About Founder & Coach Cathy
Catherine (“Coach Cathy”) Townsend founded HoopGirls Capitol Hill in 2005 after a group of girls playing in her oldest son’s basketball league asked for help creating an all-girls team. Cathy agreed—with one condition: they had to recruit enough players to field a team. She challenged them to find eight girls. When 18 showed up at the first practice, two teams were formed, and HoopGirls was born.
What started as a single team has grown into a thriving community program. A year later, the teams joined the Palisades Basketball League, and since then HoopGirls has consistently fielded five to seven teams each season. Over the past two decades, more than 1,000 girls have participated in the program, developing skills, confidence, leadership, and lifelong friendships.
Coach Cathy began playing basketball in fifth grade and continued throughout high school and college, competing for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS), an NCAA Division III program in Southern California. She has remained active in the sport and is committed to creating opportunities for girls to experience the many benefits of athletics. She regularly recruits former players, parents who’ve played, and community members to help lead HoopGirls teams and serve as mentors and role models.
Many HoopGirls alumni have gone on to play basketball at the high school and collegiate levels. Older alumni have also built successful careers across a wide range of professions, including law, medicine, education, technology, public service, public policy, finance, and data analytics.
For Coach Cathy, the ultimate goal has never been just to develop great basketball players—it has been to help girls build confidence, character, resilience, and leadership skills that will serve them for a lifetime.
“We use basketball as the vehicle, but our goal is to help girls discover their strength, find their voice, and become leaders in their communities.”
— Coach Cathy Townsend
The HoopGirls Legacy
What makes HoopGirls special is the community that continues to grow long after players leave the court. Younger sisters have followed older siblings into the program, and alumni games have brought former players back together over the years, strengthening the bonds and traditions that make HoopGirls unique.
Coach Cathy’s daughter, Chloe, was part of the program from the very beginning, serving as HoopGirls’ unofficial mascot at just two years old. She later played in the program from third through eighth grade and has since returned on occasion to assist with practices and games, helping inspire the next generation of players.
She is not alone. Over the years, several HoopGirls alumni have returned as assistant coaches, volunteers, and mentors, giving back to the program that helped shape them. Their continued involvement reflects the lasting friendships, confidence, leadership, and love of the game that HoopGirls fosters.
The HoopGirls story is no longer just about the girls who play today. It is about the generations of young women who have grown through the program and now help lead, mentor, and encourage those who follow in their footsteps.
For Coach Cathy, one of the greatest measures of success is not the number of games won, but seeing former players return as role models, coaches, and leaders—continuing the tradition of empowering girls through basketball.