A star athlete's vow
Chapter 16 | A multisport sensation rescues the team he once quit
This is Chapter 16 of a Substack series chronicling the 2023-24 Natomas High School of Sacramento boys basketball team. Chapter 17 will publish Monday.
‘I owed them’
Kahirre Louis doesn’t often find himself watching from the bleachers. On the football field, the linebacker’s ferocious pass rush has garnered interest from Division I colleges. In volleyball, perhaps Kahirre’s best sport, the bouncy 6-foot-3 senior is a fearsome outside hitter. In track and field, he has league titles in the high jump, long jump and triple jump, and podium finishes in the 100 and 200 meters. In an age when most athletes focus on one sport, Kahirre is an outlier.
But after quitting the basketball team in the middle of last season, frustrated with a lack of playing time, Kahirre watched with classmates as the Nighthawks lost in the first round of the section playoffs. Perhaps he could have been the difference in a nine-point game, he thought.
“I owed them a playoff game,” Kahirre said of rejoining the team as a senior.
He’s now given Natomas six playoff games, and counting, during the Nighthawks’ run to the Sac-Joaquin Section championship game and now in the Division IV bracket of the CIF State Basketball Championships with a chance to play for a state crown at Golden One Center in downtown Sacramento.
Kahirre hasn’t become a star under new coach Brian McKenzie. He doesn’t start. Sometimes he doesn’t get in the game at all. The forward plays behind fellow senior Achilles Terrell and, at times, freshman EJ Rose. But the restless teenager now understands his role on the team. And when McKenzie needs toughness in the paint, as was the case against 6-foot-5, 220-pound Jaxen Robinson of Christopher High in the second round of the state tournament, the coach turns to one of the most decorated athletes this northwest Sacramento campus has ever produced.
After struggling to slow Robinson during a short stint in the first half, Kahirre re-entered early in the fourth quarter with the game tied, 46-46. The forward was helping guard Robinson on the right block when a Christopher High player attempted a dangerous crosscourt pass. Kahirre sprinted across the court and lept to intercept the ball — like a linebacker sniffing out a screen pass in the open field.
“I saw the ball float in the air and I snagged it,” Kahirre said. “I’m also a football player, so I got to get those floaters.”
Kahirre snatched the ball with his outstretched left hand and managed to stay inbounds while quickly tossing the ball to guard Dereon Jenkins. As Dereon dribbled into the lane, Kahirre raced toward the basket. Dereon lobbed a pass at the rim, and Kahirre caught it in midair and layed it off the glass. The ball circled the rim before dropping for a four-point Natomas lead.
Earlier this season on a fastbreak, Kahirre dribbled the ball off his knee. At other times this season he has thrown passes to fans in the front row. As gifted an athlete as he is, Kahirre at times plays recklessly on the basketball court. McKenzie is constantly telling his forward to “slow down.” During a recent film session, after watching Kahirre commit another turnover, the coach told the multisport athlete to “catch and wait,” understanding that it goes against his athletic instincts. “In football, you can’t catch and wait. You’ll get hit.”
On the gridiron, Kahirre’s objective on defense is simple: Crush the quarterback. The linebacker had 31 sacks over his junior and senior seasons for coach Gary Melvin, and three more at the Optimist All-Star Showcase in January. On the track, Kahirre just has to outrace or outleap his competitors. And on the volleyball court, just spike the ball through the hardwood.
Basketball is not as simple. At times, Kahirre makes the game more complicated.
During the same film session, when the NFHS Network announcers generously called one of Kahirre’s off-balanced shots against Union Mine “ambitious,” McKenzie hit pause on the game film. “Ambitious?” the coach asked.
Minutes after his steal and score against Christopher High, Kahirre backed Robinson away from the basket, allowing football teammate Darius Hemmingway to collect an easy rebound. Joseph McNeal pushed the lead to six with a floater. Later, with Manno Jenkins inbounding under the basket, Kahirre broke to the rim for an alley-oop. Three defenders collapsed on the forward near the basket, leaving Aeron Wallace IV open off a screen from Darius. Aeron sank the 3-pointer for a 55-48 lead. Kahirre drew a charge on the next possession before McKenzie substituted Achilles back into the game. In Kahirre’s three minutes, Natomas outscored its opponent 9-2.
“I think every sport I play has a part in basketball,” Kahirre says. “My football plays into me high-pointing the ball. My backboard pins and blocks come from me playing volleyball. My stamina comes from me doing track. It all turns into one motion. And me being an athlete overall, staying busy and keeping fit, it keeps me going.”
A little too busy for McKenzie’s liking.
The day after Natomas lost the section title, Kahirre competed in two events at a track and field meet. He won the high jump by clearing six feet (four inches higher than the nearest competitor) and placed second in the long jump at 21 feet, 8.5 inches (1.5 inches behind the winning leap). When McKenzie called Kahirre on Sunday night, the coach asked his player to not participate in a Monday volleyball match. The senior disobeyed, and racked up eight kills in the victory.
On Tuesday night, Kahirre rode the bench in a basketball win over Menlo School of Atherton in the first round of the state tournament. But the Nighthawks’ second round foe, Christopher High, possessed a post player with size that Natomas hadn’t seen since a November loss to Rocklin High. All season, the undersized Nighthawks have struggled against bigger, stronger teams.
In Robinson, McKenzie warned of a center willing to bang. “He will shoulder bump,” the coach said before the game, “so we have to be ready to take charges. We have to put a wall up, protect ourselves. We have to dig down.”
A bruising test
Christopher High hails from Gilroy, a South Bay Area city of around 60,000 that hangs its hat on being the Garlic Capital of the World. Since opening in 2009 on land donated by a garlic farm, the high school has established a basketball power. Last season, the Cougars won 22 games, went unbeaten in the Mount Hamilton League and made the Division III state tournament. This year’s team enters Natomas with just 16 wins, but has several against tough Bay Area teams.
McKenzie hoped to ride the euphoria from a thrilling first-round victory over Menlo School, when Darius hit go-ahead free throws in the final seconds before Natomas students rushed the court.
“Just have fun,” the coach said. “I feel like I haven’t said that in a while. I feel that’s the reason we play this game, is to have fun. If we weren’t here, and it was nice outside or we had access to a gym, y’all would want to hoop, right? If we can embrace the brotherhood we have, the work we’ve put in together, and just play hard and have fun, everything else will take care of itself.”
When Kahirre entered late in the first quarter, Natomas held a six-point lead behind eight early points from Dereon. Kahirre attempted to draw a charge, but didn’t get the call and Robinson scooped the offensive rebound for an easy putback. Robinson then backed down Kahirre under the hoop and finished with an easy right-handed flip shot.
Across town, Kahirre’s volleyball teammates were having a much easier time in a straight-set victory over Foothill High, improving to 4-0 on the season. After an offensive rebound bounced off Kahirre’s head and out of bounds, McKenzie substituted Achilles back into the game.
Christopher took a 26-25 lead in the second quarter after a 7-0 run, capped by four points from guard Sam Guenther. But Natomas answered with a 7-0 spurt of its own. Achilles made a layup. Manno split two defenders for a finger roll layup. When a Christopher player dribbled out of bounds, Natomas held a three-point lead with 1.7 seconds remaining on the first-half clock.
Achilles inbounded the ball to Dereon, who gathered before banking home a three-quarter court shot for a 32-26 halftime lead. The stunning basket, which sent the home crowd to a roar, came just nine days after freshman AP Wilkins made a deep 3 at the first-half buzzer against Union Mine High. It also came two months after Dereon had a similar-length heave bounce off the rim as the final buzzer sounded on a one-point loss to previously winless Central Kitsap High of rural Washington.
Dereon spun around screaming. He gave a chest-bump to Aeron and slapped hands with little brother Manno and father DeAngelo, an assistant coach, before storming to the locker room.
Despite the six-point lead, Natomas hadn’t solved the issue of slowing Robinson.
“They ain’t lie,” said Darius, a 5-foot-10 Natomas guard often tasked with pounding with bigger bodies because of his football strength and leaping ability. “He might be 250!”
Any momentum from Dereon’s magical 3 was dashed in the opening minutes of the second half. Guenther found Ebuka Okeke on a backdoor cut for an easy layup. Okeke then hit a 3-pointer. A miscommunication between Achilles and Darius led to a pass being thrown out of bounds. A Guenther layup put Christopher back in front. The teams had traded three-consecutive 7-0 runs. Minutes later, a Trey Caragio jumper pushed the Christopher lead to six points, 42-36.
Christopher led by three points after a lob pass to Robinson, but Natomas rallied again. Manno scored off a weak-side rebound. Then, with two seconds remaining in the third quarter, the sophomore guard hit a wing 3-pointer to put Natomas ahead 46-44.
But when Natomas failed to secure back-to-back defensive rebounds early in the fourth quarter, allowing Christopher to tie the game, McKenzie turned to Kahirre for the first time since the multisport athlete’s underwhelming first-half stint.
Dereon stole the ball and fed Aeron for a fastbreak layup and two-point lead. Then, in a stunning sequence, Kahirre provided what would have been the play of the evening had Dereon not banked home a three-quarter court shot at the buzzer.
As Guenther’s ill-advised pass hung in the air, Kahirre used his football instincts to sprint about 30 feet from the right post to the left wing for the interception. He then showed his track speed by racing down the left sideline, ahead of ball-handler Dereon. Then came the hand-eye coordination that Kahirre developed on the volleyball court, as the 6-foot-3 forward gathered the alley-oop pass from Dereon and gently banked it off the backboard and through the hoop.
Play was stopped when Natomas students bumped a referee while celebrating their school’s athletic marvel. A few minutes later, Natomas teammates greeted Kahirre as he returned to the bench. The player who quit on his teammates a year ago may have now saved their season.
“He was huge,” Kahirre said of guarding Robinson. “When I first started I was a little nervous because I couldn’t move him. When I got in the second time I wanted to do better. So I just jumped as high as I could and got every ball I could.”
Manno scored on a layup to give Natomas a nine-point lead with under two minutes remaining. But Christopher went on a 7-1 run, with Caragio hitting a 3-pointer with 15 seconds remaining to pull within three points, 61-58. Natomas then turned over the inbounds pass, and Guenther missed a point-blank layup before losing the ball out of bounds.
Then, like in the opening round of this state tournament, Natomas made clutch free throws down the stretch. Aeron, the freshman point guard, sank two to push the lead to five points with eight seconds left. Dereon then sealed the 65-58 victory with two more in the final seconds.
“I felt normal and confident,” Aeron said of his trip to the line.
The freshman has never admitted to nerves while playing the sport he loves, dating to the moments before his first game in November when Aeron sat alone in the school’s bleachers with a basketball glued to his hip. Based on Aeron’s double-digit scoring in all six postseason games, including 20 made 3-pointers, perhaps the coach’s son is immune to pressure.
“Just working hard every day,” is what Aeron attributes to his play. “Getting better with my team.”
The Nighthawks are now two wins from a trip to the state title game at Golden One Center. A team that began the season 4-4 following a 58-point loss to rival Inderkum High, and two weeks later fell to a previously winless team from rural Washington, is playing its most inspired basketball of the season. And for a coach who never played in the NCAA Tournament while at Providence College, McKenzie has found March madness with a group of resilient teenagers.
“That was a great team win,” he told his players after the game. “We didn’t win that game just now. We won that game from our morning shootaround. We won that game from practice, breaking up in individuals with our coaching staff. That’s where that game was won.
“Now, Saturday night, 7 o’clock, prime time. Enjoy it, and let the run continue, fellas. Let’s go!”
For Kahirre, his transition to volleyball and track will wait. Stresses of a frustrating college football recruiting process take a backseat to a magical playoff run in his fourth-best sport.
“I’m not a basketball player,” insists the senior, who enjoys competing with friends.
But for a three-minute stretch of the fourth quarter, with his team’s state title hopes on the line, Kahirre Louis might as well have been LeBron James.
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.