Ninety-six high school girls’ basketball teams are gathering in San Francisco’s East Bay area for a holiday-week tournament that will feature elite-level competitors from throughout California alongside squads that will be getting their first exposure to “the big-time.”
The 23rd annual West Coast Jamboree takes place Dec. 28–30 in what is loosely defined as the Tri-Valley, a largely upscale suburban expanse that stretches some 40 miles from Livermore to Martinez.
In addition to Granada High in Livermore, the Livermore Recreation Center, and Alhambra High in Martinez, action is set for two gyms at Dublin High, as well as Northgate High in Walnut Creek, Carondelet High in Concord, College Park High in Pleasant Hill, and Chabot College in Hayward. The host schools utilize the event as fundraiser for their own programs.
Each day’s schedule consists of 48 games, beginning as early as 9 a.m. and running until roughly 9 p.m., with the tournament field split into 12 eight-team brackets.
The top bracket, called the Platinum Division, features three teams ranked among the top six in California by MaxPreps.com. Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth is second in the state, Sage Hill of Newport Coast is fourth, and Northern California power Folsom is sixth. Rosary Academy of Fullerton, meanwhile, is ranked 25th.
The cream of the girls’ basketball crop, however, is not the focal point of the West Coast Jamboree, tournament director Clay Kallam told The Epoch Times.
“Really, it’s about the other teams, the bottom-level teams,” Mr. Kallam said. “If you’re a terrible team and you go to a tournament, you’re generally cannon fodder for the host school in the first round. That’s just the way it works. But this tournament is designed so there are equal brackets. One of my big jobs is to try to create brackets so that teams can have three good games. That’s sort of the goal of it.”
Over the years, the West Coast Jamboree has featured star performers who have gone on to collegiate and WNBA careers, a group that includes current Seattle Storm coach Noelle Quinn, New York Liberty standout Sabrina Ionescu, and former Stanford stars Jayne Appel and Candice Wiggins.
Again, though, the tournament’s objective is to provide a memorable experience for everyone, especially those of lesser ability.
“They’re practicing six days a week just like everybody else,” Mr. Kallam said. “Just because they don’t have the same physical gifts doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be treated like athletes. Sierra Canyon and Sage Hill play in big events all the time. They get an all-tournament award, and they throw it in a drawer with all the other awards they’ve won. But the kid from Los Banos who is all-tournament and takes home a West Coast Jamboree plaque saying they finished third, that’s a big deal. They’re putting that up in their trophy case.”
Similarly, every tournament game features a public-address announcer, a perk that players from many smaller schools have never enjoyed.
“We try to make it an event,” Mr. Kallam said. “This is a funny story. The first game for a lot of these lower-level schools, we introduce the starters. Well, they don’t know how to do it. They’ve never been introduced before, and then by the third game, they’re going, ‘Oh, yeah, this is how we do it.’ It’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m big-time, too.’”
Mr. Kallam, who coaches the junior varsity team at Carondelet, is one of three tournament directors, along with Carondelet Varsity Coach Kelly Sopak and Harold Abend. Mr. Sopak is heavily involved in formatting the brackets in the top two divisions, while Mr. Abend is the point man for sponsorships, hotels, and the like.
In addition to a Canadian entry, Edge from Calgary, Alberta, and three from Hawaii, this year’s tournament field includes teams from Arizona, Oregon, and Texas, as well as Pyramid Lake from Nixon, Nevada, a native-American community near Reno.
In some cases, there are girls who had never previously been on an airplane, or perhaps never even experienced a hotel.
“We’ll have some small school staying at this big host hotel, and there are all these 6-foot-2 girls walking around, scholarship players, and all of a sudden, they feel like they’re part of a big event,” Mr. Kallam said. “It is a unique tournament in that regard. That’s what I’d say makes it special, and popular. That’s why people come back, and they feel they’ll get a chance to play three good games.”
Participants this year are from pretty much everywhere in California, including numerous Sacramento-area teams. From the northern part of the state come the likes of Anderson from Shasta County, Arcata, Eureka, Foothill of Palo Cedro, which is near Redding, Orland, Pleasant Valley of Chico, Ukiah, and Yreka.
In addition to Los Banos, Central California representation includes Caruthers, which is near Fresno, Central East and Hoover from Fresno, Clovis and crosstown rival Buchanan.
Canyon of Canyon Country, Chaminade of West Hills, Coronado, Harvard-Westlake of Studio City, and Murrieta Valley of Murrieta are among other Southern California teams that have made the trip north.
Another nice tournament feature, thanks to generous financial support from the likes of title sponsor Visit Tri-Valley, a tourist-information entity, is a scholarship program that over the years has awarded more than $30,000 to participating players. In keeping with the event’s philosophy, scholarships are not based on athletic exploits, but rather academic performance and essays required with applications.
“The goal of the tournament isn’t our Platinum Division, our top division,” Mr. Kallam said. “It’s all the other divisions.”
