Northwest HoopGurlz: Opportunity & Education
The concept of the HoopGurlz was born from a neighborhood team called the Dragons, which represented the Pacific Northwest at the 2001 AAU National 12u Championships. The Dragons were created to present opportunities to lower-income and lower-skilled girls, the type who typically were not accepted by or interested in the higher-profiled (and priced) select programs. Our desire also to contribute to our sport and community led to the founding, on Dec. 3, 2001, of the HoopGurlz.com website (more complete summary on the website follows), which is a key informational and educational component not only to our program, but to the nation. The combination of a high-profile select team and a large-traffic, uniquely positioned website gives HoopGurlz extremely high visibility.
We have carried over the philosophy of opportunity and education into the Northwest HoopGurlz high school girls’ basketball select team, which was founded in February, 2003. We took the same types of players we did before, gave them opportunity and education, with an emphasis on enhancing their high school careers and helping them progress toward playing in college, depending on the player’s goals. Our coaching emphasizes communication, learning to be teammates, fundamental offensive footwork and ballhandling, and individual defensive skills with an emphasis on pressure and team-help concepts. We also expose our players to high school, college and even professional environments by utilizing such elements as commitment expectations, planned and organized practices, player reviews, playbooks and scouting reports and game plans at major tournaments.
Our basic goal is of course to win, but not at all costs. In fact, because of our emphasis on player development, every player on the team plays, starts and has an essential role. We are proud to say that development goals do achieve positive, team accomplishments as, by the end of the 2004 spring-summer season, we won championships in four of our final five tournaments. On our re-launched 2007 team, we have a young roster that includes players who already are being seriously tracked by major Division I schools.
NW HoopGurlz Coaches & Personnel
Glenn Nelson, founder of the team and the website, has coached girls’ select and middle-school basketball for eight years and, before that, coached boys and men’s teams. As a head coach, he has taken two different teams to AAU and ARC National Championships and, in addition to the HoopGurlz and Dragons, also coached the Washington Triple Threat select girls team and the Summit Middle School girls basketball team. A graduate of Seattle University and Columbia University, Nelson was a national-award-winning basketball writer and columnist for 17 years at The Seattle Times, who also has been published in books and magazines and authored a kids’ basketball book published by Sports Illustrated for Kids. He presently is the Editor-in-Chief of Scout.com, the largest independent online sports network that includes college, NFL and MLB team sites, college recruiting and high school news, and also publishes 39 team sports magazines.
Chris Bown presently coaches at Seattle Prep. He previously was the head girl's basketball coach at Lakeside, after serving four seasons as assistant to Lakeside girls basketball coach Sandy Schneider, under whom the school won the State 3A championship in 2003. In 2002, Bown worked for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, where he was an Assistant Coach/Coordinator for Individual Player Development. A graduate of the University of Washington, Bown does individual development training and has been the head coach for girls varsity basketball teams at Holy Names Academy, Seattle Academy and American Indian Heritage School. In addition to basketball, Bown has coached soccer, track and field, cross-country and football, and has been a math and physical education instructor at St. Paul School and Seattle Academy. He has been a math and physical education instructor at St. Paul School and Seattle.
Community Involvement: Web, Clinics, Tournaments
Our commitment to our sport and community has conferred the side benefit of positive branding of the HoopGurlz. People – players, parents, coaches and basketball organizations – associate our programs with quality, service, trust and education. Our website, www.HoopGurlz.com, is the foundation of everything we do – from education and communication to tournaments and clinics.
In five years, HoopGurlz.com has developed a following that attracts 750,000 to 1 million views per month (as independently measured by Open Tracker). The website has an audience equally distributed among the top markets in the United States, though the largest continues to be in the Seattle area. HoopGurlz.com's most loyal audience arguably is the college-coaching ranks.
In addition to interactive elements that facilitate communication within the sport and community, HoopGurlz.com offers information basic and essential to running teams at the grade school, middle school, high school and select levels. This includes comprehensive tournament, gym, camp and team listings, instruction and reviews, standings and results from nearly every league and tournament operated in the Puget Sound region, schedules and coverage for all local colleges, inspirational and motivational material such as photo galleries and the “HoopGurlz High Five” honor roll of individual and team achievements, and more.
Click Here for HoopGurlz.com Columnists
We also recently launched national coverage of high-school girl's basketball in 2005. That year, we produced a list of the top 50 college prospects in the 2006 class. The next year, we went 100 deep in 2007 and another 25 in 2008. 2006. Via the established online network platform of Scout.com, we present, cover and track the play recruiting process of the nation’s top players. It always is our intent to better showcase local talent, as well as establish standards of coverage that honor the sensitivities and security issues associated with girls activities. To the end of bringing exposure to achievement through hard work, HoopGurlz.com named its first All-State Team (HoopGurlz All-State) and compiled a list of all-conference and all-area teams throughout the state of Washington (All-Star Teams).
Through our website and our long association with basketball, we have several key partnerships with:
- NYCE Sports Apparel.
- The Seattle Storm WNBA basketball team.
- The Seattle SuperSonics NBA basketball team.
- Baden Sports.
- Washington Tournament Association.
- Advantage Basketball Camps.
- Northwest Game Films.
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HoopGurlz Challenge History
Summer Storm 2006
Summer Storm 2004
Summer Storm 2003
Summer Storm 2002
We also sponsored a free coaches clinic in November that featured Bown, Tom Newell, Sara Wetstone and the legendary Bob Kloppenburg. For more details:
HoopGurlz Coaches Clinic
Our previous partnership with the University of Washington resulted in “HoopGurlz.com Day,” for which we negotiated an exclusive price point which will be the lowest available all season for the best tickets, in an effort to expose more girls to a higher level of play. The winning teams of our 2004 HoopGurlz Challenge received special seating at the “HoopGurlz.com Day” game.
Finally, we maintain a constant presence in our community. Bown has donated clinics around the region to the likes of St. Terese and St. Paul parishes, the Catholic Youth Organization, Seattle Parks & Recreation, among many others every year. In addition to organizing and running the website, Nelson consults for many teams on a variety of issues.
* Thanks for your interest! For more information, contact Glenn Nelson, 206-465-7158 or HoopGurlz@comcast.net *
Click Here for More About HoopGurlz.com
