Players take over Capitol Campus for inaugural 3-on-3 basketball tournament

Legislative Building, Temple of Justice — and basketball?

Capital City Hoopfest, a new 3-on-3 basketball tournament, is running this weekend, with teams playing on 21 hoops spread across the west Capitol Campus. The north diagonal parking area and flag circle are closed to vehicle traffic for the event.

Teams are divided into 16 brackets, with players from elementary schoolers to adults. The first team to hit 20 points in each 20-minute game moves on in the tournament.

The top two teams in each bracket will play in a championship game Sunday (July 15) on the center court in front of the Temple of Justice.

Robin Johnson is the event’s organizer and founder of 90TEN Training Academy, a Tumwater-based basketball nonprofit that trains young athletes in the Thurston County area. She said the tournament was inspired by Spokane Hoopfest, an annual 3-on-3 tournament with 450 hoops, according to its website.

“The experience of Spokane Hoopfest really propelled the experience here,” Johnson said. “We wanted to bring an event that’s positive like that to our community that drives people to our community and has a really friendly and family environment. I think Olympia sometimes gets a bad rap — people especially don’t think of downtown necessarily as a place they want to go to spend family time.”

Broderick Gardner’s two daughters played in the tournament for the W.E.S.T. Academy team from Lacey on Saturday. Gardner said he travels in the summer attending similar tournaments.

“I’ve been to a lot of 3-on-3 tournaments and I think it’s great for the city of Olympia,” he said. “With Lakefair going on, you have time where you can be out all day watching good basketball. This definitely has the opportunity to grow, to be a bigger event and bring more communities in.”

After completing their first year of competition, Capital City Hoopfest organizers have bigger aspirations. In future years, they want to add more hoops and expand to the surrounding streets and parking lots on the Capitol Campus.

This year’s tournament won’t raise any money, but Johnson said she hopes future tournaments will benefit 90TEN’s scholarship program.

This story was originally published July 14, 2018 at 2:23 PM.