For participants, Hooplandia, the Northeast's Ultimate 3x3 Basketball Tourney + Festival, is a weekend where every kind of baller coalesces in the birthplace of basketball to celebrate the sport and try their hand at a winning title. This highly anticipated event, brought to you by Eastern States Exposition (ESE) and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, is always gone too soon, leaving participants eager for more. However, for ESE employees, Hooplandia is a year-round commitment–the ball is always rolling, especially for the street team.
The Hooplandia Street Team tables local events and games to promote Hooplandia by networking with athletes, engaging potential sponsors, distributing branded merchandise and generating community awareness. They are out and about from now through early June, spreading the scoop on Hoop!
The street team serves as ambassadors between Hooplandia and ballers of every skill set. Street team members receive access to elite sporting events, prime connections within the athletic industry, event credentials, merchandise, a potential stipend or community service hours and, of course, VIP access to Hooplandia. Interested in joining the Hooplandia Street Team? Reach out to Sam Roberts at sroberts@thebige.com!
The street team’s captain is ESE’s Hooplandia Event Coordinator, Sam Roberts, an alumnus of Lasell University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and earned a Bachelor of Communications with a specialization in sports communications and a minor in business/marketing. His resume includes internship experience at Blue Sky Sports, New England Sports Network (NESN) and the Lasell University Athletic Department. He has an impressive athletic history, too; Roberts played soccer, basketball and baseball in high school and continued to play soccer and baseball at the Division II collegiate level.
Joining Roberts on the road is ESE’s Group Sales and Promotional Outreach Intern, Brian Geitner. He received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a minor in economics from Western New England University (WNE), where he graduated Cum Laude. Geitner is now a graduate student pursuing a Master of Science in Business Administration at WNE, where he plays Division III collegiate level basketball, a sport he has triumphed in since high school. In June of 2023, Geitner was a summer basketball intern at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California.He has also aided WNE’s athletic department in multiple roles throughout his academic career.
The newest addition to the street team is Jack Madsen, an accomplished junior at Westfield High School. Like Roberts, Madsen is a three-sport athlete; he plays varsity soccer, basketball and baseball, all while achieving academic excellence. Earlier this year, his baseball team earned a trip to Boston by securing a place in the Division II Final Four. He has also shown cows at ESE on multiple occasions as a longstanding member of 4-H. In the summer, Madsen serves as a camp counselor for the Westfield Parks and Recreation department at a local playground, where he is entrusted with childcare.
The street team’s next stop is the Pioneer Valley Tip-Off Classic, presented by Oak View Group, at UMass Amherst’s Mullins Center, December 13-15. This student-run high school basketball showcase features the best of the Pioneer Valley.
Stay tuned to future editions of Hoop Scoops for more updates on the Hooplandia Street Team, or email sroberts@thebige.com to become a part of the action yourself!