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It's the final night of a field trip to Washington, D.C., for four teenage girls--read, no parents in sight--who have just decided to stay up rather than sleep. Before it's over, they're jumping on beds, having pillow fights, eating everything in sight . . . until, that is, hotel security arrives to tell the group to simmer down and go to bed.
This is just one of many real-life moments caught by "Totally Hoops," a 15-part series capturing the victories and defeats of the Dayton Lady Hoopstars, a championship girls' basketball team of 13- and 14-year-olds. The Disney Channel's newest reality series, which premieres Sunday, followed the 11 teammates for six months-- recording the dynamics of this cross-section of girls from various economic and racial backgrounds who came together to play for a team in the Amateur Athletic Union.
" 'Totally Hoops' is really a mosaic about teenage life told through the eyes of these fiercely determined, uniquely talented girls," explains Gary Marsh, executive vice president of original programming for the Disney Channel.
"For us, reality television is not about building a prefabricated house on the back lot of a television studio or putting up an obstacle course on a South Seas island. That is not reality. Reality is about holding a full-length mirror up [to tweens and teens] and reflecting their world back to them honestly and as distortion-free as possible."
And "Totally Hoops" represents the cable channel's third such reality offering, following "Bug Juice," which was set at a summer camp and "Totally Circus," about kids joining the circus during the summer.
The new series starts with intense tryouts for the...