Spokane Hoopfest Players Coming to BAM Jam

Spokane Hoopfest you've done it again! The world's largest 3 on 3 basketball tournament brought in over 6,900 teams to their 25th edition.

Spokane 3 on 3 basketball players
are invited to Boise for BAM Jam

BAM Jam is inviting all Hoopfest players to rest up and then join us in Boise for the biggest 3 on 3 tournament in Idaho. The tournament is August 9-10, 2014 on the streets of downtown Boise and right next to Capitol Park and the Idaho State Capitol Building. Each summer we welcome over 300 teams of all ages and abilities. It's 3 on 3 basketball like only Boise can showcase! Click here for tournament information.

BAM Jam is great for Spokane 3 on 3 basketball players that either had to miss this year's Hoopfest or for players that are looking for another shot at playing some street ball hoops!

Boise and BAM Jam are no strangers to Spokane basketball players and Hoopfest success. This year's final four Men's Elite division at Hoopfest featured players on Integrity Spokane that are all regulars at the Boise tournament. In fact, a couple of them have won both Hoopfest and BAM Jam in the same year (Chris Allen and Wade Joseph).

G Unit now holds championships
at Spokane Hoopfest, Summer
BAM Jam and Spring BAM Jam

And the Hoopfest high school elite division was also won by BAM Jam champions, G Unit. Team won the 2013 Summer BAM Jam, this past March they won the 2014 Spring BAM Jam and then went on to compete at the USA Basketball 3 on 3 National Championships. Now as defending Hoopfest champions they are clearly the team to beat this summer.

Spokane 3 on 3 basketball players, we would love to have you play in this year's BAM Jam! Guaranteed registration deadline is July 19 so be sure to get your team in today. Register by clicking here.

Hoopfest continues to make BAM Jam better

We are back on the road, heading back to Boise from this weekend's Hoopfest. The BAM Jam Boise dotcom won their first game on Sunday but lost the next two games. The team finished third in their bracket.

The video above shows the Nike Center Court during one of our games. The popularity continues to grow. It is so big that the Spokesman-Review even dedicates an entire section of their paper to the event (click here to see it). 

The tournament always gives us new ideas to integrate in to BAM Jam each year. Whether it is the Center Court amenities or how they run their half court shootout, Hoopfest continues to make BAM Jam the best tournament in Idaho.

Hoopfest is underway and Spokane is the beneficiary

We finished up Friday with a volunteer session for checking in the Hoopfest Court Monitors. With nearly 650 Court Monitors registered to work Saturday and Sunday, their team has the check in system completely dialed in from training to getting the monitors their gear to making sure they have everything they need from whistles to sunscreen.

From there we took a quick walk around downtown as the logistics team gets their set up preparation done. It is incredible how the entire town gets behind this tournament. From the city letting Hoopfest store their baskets in city storage, to staging the night before to rearranging the city transit schedule and bus routes, Spokane has completely bought in. They even let them banner the downtown light posts and put up speakers on every street! The city's reward? An estimated $39 million in additional revenue during the weekend generated specifically by Hoopfest.

Saturday, the first official day of Hoopfest couldn't have gone better for the BAM Jam crew. The day started with a ride on their modified city transportation. Normally, a day pass on their transit system costs $3.50. During Hoopfest it is just $1.50 and in 10 minutes you can get all the way downtown.

The first shift starts at 8:00 AM with a volunteer session at the data entry center. The Hoopfest bracketing/tournament results are completely digital. They strive to have all brackets updated within about 10 minutes of the score sheets being turned in. This is quite a challenge with 485 brackets and sheets coming in every 30 minutes. We had 10 volunteers entering game results into their custom made software and were able to keep up. All the results are available online and they added a mobile application this year. Next year they plan to add text messaging as well.

The BAM Jam Boise Dot Com team also did very well. They are competing in the Elite Division and were ranked #2 this year after finishing second last year. Their first two games were on the Nike Center Court and went 2-0 to finish the day. While the offense was OK it was their defense that proved to be most effective. Sunday they open against another Treasure Valley team at 10:00 AM (Pacific Time). If they win their first three games they will be back in the final four. A loss and they'll have to battle through the losers bracket.

Several Treasure Valley teams are still in the hunt for this year's Hoopfest title including Still OC (Keegan Cook), Gates of Hope (Joel Ryman), STADIAdotcom (Ryan McCarthy and Wade Joseph), Wheatland Bank (Cory Violette and Dan Mcfaul) and BodyBuildingdotcom (Booker Nabors) along with BAM Jam Boise dotcom (Matt Bauscher, Clint Hordemann, Jon DeWolfe and Paul Noonan). But the defending champs, Tonicx (David Pendergraft), is still alive and takes on Wheatland Bank first thing Sunday morning.

And of course don't forget that BAM Jam will take place in Boise on August 5-6 where you can see or even compete against some of these same players.

On the road to Hoopfest

As all 3 on 3 fans and players know, the Spokane Hoopfest is the gold standard of the world's 3 on 3 tournaments. Several of the BAM Jam staff are headed to Spokane this weekend to both play and volunteer at the world's largest 3 on 3 tournament. Our goals are simply to learn more about how to run a great tournament and have a great time.

Some of us are working, some not so much

The trip to Spokane from Boise runs 6-7 hours depending on traffic. Six of us are packed into an Excursion. Our first volunteer shift starts at 4:00 PM to help check in the tournament's court monitors. We are really looking forward to seeing how their system compares to our and if there are some areas that we can make improvements.

On Saturday, our volunteer shift starts at 8:00 AM when we will help them with their data entry stuff. Not really sure what this means exactly, but it will definitely be an experience.

Our first game is at 10:00 AM on Center Court. The competition will be tough but the weather conditions look favorable. Can't wait for an exciting weekend!

BAM Jam Boise Team finishes second at Hoopfest

Congratulations to our BAM Jam team that competed this past weekend at the Spokane Hoopfest. The guys competed in the Men's Elite Division. Of the 6,950 total teams and 64 in the Men's Elite Division, BAM Jam Boise finished second to David Pendergraft's (Gonzaga) Team Tonicx.

Their efforts did not go unnoticed. Check out the articles below from the Spokesman-Review, Idaho Statesman and Seattle Times. Nice work guys!

Two of three teams defending Hoopfest titles fall in elite finals

Former Boise State basketball players finish second in Spokane 3-on-3 tournament

Spokane Hoopfest is world's largest 3-on-3 tournament

The Gold Standard

As we continue to prepare for BAM Jam 2009, the staff took our traditional trip to Spokane, Washington this past weekend for Hoopfest.

Hoopfest once again did something that they have been doing over the last several years, breaking their own attendance record. This year, according to their event guide, Hoopfest had 6,700 participating teams, breaking last year's record and continuing to prove what community support for a great event can do.

With nearly 600 courts on 40 square blocks, Spokane proved that it is the current home court for 3 on 3 basketball.

There were a few things that stood out that are worth noting:

1. The Nike Center Court was again the spot to be for not only great hoops but also great entertainment. In addition to the games there were dance performances from the Sea Gals (the Seahawks dance team) and men's and women's dunk competitions. The crowds seemed bigger this year than last year.
2. Their staff continues to incredibly welcoming to our staff. Kathlene Sulivan (in charge of their registration, check in, player changes, etc.) may be one of the coolest people we've met. And Lori and Chad Smith were awesome with the Court Monitor trainings.
3. The food and booths continue to get better and better. In addition to all the food options, participants also got a chance to get autographs from current Gonzaga players.
4. The Court Monitors and Court Marshalls continue to be some of the nicest and hardest working volunteers around. They give their weekend and stand in the heat so that the tournament can go on and be successful. You really have to respect that.

So, as we return back to Boise to finish planing for this year's BAM Jam, we do so energized by what we just saw and with a goal of where we someday could be.

Updating an update

We just received a "Tweet" from the Spokane Hoopfest - over 6,600 teams have registered! So our question is this: why not Boise? Can you imagine?




Here is a video that gives a glimpse of just how big this thing has gotten up north. And provides a road map as to where BAM Jam is heading.

Up in Spokane...

Just saw this about the Spokane Hoopfest, the world's largest 3 on 3 tournament - http://twitter.com/SpokaneHoopfest.

So, if they were at 6,400 teams last year and now they are even bigger, does that mean they are going to hit 6,600? 6,700? Wow! Can you imagine having even just a fraction of this in Boise? Think how many people would be spending money downtown! Think about how much money we could donate to charity! Think about how much hoops this town would be playing! Let's do it!

By the way, if you are looking for BAM Jam updates via Twitter (similar to the Hoopfest version), check out the updates via the Idaho Select Twitter account, http://twitter.com/idahoselect. You can also search using the #bamjam search term.