The Hype Her Hoops Ice Breaker is a mad fire female tourney for 4th to 8th graders that is so organized that I came back amazed after taking it all in. Hype Her Hoops never, ever fails to be on point for aspiring real ballers.

This Ice Breaker series was so “Sub Zero Cold” that the action in gym got you turnt up so hot that your cranium might be trying to focus on ten people like mine was fosho!

This brand of tourney is my go to event I never try to miss. “Hype You Up Hoops” as your humble writer E-Woods affectionately calls the brand.

When I go to their bar-none best in the industry gold standard events it’s like I’m back in 2004 hanging with true ballers like JJ Redick and my guy Chris Paul who just retweeted one of my stories.

Me? Your writer picked this J. Cole title so as to infuse lyrics like a real writer of rap music with popping upcoming TALENT. I may listen to K.Dot’s Swimming Pools but I advocate sobriety in the face of focus into the mission at hand. I’m the sober guy at events.

My mission since I started writing in 2001 is to get high off the pure dope passion for the game to report to you voracious readers who feed off that craving of “who has next” as a b-ball star.

Let’s set the stage of how I move at this and most tourneys people.

I’m wearing my Blue SLAM Kaleena Smith jersey that fits my XXL frame on a sleepy Sunday. Remember, I’m a built 6-5 260 lb. old head that gave uber talented Special K her SLAM jersey in 8th grade.

I gave DeMar DeRozan and Brandon Jennings their SLAM jerseys when they were in 8th grade in 2004. I gave Sydney Douglas and Tati Griffin SLAM when they were in 7th grade. I had replicas made that fit me.

I wear them all around because I have so much respect for all their families. All those females I just mentioned all attend unbelievably vaunted Ontario Christian High School, which I believe to be the #1 team in the country.

My guy that inspired me to become a writer and gave me permission to pass out the SLAM jerseys is none other than all time SLAM Magazine writer Scoop Jackson, my mentor in the game.

I remind younger players at tournaments to be their own best version and keep the noise out as they seek incredible trainers. Wins and losses matter not: IT’S THE SKILL LEVEL PEOPLE!

I didn’t take down a lot of quotes from players in this tourney, I just saw in the kids’ eyes their fye desire! When I saw them killin’ I gave a fist pump, or shouted out in game. After the performance I’d politely tell them in passing, “YOU KNOW HOW TO BALL!”

It’s like my guy Jason Powell says (he’s the Clippers medical trainer for 27 years and I luv him so much), “It’s all in the eyes E, when you help a guy, they tell you they appreciate you with their eyes.”

That’s what I did in this tourney, I used my eyes to tell kids/players I appreciated their game. They felt the appreciation and sent back good vibes!

So with a killa’s killa blue & white jersey that reads #11 the front, Special K on the back, I moved in and about the crowd all day long with a soundtrack of a J. Cole loop rewind of She Knows.

I saw many female ballers and thought They Know their destiny is to take on all smoke.

It’s like when I went up to Chris Paul when he was a soph at Wake Forest and asked him, “Have you always known you were going to make the HOF, have you always had that kind of confidence C?”

He told me, “E-Woods, you’re born with it that you’re going to grind enough, keep your head down, put in the work to be great. It comes early in your life. You feel it inside you.”

I saw Chris with his awesome son as Chris repeated the words to his son to keep his head down, grind, and train hard.

I tried to share his wise words to others at the Hype Her Hoops tourney.

I absolutely love the Hype Her Hoops tournament format because each game is about “expose or be exposed.” And the talent that comes to these events is way better than average tournaments of other events.

Let me share about a supreme standout I got to see, I’ve been following her progress closely for 2 years straight honestly. She’s 5-6 ultra talented 8th grader Kyla Lea who plays for the Sports Academy 8th grade team and says, “I love my coach Gideon Gamble.”

Vibe her journey and go watch her play when you can because she is pure fye in many ways. I predict KL of LA will be a future elite high major like Jayda Curry at Louisville who is my dear friend for many years.

Kyla's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kyla_lea10/

I also want to single out Team Why Not’s Aubrey from Las Vegas who played amazingly and Addison from the IE who played great. I didn’t get the chance to meet them.

And I appreciated so many from the Young Nalas squads. They are always so organized, and OC Rhythm so passionate. There are so many teams to highlight really.

Vibe these lyrics that speak to Kyla Lea and so many that maybe I didn’t have time to highlight from Team Doxa, Sparks, and others. I changed a word or to edit them for the sake of this article:

“Now I'm sure you done heard about me,

Good, southern bad chicks

Try me, they try me.”

All tournament long, MANY of the girls did “try each other on court.” It was was so fierce out there you could feel how hard the game was being played from a defensive standpoint and also to the rim with reckless abandon.

I felt the countless hours of training with each pop-pop and swoosh of the net rustling its nylon no doubt. Yikes! Smoke rose out of ears, molten lava tracked out of their shoe sleds.

Truth be told I was even mesmerized by this one crazy Kobe fearless drive to the cup by a girl named Allison, an acrobatic crazy move around 3 defenders. She was Asian and wearing a purple and gold uniform as she took it to the rack.

It still has me breathless as I speak. Geeez, I wish I had my camera at the ready but I attached a photo of Kobe to this article to show how she looked after scoring.

She got so twisted up on the rise up to the rim as she miraculously made the lay up and fell hard to the hardwood. You would’ve swore the girl wouldn’t be able to get up.

Yet, amazingly that killa Allison, a mere 6th grader, sprang up like Kob’s echo from his ghost a decade ago.

Then she grabbed her own jersey a la Kob, pounded her chest and shouted to the basketball gods with her lil veins popping in her prideful lil neck pulsating, defiantly.

What a manifestation of willpower as she craned her head to the sky, “No one on this court can hold ME back but ME, she shouted out loud for all to behold. NO ONE GOT THIS GIRL BUT ME!”

Ok, ok, I see you out there with your grown women tip killa.

I try to find those young players that fear no one. Me, I don’t have any fear in hoops, really as a writer or as a mentor either. Or as as a teacher of 1st to 6th graders for 27 years, and there’s a lot to fear there people. Really. Lol!

Kob didn’t have fear either I suspect. I respected that about him for real. I don’t talk about this often but I once wrote a story on Kob, which he hated. It was a truth telling story on him & his AAU team 5 years ago.

I called it “True Venom,” it came out a few weeks before his tragic untimely passing. I wanted to paint an accurate view of ranking of the Sparks, Storm, GBL, Mamba AAU teams in order of ability and strength vs. each other:

Click here for True Venom feature story

My motivation for writing the story was just to try to spark Kobe up and also his middle school age girls on the team he coached. I didn’t think they were living up to all the hype they were receiving. That’s my goal to be peoples’ motivation, if they let me.

Kobe? He really, really hated the feature and said to me “E-Woods, you’re a $&@#%#^*. He stood two feet away from me right after the story broke and gave me the meanest Kobe death stare you can imagine, arms crossed, defiant, like how could you write that bro?

But I took it as the ultimate compliment. If you knew the context like any real expert, you knew I spoke pure unfiltered truth that no one else had the guts to pour out in such a public way.

RIP Kob, we luv and miss you bro. My point is, I’m always going out to a lot of different tournaments trying to find future transcendent players to motivate, looking for the fearless ones that seek perfection.

I believe Hype Her Hoops does a better job than any other tournament organizer in engineering the secret sauce to hype up kids to bring out their best.

I appreciate Hype Her Hoops as a place that motivates players, coaches, all involved on many levels. I notice such things. I’m into it big time, I’m detail oriented.

Kids at Hype Her Hoops tournaments are playing for something truly great, not just the same ol, same ol in their minds. So just as the girl lifting her neck to the sky saying “No one can hold me back!”, I relate to others who channel a raw “no can stop me.”

I’m drawn to fearless players. This happens most at Hype Her Hoops, they don’t pay me anything to say this. I only make money being a grade school teacher for 27 years, no money comes to me from hoops. I can never be bought. Ever.

What inspired me most at the Hype Her Hoops tournament was this purple and pink dope beyond dope TRULY PHENOM team with real one coaches called The Dream Team from LA. See the photo on the front page of this story (and below).

The entire team has uber classy smart kids. They are the epitome of young ladies that are “about it” in every aspect of that phrase, especially Janai Turner. She’s only 12 years old and the narrative could be that she is easily as dominant out there on the court as Shaquille O’Neal was.

Janai? “She Knows”; she is a cool & sweet kid off court but relentless, attack-oriented and emerging in so many ways on the court for one so young!

The other beyond athletic youngster in the country, such an emerging great baller, is 12 year old Emma Powell, so intelligent, witty and personable.

She has such off the charts parents in so many ways who were supremely successful pro athletes. I feel blessed to have gotten to know them both, they are extremely humble people.

I follow The Dream Team AAU team a ton, I just love to watch them in motion. I also watched Team G which featured youngsters I have gotten to know well- Legend Tyler, Makena Ramos, and Rudy, all from LA. Rudy recently moved here from Finland.

I firmly believe, along with other top insider basketball minds, that all these incredibly smart and ultra talented Team G youngsters are like top 5 to 10 ranked nationally in ability in their respective 8th and 7th grade class.

When you invest to know someone as much as I have, it’s gratifying to really get to know youngsters at events like Hype Her Hoops which introduced me to standout up and comers that I’m able to feature in Californiapreps.com articles.

I feel so incredibly thankful and proud to be able to get to know youngsters as genuine persons, and spread their fame.

For example, I really enjoyed getting to know Rudy Hopkins of Team G recently. Her pops was in the NBA way back, and we talk about all kinds of cool stuff from who are the best competitors at the venue, about Rudy’s future, and just everything. I was inspired to give her some Drew League shorts which she appreciated.

Her coach Van Girard is a dope mentor, fantastic trainer, and major Drew League star. I told Rudy I believe in her and she inspires me like college stars Rayah Marshall and Kiki Iriafen of USC when they were her age.

Both Rayah & Kiki are headed to the WNBA very soon as draft lotto picks - that’s the point of context I’m try to make.

And just to be clear, I don’t just go walking around looking for young killas to talk to. I first introduce myself to their parents or guardians, tell them who I am, explain about myself and ask if it’s ok to talk to their kids.

I’ve been doing this for many years and have found lots of parents, coaches, etc. that have a lot of pride in their kids. I believe a lot of pride is good but if you don’t have a trained eye, pride can turn to delusion in the blink of an eye.

If someone asks me for advice, or how good they are, what to work on, or a suggestion for a trainer, I love to offer that advice for free at events like this Hype Her Hoops one. A lot of organizations charge big money for advice, but I’m about being a real one if asked for help.

I asked good friend and caring La Jolla Country Day coach Terri Bamford what made the Hyper Her Hoops tournament special. Terri has coached multiple WNBA players, been a Team USA coach, and is a HOF level coach.

This day, Terri was coaching the younger side of the Sports Academy players and told me this about what made the Hyper Her Hoops event special, “These kids are playing for something, they’re playing for a seed and your wins are points toward taht goal. Our team goes forward with energy to be in this tournament which is like a league. It’s great!”

Yes, it’s great, but at the tourney you had dads yelling at their kids, moms too, raging coaches that didn’t get it and raged at everybody – at the kids, themselves, parents. That’s not cool, people: both thumbs down fosho!

Hype Her Hoops can’t control that but when parents got out of control and made kids feel uncomfortable, officials did do right by the situation and had a sidebar talk with the offending person or persons involved.

That set them straight and established boundaries to guarantee safety and positive vibes for all. That’s what I love about Hype Her Hoops, the kids can feel protected, people! I used to coach AAU for 2-3 years from 2000-2003, I get it.

What I also loved was seeing the intensity in the young ladies eyes, going at each other, so much crazy talent. I talked to maybe 75-85 different people that day and tried to analyze 150 players’ games in depth. The mad skills were mind blowing.

Let’s see more She Knows lyrics and if you’ve heard the ever catchy song you know its beat is haunting and stays with you in a way that you just want to live and relive it over and over, just like this tournament.

Here are some more She Knows lyrics:

“To put a ring on it,

Got me up so high,

trying to get a piece

of that apple pie.”

This song? It’s most def about two people in a relationship. I always tell youngsters, “You have to ‘be about this life.’ You want that precious ring from being married to the game, pulling home the prize?”

I tell them sacrifice is so necessary. Some youngsters remind me at a young age there is no physical ring per se until you win a like a California State Chip title, NCAA chip. “Yes,” I say. “But that ring is respect in head as much as hardware in hand.”

I tell them to try to achieve getting their first D1 offer, then they’ll get that feeling of being elevated so high it will make them work even harder.

Getting a high apple pie feeling of an an official visit or offer from a place that’s top 5 like LSU, UCLA, Notre Dame, or South Carolina can be the ultimate high for a young girl that wants validation.

They don’t have to play there but getting an offer from a place like that is usually pretty cool nonetheless!

When I walked around the super cool Ladera Sports Complex, I saw that Hype Her Hoops had some insanely cool pop-up photo banners of my peeps like Jordan Lee for J-Kidd Select and my good friend Sydney Douglas.

I was actually chillin with Syd and her caring dad Big Rome, he’s like a brother on earth to me. Rome & Maylana Douglas’s daughter, 6-2 London, was there with her scorching elite game that day.

London I believe is about the very best 7th grader in the country and I felt honored to give her a SLAM jersey in the recent past. L was killin’ for The Dream Team.

I asked her big sis Syd Douglas for a quote on London and on the tournament. Syd said, “Hype Her Hoops is an oasis for young female athletes. I’m very proud to be here watching my younger sister play right now!”

I was talking to my girl, coach Sherri Pegues of GBL who was coaching so awesome that day. She’s about the best and most passionate coach you will ever find in the AAU game.

Sherri is responsible for starting the careers of legends like Jordin Canada and the now so popular and appreciated Juju Watkins of USC. Sherri appreciated how the tournament helped both her AAU squads and her standout Jdori of the 8th grade level who is a real killa.

I asked my guy Quincy Quintero, Hype Her Hoops organizer and upper level director what is the secret sauce of it all. Q tells me this, “We try to set a culture here in the tournament setting, give them all an excellent platform for all to feel honored.

“It’s a place where you can strive and measure your success. It’s that space where you feel the culmination of an event that families can all gather around.

“It’s a vibe, a feel good place. That’s what we aim to give, a high a quality helping of everything across the board in this competitive marketplace.”

#No joke, Hype Her Hoops is the gold standard

Like J. Cole, about best rapper going, the girls were going at each others neck in a fair but hustle and flow way. They were trying to prove they belong at the top of the leaderboard indeed.

But maybe some girls were there just for the bonding with their team, improving their own skills. Some were just having fun I guess?

I’m just an intense guy, but others are not. Whatever the intentions or reasons for being at a competitive tournament, the Hyper Her Hoops is a magical place.

I didn’t see hardly a soul who wasn’t prepared or was totally unfit, because it takes a lot of resources to mount a good team to show out there.

To make it to the finals? Wipe off the dust, make a legendary effort. You have to be elite at every position, headed to D1 usually.

The tournaments are really that fun, they shoot confetti for winners in their division! But it’s deadly serious for the mentality, so many teams traveled from far and wide to be there.

So many kids gave it there all. Like J. Cole writing in his song, they just want to write their name in the book, set the pages aflame really!

Feel the searing, blazing hot letters on this page:

“Only bad thing about a star is they burn up,

I can't give you what you want from me

Well alright.”

What happens when a star dies in the sky? It goes super nova, it burns up like the song She Knows sings. That star turns into a black hole and sucks in all matter because of the heavy gravity.

That’s like a Hype Her Hoops tourney when it ends. Things go SO ICE COLD from BEING SO HOT. It turned into a black hole for me. It sucked me in people. I’m all in to catch the action. So dope. The participants know.

Ask the girls, they know. I know. Will you get to know? Peep the tourney. Or don’t. One thing is true about hoops and this life - IT TAKES IN ALL OF US.