Elle Tinkle

Classroom

Elle Tinkle’s GPA and major is a reflection of how serious she takes her time in the classroom. She is an excellent student with a cumulative GPA of 3.44 as a nursing major. Tinkle has been on the Dean’s List and President’s List at her time at Gonzaga, and in the nursing program, a student must balance class time as well as clinical rotations in the hospital. Tinkle has done a tremendous job of being able to balance her commitments with class, clinicals and basketball. She was tabbed first-team Academic All-West Coast Conference in 2015.

Character

Tinkle comes from a basketball family. Her father Wayne is making strides as the head coach for the Oregon State men’s team. Her brother had a standout high school career in Montana and now will play for his father at OSU. Her sister was a standout on Stanford’s women’s team and now plays professionally in Europe. Tinkle was a member of the Gonzaga Athletics Leadership Institute where young athletes are hand-selected to be trained through different leadership styles that will help make them leaders on and off the floor.

Tinkle has been a vital piece to the team with her leadership styles. She was a role player through most of her first two years but understood what the team needed going into her junior year and stepped up into a leadership role as well as a scoring role for the team. Being a senior has only pushed her leadership and her character. She’s the first one on the floor, helping freshman when things don’t make sense, lending an open ear, and always having your best interest at heart.

Community

Tinkle has done an outstanding job of raising awareness of community service to the rest of her team. Since her freshman year, she has been involved in the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), which helps promote service opportunities. Service is a huge component for Gonzaga and specifically the women’s basketball team, which donated more than 200 hours of community service this past year with Tinkle being involved in all segments. She has donated time to each of the following organizations throughout the Spokane community: Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund Walk, Spokane Starz Basketball Clinic, Sportsmanship Clinics, Boy and Girls Trunk or Treat, Habitat for Humanity, Cooper Elementary School visits, and Jackson Middle School Reading Across America. Tinkle has excelled during every media request. Despite her busy schedule, she always makes herself available to the media and is extremely polite in the process.

Competition

Tinkle was named first-team All-West Coast Conference in 2015 following her junior season. During her breakout year, she averaged 11.7 points per game and 14.9 points per game during league games, which was ninth in the West Coast Conference. She made 50.6 percent of her shots from the field during WCC play, which was second in the conference. Tinkle also made 40.6 percent from behind the arc, which was fourth in the conference. She was fifth in the WCC, averaging 2.1 steals per WCC game. Tinkle was also sixth in the conference averaging 1.0 block per game during league play. She scored a career-high 26 points in a home win over San Diego on Dec. 29, and she reached 20 points in four different games and double-digit scoring in 21 games. She also grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds in a four-overtime win over San Francisco.