A rivalry renewed
Chapter 3 | A fight for respect against a community power
This is Chapter 3 of a Substack series chronicling the 2023-24 Natomas High School of Sacramento boys basketball team.
Taking on water
When a Pineapple Express storm dumped 11 inches of rain over 10 days on the Natomas Basin in February of 1986, the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared Northern California a disaster area. As the levees that protect this northwest Sacramento region began to erode, the United States Army Corps of Engineers used rocks, tarps and sandbags to prevent catastrophic floods.
Sometimes, it seems, public school coaches and athletic administrators are in a daily fight to keep their own heads above water. Days are long. Staffing is short. Pay is low. Tensions can run high. At Natomas High School, new athletic director Jason Carter serves nachos, instant noodles and sodas during a preseason basketball game. Football coach Gary Melvin scans game tickets. And second-year principal Marcel Baker, who has been instructing four periods of math during a teacher shortage at the school, plays hip-hop beats over the public-address system during game intermissions.
Brian McKenzie, the first-year boys basketball coach and mathematics teacher here, began one December workday by opening the gym at 7 a.m. for a team shootaround, followed by five periods of class. By around 9 p.m., as the final seconds ticked off the game clock against Union Mine High School, those long hours had left the weary coach and his team one point short of a signature home victory — the type of win that could get neighborhood kids talking about his program, his culture, his players.
McKenzie didn’t come here to simply survive. Certainly not after capturing a section championship last season as an assistant coach at Sacramento High School. But with two consecutive home defeats and a rivalry game at mighty Inderkum High School only six days away, his program was taking on water … fast. And based on sparse attendance at the morning shootaround, there weren’t many signs of relief.
“If this really hurts,” McKenzie tells his team, “I’ll see you first thing tomorrow.”
In high school basketball, a new coach can quickly change a program’s fortune.
At West Campus High School in south Sacramento, Fred Wilson took an eight-victory doormat team to a perennial 20-game winner and section title contender. When Inderkum hired Wilson in 2018, the north Natomas high school instantly improved from 13 to 20 victories. Five seasons later, Wilson’s teams compete for state crowns.
Most of the basketball talent in Natomas now heads to Inderkum, where a flashy video board lights the gymnasium during player introductions and a marching band of nearly 100 students leads fight songs as dozens of cheerleaders flood the court.
McKenzie is relatively new to this northwest Sacramento basketball scene, having moved with his family to Natomas just before the pandemic. But he’s not new to competition, having growing up on New York City courts first made famous by the towering skyhooks of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then the dribbling wizardry of Stephon Marbury and no-look passes of street legends such as Rafer “Skip to my Lou” Alston.
At Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, McKenzie’s teams battled against elite college prospects to capture the Catholic league crown his junior season. When teammate Levance Fields left for the University of Pittsburgh, McKenzie took over the scoring load and garnered college offers from across the East Coast. He chose Providence College in Rhode Island, and over four seasons faced the top programs in the nation. During his junior season, Providence upset No. 1-ranked Pittsburgh, led by Fields.
So when McKenzie took the Natomas job last spring, he wasn’t interested in ducking anyone, let alone a neighboring school. When he chose to renew the Inderkum rivalry, the decision left many scratching their heads. The schools had played 26 times over two decades, but not since 2019, when Inderkum won by 58 and 35 points. McKenzie could have waited a season, developed his young players and built up his system.
But the new coach needed to know: Of his Nighthawks players, who would compete? Who would handle adversity in a rival gymnasium? Who would brave the storm?
A storied history
You don’t have to search far to find the boys basketball tradition at Natomas High.
Three section banners display on the gym wall, including two from the school’s first three years on the main campus. Before Natomas High, neighborhood teenagers were bussed east to Grant High School in Del Paso Heights or Mira Loma High School in the Arden-Arcade neighorhood. A temporary Natomas site was used for three school years before the main campus welcomed the first senior class in 1997, about 40 years after the first housing developments began sprouting in south Natomas.
The school brought instant pride on the courts. David Lowery was in middle school.
“I remember hearing about Damian Carter, Mareceo Rutledge, Anthony Robinson II, Brian Videau,” Lowery recalls of the neighborhood stars. “I wanted to be like that.”
The Natomas triumphs mirrored the long-awaited successes of the Sacramento Kings, who played up Truxel Road at Arco Arena. The Kings endured 13 losing seasons in Natomas before a flashy rookie point guard, Jason Williams, and an All-Star power forward, Chris Webber, began to change the national media’s perception of the city.
In 1999, Natomas High won its first section title at Arco Arena on Marcus Wagner’s game-winning shot. A month later, the Kings completed their first winning season in Sacramento. Natomas head coach Marc Q. Jones was courted by Washington Union High School, a Fresno powerhouse, but stayed at Natomas to win 24 games and repeat as champions. Rutledge averaged 24 points and later committed to UNLV.
Lowery, who now works at the school as a safety specialist and junior varsity coach, recalls Jones as a disciplinarian. “He demanded a lot from the players,” Lowery said of the UC Davis graduate. “The culture was built how Coach Mac is trying to build it now. Tough basketball, but skilled. We had to dive on the floor and take charges.”
Without a training facility of their own, the Kings often practiced at Natomas when Arco Arena was hosting monster trucks or ice skating. The Kings invested money in the school’s court and added an NBA 3-point line, which often confused Natomas opponents into taking deeper shots. Robert Omoto, who played on the second section championship team, recalls NBA players coming and going during his lunch break.
In 2000, the Kings built a $9 million practice facility of their own in the Arco Arena parking lot. A year later, they traded Williams for Mike Bibby. The long-languishing team had the tools needed to make deep postseason runs over the next four seasons.
Jones, who was also a part-time NBA television analyst, left Natomas in 2002. But the team’s success continued under new coach Dennis Foster. In 2003, 7-foot-1 senior transfer Robert Rothbart joined 6-foot-9 senior Zach Johnson. But Johnson blew out his knee early in the season. Rothbart would never play in the NBA.
As federal money reinforced levees, north Natomas grew rapidly. In 2004, Inderkum High opened on land purchased from dairy farmer Frank Inderkum. At that time, Natomas High had more than 2,000 students, according to schooldigger.com.
Under Foster, Natomas won five of the first six games between the neighborhood schools, according to Maxpreps. Within three years, each school had around 1,400 students and the on-court rivalry became more evenly matched. From 2007 to 2014, both schools played in the Tri-County Conference, where each had moments of glory. In 2010, Inderkum won the two rivalry games by a combined 50 points. In 2014, Natomas won both games, and then captured its third section championship.
In 2016, after nearly one billion dollars helped further reinforce levees, a moratorium on Natomas development was lifted. Enrollment spiked again at Inderkum, and the school’s athletic teams moved into higher divisions with bigger schools — to Division II in 2016, and Division I in 2019. At Natomas, enrollment briefly plunged below 1,000 for the first time since the school’s first year. The athletic teams fell to Division IV in 2014, and then moved into the Golden Empire Conference the next year.
The chasm in boys basketball has only grown since 2018, when Wilson was hired from West Campus High. Inderkum has won at least 20 games each season under the revered coach (not including the coronavirus shortened 2020-21 season), and is coming off back-to-back trips to the Division I state tournament. Today, Inderkum has more than 2,300 students, nearly twice the enrollment as Natomas.
A rivalry’s rebirth
Suzanne Baker is a school administrator by title, but a coach at heart. She didn’t leave the coaching ranks on her own terms — fired unexpectedly at Capital Christian after leading the girls basketball team to section titles over her 25 years at the Sacramento school. Now with Natomas Unified School District, she oversees elementary school, middle school and high school athletics for the booming region. With so many teams, it usually takes a special occasion for Baker to make her way to an event.
On this mid-December evening, Baker sits behind the scorer’s table at Inderkum High for the first meeting in four seasons between the district’s signature boys basketball programs. Had this game been slated earlier in the season, Inderkum would have been missing players suspended for a fight that ended their state championship pursuit last March. As it stands, the Tigers are at full strength.
Inderkum has added perhaps the region’s top freshman in 6-foot-2 guard Siincere Hudson, who joins four starters listed at 6-foot-7 or taller. For McKenzie, who has only one starter taller than 6-foot, merely keeping the score close would confirm that his team is on the right track. So as the Inderkum band entertains rival fans before tip-off, the first-year Natomas coach gave some perspective to his undersized players.
“Stay together, no matter what,” McKenzie insists, knowing a big loss could break their spirits and derail a promising season. “We are building right now. We are building what will be a section championship. Make sure you don’t forget that. No matter what happens, we won, because we’re gonna learn.”
After travelling to prestigious tournaments across California, playing against some of the state’s best teams, Inderkum is playing its first home game — finally, a chance for the community to witness perhaps the most physically gifted team in Sacramento. The gymnasium goes dark for home team introductions. And when the Inderkum starting five takes the court, the heights listed on their roster sheet check out.
Malik Johnson, with a seven-inch height advantage over Natomas center Achilles Terrell, easily tips the jump ball to Hudson. The point guard dissects the defense and whips a pass under the basket to Johnson for a two-handed jam, just five seconds into the game. Inderkum puts on a full-court press, using their long wingspans to pester ball-handlers and disrupt passes. Natomas commits two turnovers in the first minute. Johnson steals a pass and feeds 6-foot-7 Taylen Goodman, who feeds 6-foot-9 Malachi Johnson for another two-handed rip, swinging on the rim for effect.
Malik Johnson finds Goodman for a layup. Hudson snatches a rebound and goes coast-to-coast. Natomas airballs a 3. Goodman scores with a foul. Malachi Johnson, at 6-foot-9, and Bryce Buchanan, at 6-foot-8, swat the layup of Darius Hemmingway, a Natomas football star playing forward at 5-foot-10. Hudson carves the defense again, and McKenzie calls timeout trailing 12-0 less than three minutes into the game.
Inderkum takes a commanding 16-0 lead before Manno Jenkins makes a lefty layup to put Natomas on the board. Inderkum leads 30-6 after a quarter and 53-16 at halftime.
“As long as you’re not scared, we need you right now,” says Aeron Wallace III, the Natomas assistant coach, heading into the locker room. The Nighthawks were timid in the first 16 minutes, and any fantasies of keeping the game close are dashed. Even McKenzie, who brought this dormant rivalry to life, couldn’t have seen this coming.
“So here’s what we gotta do,” McKenzie says. “Blank slate, alright? Blank slate. We have to go out there and play smart, play together, and just play without fear.”
If Natomas has any advantage, it’s ball-handling. But when guards are pressed, they pick up their dribble and play into Inderkum’s full-court press. “They’re gonna send a double team,” McKenzie warns. “That doesn’t mean you have to pick up your dribble. Did we not talk about that in practice? Back dribble against the double.”
Before exiting the locker room, the coach again reminds his team to keep perspective, to focus on effort and not the lopsided score. “Let’s make sure we hold our heads high for the second half,” McKenzie says. “We need to believe that we can chip into this lead. And we need to prove to ourselves that we actually belong here. Because right now, we don’t look like it. We need to pick it up, and believe.”
A fighter until the end
Kahirre Louis never stopped believing. The Natomas football star is used to banging with bigger bodies. The 6-foot-3 linebacker will soon play in the Optimist All-Star Classic, a football showcase for top seniors. Natomas doesn’t play Inderkum on the gridiron (Inderkum would likely dominate there, too, and in football that can lead to injuries), so on the basketball court is where Kahirre (pronounced Kuh-HAR-EE) may have his final chance to show his athletic gifts to the neighborhood rivals.
In the first half, the bruising forward made his presence. In one sequence, he bounced across the paint to swat back-to-back shots. Later, he soared for a tip-in dunk, then sprinted back on defense to bang again. To open the second half, Kahirre and Manno trap an Inderkum player in the post and force a jump ball. Kahirre returns to the bench to teammates’ applause and a pat on the head from McKenzie.
Later, while battling for an offensive rebound, Kahirre flattens an Inderkum forward. The player gives a bewildered smile to the referee as the hardwood court is cleaned of his sweat. Kahirre then looks to draw a charge, but the ball-handler retreats. He tries for an emphatic blocked shot, slamming his wrist on the rim. Seconds later, he thwacks the backboard in trying to spike away another. Inderkum repeatedly attempts monster dunks and alley-oops. Time after time, Kahirre meets taller foes at the rim.
After the final buzzer sounds on an 88-30 Inderkum victory, Baker congratulates McKenzie for helping restore the district’s community basketball rivalry. Kahirre showed the grit and confidence needed for this game to be competitive again.
“We got literally a fighter until the end from Kahirre,” McKenzie tells his team. “That energy is contagious.”
Next fall, if things pan out, Kahirre will be sacking quarterbacks in college, hoping to pave his path to a professional football career. But on this night, during a high school basketball rout, the senior played for pride. Not just for himself, but for his school.
The 58-point defeat drops Natomas to 4-4 — with wins over last season’s Division IV section finalists, Marysville and Calaveras, and losses to Division I powers Rocklin and Inderkum. In the first rankings from The Sacramento Bee, the Nighthawks don’t make the top 20, but are noted as a “bubble” team. With league play approaching, McKenzie hopes the Inderkum thrashing doesn’t break his young team’s spirit.
“We can’t play scared,” the coach tells his team. “That’s just the truth. … Embrace this. This feeling. This should be the motivator to ask, ‘Coach, is the gym going to be open today at six? Can we practice tomorrow at 6:30? Can we get some extra shots up? Because I don’t know about you, but in that kind of atmosphere, I get hype.
“Yes, I believe in you guys. So again, let this motivate. Because it’s not what just happened. It’s not. But it’s about what we do next.”
Nick Lozito is a freelance sportswriter based in Sacramento. He has 20 years of sports journalism experience, covering high schools and colleges, NBA, WNBA, MLB and NFL. His writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Sacramento Bee and KQED.
Nice article