3-on-3 hoops tourney today

SILVERDALE — The idea of bringing a major three-on-three basketball tournament to this side of the water came easy to Chris Koebelin.

“Myself, our director of sales, we’re both big basketball fans,” said Koebelin, general manager of the Silverdale Beach Hotel. “We play a lot.”

So it also came as no surprise that the Silverdale Beach Hotel will play host to the first Silverdale 3-on-3 Shoot-Out, beginning today and running through tomorrow.

“We’re very excited,” Koebelin said. “We want to make this an annual thing. We want it to help make Silverdale big for this sort of thing.”

So far it’s been relatively smooth sailing for Koebelin and company, as he said the tourney is expecting to draw between 300-400 teams. That means about 800 30-minute games, all taking place at the hotel’s parking lot on 20 hoops. But Koebelin isn’t a complacent man.

“That’s what we’re shooting for, but only because it’s our first year,” he said, adding that ultimately he’d like to see it grow to the point that the hotel can host it while another group can help it self-sustain.

When the idea popped up, Koebelin said he began his search for answers with the Kitsap Sports Counsel. Through working with the council, as well as through contacting other larger tournaments in the western U.S., Koebelin and the event organizers were able to get support from are businesses for donations, financial support and some of the necessities. For example, the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics donated all the hoops that will be used, not only helping make the tourney possible physically, but also lending a little credibility to the first-year event.

“It’s awesome. It just gives credence to the fact that it’s a good idea,” Koebelin said. “Especially considering most of the three-on-three tournaments are so big nationally and ours is such a small thing. Once they got on board, it was like, ‘Wow, this will be a really nice event.’”

The tournament will be a whole lot more than just basketball, as information booths, food vendors, kids activities and more, like video games, also will be offered. Plus, tourney-goers can get a gander of the ongoing quicksilver hydroplane and watersports festival, happening the same weekend on Dyes Inlet, from the hotel’s beach front.

Koebelin said the event will be another addition to Silverdale’s tourism by drawing more out-of-town tourney participants than other Silverdale events may draw.

“In turn, those people are coming here, staying here, eating here,” Koebelin said.

Registration is open until 9 a.m.

today, but Koeblein said he’s been getting in the neighborhood of 40 calls a day about the tournament.

Divisions range from recreational to competitive and vary by age or school class.

For more information, visit www.silverdaleshootout.com or call the hotel at (360) 698-1000.

“So far, everybody has been real excited,” Koebelin said. “There’s nothing like it on this side of the water.”

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