of refreshing, Goethals noted.
“A lot of the kids thought it was nice because a lot of them play at Hoopfest, where it’s 90 degrees,” he said.
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