NICEVILLE — Forty of the top women's junior college basketball players in the country spent Friday morning running through position drills at The Arena on the campus of Northwest Florida State College.

All three days of the National Junior College Athletic Association's Women's All-Star Showcase provide an opportunity for the players to compete against elite talent in front of Division I and Division II coaches from across the country.

"The great thing about this event is there are going to be 40 kids on the floor that can compete with each other," NWF State women's basketball coach Patrick Harrington said. "I think that's wonderful. I think that's a testament to how well the NJCAA does to select participants that can compete at a high level."

Day 1 served as a big evaluation day for the event's director, NJCAA President Toby Wynn. Wynn, who is the head women's basketball coach at Seward Community College, will divvy the players up into four teams of 10.

"It seems like it's impossible," Wynn said, "but we kind of had it predetermined going in. We just made sure we had enough point guards and enough post players and just put the rest of them in there."

NWF State's Tori Carter, Kiani Parker, Shae Nelson and Tavarsha Scott are competing this weekend, along with players from around the Panhandle Conference.

The teams, which practiced together for the first time Friday, will play today at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m. Admission is $5.

The first day ended with a free coaching clinic in the afternoon. Guest speakers included Division I coaches Keitha Adams (Texas El Paso), Heather Macy (East Carolina) and Jeff Osterman (Associate head coach at South Florida).

Harrington said the clinic would provide local high school coaches some valuable insight, for free.

"Offensive sets, drills, team building…as we go forward that's an entity that needs to grow with us," Harrington said. "It's a great opportunity to learn in this business and share information."