Elle Tinkle

Classroom

Elle Tinkle’s GPA and major should be a reflection of how serious she takes her time in the classroom. She is an excellent student with a cumulative GPA of a 3.5 as a nursing major. Tinkle has earned Dean’s List and President’s List recognition during her time at Gonzaga. 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, clinical and basketball. She continues to log hours in the hospital as well as the basketball floor and will graduate with her nursing degree in Spring 2017. She was selected 2016 Honorable Mention Academic All-WCC and 2015 Academic All-WCC.

Character

Tinkle was a member of the Gonzaga Athletics Leadership Institute in 2014-2015, in which young athletes were hand-selected and guided through different leadership styles to help make them leaders on and off the floor. Tinkle has been a vital component on the team with her leadership styles. She was a role player through most of her first two years, but she understood what the team needed going into her junior year and stepped up into a leadership role as well as a scoring roll for the team. After going down last season with injury, Tinkle worked hard to be a vocal leader because she was no longer on the floor. Although it was challenging for her, she did an outstanding job of leading her team.

Community

Tinkle has done an outstanding job of raising awareness for community service with 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, and Tinkle is involved in all segments. During her time at Gonzaga, 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, Muscular Dystrophy Walk, Meals on Wheels, Boys and Girls Club Visits, Generation Alive Collection, Cooper Elementary School Visit, and Jackson Middle School- Reading Across America.

Competition

On the court this season, Tinkle is averaging 8.8 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per game—18th in the West Coast Conference—in 26 minutes of action per game. She leads the team in steals per game and is 11th in the conference averaging 1.6 per contest. Tinkle is shooting 35.8 percent from 3-point range and averages 0.9 blocks per game, sixth in the WCC. Through mid-January, she has started in all 15 games and is averaging 1.4 assists per contest. She is just 13 steals short of No. 10 on the Gonzaga career list.

Playing just 10 games last season before suffering a knee injury, Tinkle was a First Team All-WCC selection in 2015 and 2016 Preseason All-WCC choice. She averaged 10 points per game the last two seasons, and five rebounds per game. As of nomination time, she had recorded 98 career assists and 52 blocks, including 28 in 2014-15. She scored a career-high 26 points against San Diego in 2014 and snagged 13 rebounds against San Francisco in 2015. She is a career 43-percent shooter, including 37-percent from three-point range. She has recorded three blocks in a game on four different occasions and had five steals in a game on four separate occasions.