In 2005, while returning from a memorial day weekend getaway, Lee Martineau received a strange voicemail that would change the future of dunk hoops. Matt Larson and Luke LeCount of Brush Prairie, Washington had found Martineau’s Redmond Dunk Hoops Tournament (RDHT) shrine on the Internet and decided to phone him. The Commissioners from the south showed respect to the RDHT’s long lasting tradition and proposed a possible state championship game. Martineau was extremely excited by the possibility of dunk hoops expansion and quickly returned their call, leaving them a voicemail. He waited anxiously for a response and surprisingly did not receive one in what he considered to be a reasonable amount of time. It was then that Martineau left a second voicemail, lashing out at their disgraceful, 5 person, cow-tipping, no-good excuse for a dunk hoops tournament.
Martineau dismissed the entire event, figuring Larson and LeCount were just some lame college kids on the Internet wasting his time. Boy was he wrong! Later that week he received a call and invitation to the 2nd Annual Clark County Dunk Hoops Invitational (CCDHI). Martineau gathered a team and made the three hour drive to the Brush Prairie outskirts known as Hockinson. To his amazement, the CCDHI was an impressive 64-man tournament with kids directing the parking lot, mothers checking in players, fathers BBQing, brackets posted in the ground, music playing, and microphones blaring. Martineau knew there was a great future in this dunk hoops alliance.
The original idea of a dunk hoops state championship has been put on the back-burner for now due to compatibility issues of the two tourney formats. However, a possible addition of an invitational in the Seattle area may make this dream one day come true.
In the winter of 2006, Martineau founded DunkHoops.org. He joined forces with Larson and LeCount to highlight their respectable tournaments and promote good times. They hoped the website would also attract other dunk hoops commissioners and form more tournament relations nationally.
In June 2006 RDHT Commissioners Roy Bordner and Lee Martineau organized the Redmond Dunk Hoops League (RDHL). “The League” became an instant hit and introduced a lot of new faces to dunk hoops as friends brought their own teams out to play. They emphasized sportsmanship and good times as players gathered every Tuesday and Thursday night at the Bordner Court in Redmond, WA. The website tracked team standings, box scores, statistics (scoring, dunks, and international blocks). The first league went so well that a second league was put together in August. Sadly, the RDHL was only a one summer, two season league as the court and home were sold as the area was transformed into a housing development.
In September 2006 Martineau and Bordner created the King County Dunk Hoops Invitational (KCDHI). After participating in Clark County’s Invitational for two years Martineau had to have a similar invitational. With the growing popularity of the RDHL there was an increasing number of players outside the RHS grad circle that were craving tournament action. The KCDHI has become an annual tournament, adding what DunkHoops.org calls “The Summer of DUNK HOOPS”.