Dreams of her own
Chapter 4 | A selfless student manager earns the spotlight
This is Chapter 4 of a Substack series chronicling the 2023-24 Natomas High School of Sacramento boys basketball team.
Up to the task
Lauryn Collins handed her game book to the new boys basketball coach. As Brian McKenzie scanned the totals of points and fouls, Lauryn stood by with a tinge of apprehension. It was only a November exhibition, but coaches can be demanding.
Over her prior three years as the basketball team manager at Natomas High School, Lauryn had mostly handed water to gasping players. She helped with statistics at times, but had yet to be tested with a full game book. Given McKenzie’s discerning eye for mistakes on the court, surely a statistical error of hers would be caught.
The coach looked up from the statistics sheet with a nod of approval.
Then, a resonating “Thank you.”
Lauryn, a straight-A student, began walking to the Rio Linda High School parking lot where the team bus would soon take her home. But the senior didn’t leave the cheer team to simply serve water this season. And encouragement from girls coach Alisha Harris had built her confidence in keeping stats at the frenetic pace of prep hoops.
So, as McKenzie entertained the doting families of his new players, Lauryn made sure that her ambitions were understood. “Coach,” she interrupted, “I like taking stats.”
Hardly a formal job application, but it was all McKenzie needed to hear.
Getting teenagers to put their phones down during his math classes has proven hard enough. Finding one willing to log statistics hours at a time is a preseason miracle.
A night in The Cage
A month later, Natomas boys basketball is playing its final home game before campus closes for the holidays. Lauryn is caught up on statistician duties during a timeout so she joins her cheer teammates. Lauryn hits all the steps and chants in street clothes.
The cheer team recently placed second at the Jamz Battle at the Capital, qualifying for nationals in Las Vegas. For coaches Ashley Stubbs and Kiki Phillips, the sport has changed drastically since they shook pom-poms in high school, and certainly since Title IX mandated equal funding for women’s sports over a half century ago.
Participants are viewed and treated as athletes. College scholarships are at stake. Many teams now have male and LBGTQ+ members. Natomas held cheer tryouts last spring and began strength training in June, preparing athletes for a year of lifting and throwing teammates, performing long and strenuous routines and competing with rival Sacramento high schools — “all while putting a smile on,” Stubbs notes.
When the horn sounds, Lauryn returns to the basketball scorer’s table.
Before the game, she is responsible for checking rosters with officials and coaches. During the game, Natomas coaches rely on her to know how many fouls each player has acculumated so they can make the proper substitutions. After the game, she turns over her game book to McKenzie, who notes statistical trends.
The Natomas drumline provides a fast-paced beat to the Nighthawks’ up-tempo, guard-heavy offensive attack. At halftime, the school’s new dance group, the Natomas Dancerettes, performs to a Christmas song medley.
“The Cage,” as this gymnasium is called, is rattling tonight as the basketball team shows signs of fulfilling its promise with league play fast approaching.
Learning to fly
El Camino High School has a 2-7 record, but the Eagles have beaten Natomas by at least 10 points in their three previous meetings, dating to 2017, according to MaxPreps. Natomas, at 4-4, hasn’t won in more than two weeks, and hasn’t won at home since the season opener against Marysville High School in November.
But the Nighthawks have been buoyed by the return of two players.
LaBrandon Crawford was a red zone nightmare for defenses during football season, catching a team co-leading four touchdowns. The junior is now the basketball team’s tallest player at 6-foot-4. While LaBrandon has only learned a few plays, his toughness on the glass against rival Inderkum High provided one of the game’s few bright spots.
Dereon Jenkins, the older brother of starting guard Manno, brings needed experience and defensive grit at guard. McKenzie has relied on a three-guard lineup of freshmen Aeron Wallace IV and Joseph McNeal, and sophomore Manno. But too often the underclassmen have settled for quick 3s. Bigger guards have had their way. Now, McKenzie has a senior unafraid to attack the basket or hound an opposing guard.
Against an El Camino team lacking a rim protector, the Natomas guards dominate early. In the first five minutes, Manno draws two charges on defense and gets into the paint for two easy baskets. After Dereon scores five consecutive points off the bench, capped by a three-point play, Natomas holds a 19-7 lead after the first quarter. Aeron, Manno, Dereon and Joseph have combined for 17 of the 19 points.
Natomas opens the second quarter with lazy passes and rushed transitions. El Camino guard Demetrius Perry swipes the ball from forward Achilles Terrell in the backcourt and throws down a one-handed slam. An 11-0 Eagles burst trims the lead to four.
McKenzie inserts freshman EJ Rose for an inbound play. The forward walls off two El Camino interior defenders as Aeron steps into the vacant lane for an open flip shot. Natomas leads 35-25 at the half. After El Camino narrows the lead to five early in the third quarter, Harold Beckwith scores seven points during a 13-7 Natomas run.
Joseph dumps a slick pass in the lane to LaBrandon for a layup. Aeron steals a loose ball and, while gliding for a right-handed finger roll, is hammered to the hardwood as he sinks the shot. With wide eyes — a bit stunned all his limbs are intact — he pries his head off the padded wall. Manno, Harold and Joe help their teammate to his feet.
LaBrandon, who didn’t play in the first half, dominates the paint in the second half. The junior gets a steal at midcourt and coasts for a layup and 61-46 lead. Playing his first extended minutes this season, he gets a double-double in points and rebounds.
After Harold gives Natomas a 67-55 lead with five minutes to play, the Nighthawks go scoreless for nearly four minutes. An El Camino 3 narrows the lead to five. With under two minutes, the Eagles have the ball with a chance to cut the lead to one possession.
Aeron reads a cross-court pass, tips the ball to himself and has it stripped away as he streaks to the basket. The whistle blows. The El Camino coach goes beyond halfcourt to argue the foul, and gets a technical. Aeron hits four free throws to ice the game.
The 75-63 win provides relief, but a lack of hustle still irks McKenzie.
“You walk, you take a seat,” he tells his players in the locker room.
Through the fire
Coaching doesn’t end after the final whistle. In fact, that’s when much of it begins.
At Natomas, where 76 percent of students qualify for the free lunch program, getting kids into sports can be “a matter of life and death,” Principal Marcel Baker says.
One Natomas junior varsity basketball player wears a court-ordered ankle monitor. A varsity player was recently robbed at gunpoint on city streets. Another didn’t have any sneakers when he joined the team, so coaches pitched in to buy him a pair of Jordans.
“Where’s your coat?” an assistant coach asks a despondent varsity player before he heads into the frigid December night. “That’s how you get a cold.”
“Do you have a ride?” the coach asks. The player ensures a relative is on the way.
When some players leave the gym, there’s no telling when they will be seen again.
“I’m tired of babysitting,” an assistant coach admits, in a defeated tone.
As coaches gather belongings, their student statistician rushes into the hallway.
“Coach, I got a scholarship to LSU!” Lauryn declares, turning her phone for all to see.
The exemplary student has spent four years of high school cheering on her classmates, handing water to star athetes and keeping their stats. This was something of her own.
“As part of our commitment to helping you earn one of the nation’s most prestigious and valued degrees,” the official Louisiana State University email reads, “we are pleased to offer you the following initial merit based package:”
As statistics go, Lauryn has had her fill this season. But all the points, rebounds and assists pale to the her scholarship totals — nearly six-figure sums. Lauryn is in the Health Pathway at Natomas High, and she plans to study nursing in college.
McKenzie hopes she will continue keeping basketball statistics at LSU, where the women’s team is the reigning national champion.
Each coach gives their statistician a high five. “Don’t forget me!” says a passerby.
Score one for Lauryn.
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.