We had the good fortune of connecting with Jack Donahue and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jack, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The most important factor behind the success of our business has been staying consistent! There were many times especially in the beginning when we were losing money. Staying consistent is what allowed us to build our business and clientele. I knew that as long as we stayed consistent and believed in what we were doing things would eventually work out. In other words, dont quit! 🙂

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

I had always been very involved with sports my entire life. Playing basketball and football throughout high school and eventually playing football in college for a year. After college I had a huge calling back to basketball. Finding myself always wandering to the local courts wherever I was to get into a pick up game. After settling into the town of Raglan, New Zealand in 2017 I popped into the local school to ask if they needed any help with their basketball program! On the spot they said, “Yes we need a girls varsity coach, can you start tomorrow?” Being shocked and stoked all at the same time I accepted the job and began coaching my first basketball team! This was a great experience and we ended up going 5/5 on the season! After 2 years of living in New Zealand it was finally time to come home!

Upon my arrival back to Arizona I found myself landing a teaching job at our local middle school. Here I also became the girls middle school basketball coach! It was awesome coaching the girls team, as my mother (who played basketball at ASU) was my basketball coach growing up and always gave me an appreciation for girls basketball! This would end up being one of the best experiences of my life and I learned so much in my 3 years teaching and coaching for this middle school! After our school season, I ended up taking my team onto the club basketball scene. Hosting consistent practices and training all year long! After our first year we grew to have lots of success! I had got the team when most of the players were in 6th grade. By the time they were in 8th grade we were finding ourselves in a lot of championship games! We won some, we lost some, and learned a lot along the way! During my last season coaching this team covid hit. When everything shut down we took practice to the park. Everyday from 7am-9am! This was huge for not only the team but for myself as well. I was able to learn and study how to develop players and our group continued to do very well. During that summer I realized that basketball is something I wanted to pursue full time!

After attending many tournaments as a coach I decided that I wanted to dive into the world of being a tournament director! So I jumped in head first. Booking gyms and calling all the coaches I knew to see if they wanted to attend one of my tournaments! We opened up an LLC called Valley Hoopers and hit the ground running! We had thrown a couple five on five tournaments when I realized that I wanted to do something a little bit different! That is when I developed my own rule set for 3 on 3 basketball. This at first took people by surprise. But after coming out to a few of our tournaments people began to rave about the blueprint and style of game. I had parents coming up to me saying things like, “Wow this is so cool, I’ve never seen my kid take so many shots in a game.” These types of comments were very reassuring! We continued to throw 2 tournaments a month for the last year and a half and have grown our attendance by quite a lot! It has been the hardest but most rewarding experience of my life, I still coach a club team and also run 3 trainings a week as well as camps! But the tournaments are where we have some of the most fun! It’s our niche!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

If I had friends coming into town I would take them to a local restaurant called Papa Pauls! It is a pizza and wine bar here in Litchfield Park! Super cute and delicious place to eat in the West Valley of Phoenix.

As for some fun places to go! One of my favorite places in Arizona is Flagstaff. It is a town 2 hours north of Phoenix. If you were dropped in Flagstaff you would probably think you were in Colorado not Arizona. It is a ski mountain town and is located 75 miles away from the Grand Canyon.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

Emily Dunwiddie, my partner and the mother of my child! There is no way this would have been possible without the support and hard work of Emily. Her and I sit down and make all the big decisions together. She handles the front of the house for all of our training, tournaments, and camps. She also creates all of our digital marketing art work and takes all of the action shots for athletes that attend our tournaments. Which is a huge draw!

When we found out that Emily was pregnant with Bonnie I was teaching wood-shop and coaching at the local middle school and Emily was serving at our favorite restaurant, Papa Pauls! At this very moment is when we decided that if we were ever going to take the plunge into starting our own business the time was now! Our decision was based around us being able to spend more time as a new family, take control of our schedules and lives! It was not an easy decision and doubt would occasionally creep in. However deep down we knew we could pull it off and ultimately it would be the best decision for our new family. None of this would have been possible without the love and support from Emily.

Website: www.quickscores.com/valleyhoopers

Instagram: valleyhoopersaz

Twitter: valleyhoopersaz

Facebook: valleyhoopersaz

Other: TikTok: valleyhoopersaz

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