May 25, 2011

Inaugural ESPN RISE Girls Showcase on ESPNU and ESPN3.com

ESPNU and ESPN3.com will present more than six hours of original action from the inaugural ESPN RISE Girls Showcase which will take place in June at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World.  This three-week event will bring together one of the biggest collections of female youth athletes in the country. Nearly 15,000 elite and recreational female athletes will compete in basketball, gymnastics (artistic and rhythmic), softball, taekwondo and volleyball June 2-22. 

“The ESPN RISE Girls Showcase is a natural progression for ESPN RISE and we are pleased to be able to bring these outstanding female athletes together in one place for three weeks of exciting competition,” said James Brown, senior vice president, ESPN RISE.  “Not only will ESPN RISE provide these young women great athletic events but also provide them the opportunity to connect with former players who can provide inspiration and guidance.”

ESPN’s Rich Hollenberg will call the action for the USA Basketball U19 game June 5, working with analyst Brooke Weisbrod. Other commentator assignments will be announced at a later date. 

Schedule:

The creation of the ESPN RISE Girls Showcase comes after the successful ESPN RISE Games at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. The annual ESPN RISE Games made its debut in 2009 and features some of the leading boys’ and girls’ high school athletes and teams in the nation competing in baseball, football, basketball, lacrosse and softball in a two- week-long sports festival-style event. This year’s event, July 13-27, is expected to draw more than 13,000 athletes from around the country.

The Showcase will also include leadership and educational activities for all attendees, featuring current female athletes as well as marquee former athletes and coaches such as former UCLA softball head coach Sue Enquist, whose teams won 11 national titles.

Complete coverage of the event can be found at https://espnrise.com/girl

About ESPN RISE

ESPN RISE represents ESPN’s commitment to engage and elevate high school student-athletes by providing them with recognition, resources, information and inspiration to improve their skills and achieve their goals.  ESPN RISE assets include ESPN RISE Guy and Girl magazines, with special issues for football, basketball, track and recruiting; ESPNRISE.com; mobile and social media products (Facebook.com/ESPNRISE and Twitter @ESPNRISE); and more than 160 high school events including Elite 11, Elite 24, ESPN RISE Games, ESPN RISE National High School Invitational, Area Code Baseball, ESPN RISE Girls Showcase, and ESPN RISE Nike Football Combines/Nike Football Training Camps.  ESPN RISE is uniquely positioned to provide high school student-athletes and the company’s core fans with compelling high school sports content across multiple ESPN platforms. To follow ESPN RISE Girls on Facebook, please visit www.Facebook.com/espnrisegirl.

About ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex

ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, which hosts more than 300 events a year, is the leading multi-sport venue for amateur and professional sports in the United States, accommodating 70 different sports and athletes from more than 70 countries.  Designed to take youth sports to the next level, the 230-acre facility features the ESPN Innovation Lab, a real-world testing ground for the ESPN Emerging Technology Group to develop ground-breaking on-air products like Ball Track and ESPN Snap Zoom, as well as development of its new 3-D television channel.  In addition, the complex features 56 high-definition cameras (42 robotic, 10 hand-held and four studio) and 40 high-definition video screens, including three jumbo screens, that can capture and display footage from any event taking place at the complex.  The camera and video screens, as well as a 20-zone audio system, are controlled through the state-of-the-art HD and 3-D Broadcast Center that features eight edit bays and links to ESPN facilities in Bristol, Conn., New York and Los Angeles.  For more information, visit www.wdwnews.com for press releases, photos and videos.  Follow us on Twitter at @DisneySports.

The ESPN RISE Girls Showcase adds to the growing list of elite-level national youth sports events taking place at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, which is widely recognized as the leading multi-sports venue in the nation. This event further cements the sports complex as the preeminent sports destination for female youth athletes, who make up a little more than half of the nearly 300,000 athletes who compete and train annually at the sports complex.