UPB Introduces its First All-Girls 3 v 3 League
By: Dylan Tehada
Female involvement in sports and in basketball in particular has seen major strides in recent years. Whether it be more audiences tuning in to watching icons like Caitlin Clark and Sabrina Ionescu in the WNBA or more girls playing on competitive sports teams for extended periods of time, there are more opportunities for female athletes to play and enjoy the sports they love. There were many pioneers who paved this path and provided safe spaces for young girls to elevate their game, and here at UPB we seek to create similar environments for young female athletes to realize their potential is unlimited. Our partner, The Women’s Coaching Alliance holds the same virtues in terms of moving female involvement in sports forwards and developing leaders on and off the court. In partnership with the Women’s Coaching Alliance, we will be hosting UPB’s first ever all-girls 3 v 3 tournament in January!
The all-girls 3 v 3 league will kick off for all 1st-3rd grade athletes on Saturday, January 11th 2025 and will continue for the next eight weeks every Saturday until March 1st. Each session will be from 3pm-4pm and will consist of 15 minutes of training and 45 minutes of playing against other teams in the league. In order to sign up, athletes must form a team of 3 to 4 players, create a UPBasketball Mindbody account, and email upbasketballtraining@gmail.com the name of the team and players. In addition, to athletes forming teams we will be looking for coaches to help mentor these young athletes. Coaches must be 14-18 years old and do not require any coaching experience. To sign up as a coach, email upbasketballtraining@gmail.com!
The Women’s Coaching Alliance is an organization rooted in developing the next generation of female leaders. Their services span across 8 different sports, including basketball, and they mentor the next generation of coaches, trainers, and mentors by pairing young women up with each other and giving them access to fellow female coaches who have led teams before. There is a lot of nuance to coaching that goes beyond strategy and basketball knowledge. There are a lot of intangibles to being a leader and fostering a winning environment in women’s sports, and according to Pam Baker, founder of the Women’s Coaching Alliance, support from fellow coaches is the first step in developing the next generation of female leaders.
“The point [of the Women’s Coaching Alliance] is to have support as [young female leaders] go through what's usually one of their first leadership experiences, so they have somebody who's coached that sport in the past, in this case, basketball, so that's somebody who knows most of the scenarios these gals are likely to run into as a leader and a mentor,” Baker stated. “Somebody who really understands leadership, who can help them identify the leadership skills that they're learning through coaching youth sports.”
UPB and the Women’s Coaching Alliance have fostered a tight knit partnership since meeting as both organizations have been heavily involved in each other’s initiatives. UPB has attended the organization’s benefits and fundraising events showcasing their support for developing the next generation of female leaders and the Women’s Coaching Alliance even helped put on the Mom’s Clinic in 2024 where mom’s learned how they can best support their athletes through their journeys. This partnership is established on the idea of moving basketball forward and empowering young female athletes to play basketball at the highest level and strive for greatness.
“It's been a really great collaborative environment and I think [UPB and the Women’s Coaching Alliance] are really aligned in terms of the role of women in leadership at UPB as well. So it's been a really great partnership,” Baker stated.
Events like the 3 v 3 tournament are competitive in nature and often test the intangible skills of leadership and teamwork, both of which are more difficult to train in traditional basketball training settings. Through this all-girls 3 v 3 tournament, UPB seeks to provide a safe space for young female athletes to compete against their peers and hone those intangible skills that are conducive to love and successful careers. By partnering with the Women’s Coaching Alliance, the girls participating in this tournament will be led by female coaches themselves striving to become leaders and coaches in basketball. The goal is to foster an environment where young athletes can look up to their coaches as role models and the coaches can develop their skills as leaders.
“When female athletes are surrounded by other athletes who are just like them, and they see these young women as role models, we hope that just encourages them to stay in the game that much longer. What we see from the young women coaching girls in particular is that they just tune in to who they are and their experience as kids in a different way,” Baker stated.
We are excited to be hosting this event in the new year and are extremely grateful for all the collaborative efforts from the Women’s Coaching Alliance to help make this event come to life. If your athlete is interested in joining a team or coaching a team click this link here!
