San Francisco's Mission High looks to make history in its ascent from inner-city roadblocks

Video: Mission highlights versus Lowell
Watch Bears win third straight SFS title en route to NorCal championship.

Mission (San Francisco) boys basketball coach Arnold Zelaya is skilled at diagramming plays and full-court presses.

But his greatest skill might be accessing the streets of San Francisco. Not the old TV series, but The City's toughest neighborhoods: The Fillmore, Potrero Hill, Hunter's Point.

The 48-year-old grew up there. Just like he sees the entire 94-foot-by-50 hunk of court, he sees The City's landscape, literally and socially.

"The kids there face a lot of roadblocks and obstacles," he said. "There's street violence. Fights. Murders. The conflicts between neighborhoods are real and can be tragic.

"Geographically, Mission is in the center of all of it." Also the school's dean in charge of discipline, Zelaya has figured out a way to bring all the neighborhoods together to celebrate a game, a basket and mostly, a play. "The next play," he said.

"Don't stop. Keep playing. Next play," Zelaya said. "You're going to screw up in life and on the court, but keep going. If you're down 20 late, then get it to 10. If up by 20, don't dwell on it or soak up success, just play. Right now."

It's all worked. Never easy, always present and pressing forward, the Bears have won three straight and five of six San Francisco Section titles. They've gone 85-15 the last three seasons, including a sparkling 34-1 this season — the best in school history — claiming their first Northern California title Saturday with a 72-68 win at favored Vanden (Valllejo). That came four days after winning 64-54 at top-seeded and arch-private school rival St. Ignatius.

Both victories were emotionally charged because they were at packed visiting gyms, which drew plenty of Mission brown and gold faithful because the Bears are attempting to become the first San Francisco public school basketball team to win a state title.

The Bears play Villa Park (27-6) at Golden 1 Center 4 p.m. Friday to complete the dream.

"I'm just really happy for the kids," Zelaya told Chace Bryson of SportStars Magazine after winning the NorCal title. "I'm really happy for San Francisco. I'm really happy for the public school system. These kids fight all year, and they don't get respect, so I'm just happy for them."

Zelaya rarely pulls the respect card. But even with so much success the last nine seasons (206 wins), locals still only felt the Bears were a good Academic Athletic Association team — sort of a backhanded compliment.

"They'd say ‘You guys are really good,' but they meant for a city team," Zelaya said. "Or ‘You guys are going to have a great season,' but they meant for our league.

"They've (the Bears) had their eyes on this (a state title) the whole time. We've been hearing that other stuff for years. But this year, we truly believed we could compete for a state title. Now, it's here."

The Bears aren't big. Nobody in the rotation stands more than 6-foot-4 and most of the key players are under 6-foot. The team's standout and authentic leader is Niamey Harris, a 6-2 do-everything guard, who for the second consecutive year was voted the AAA's Player of the Year after being picked as the league's Football Player of the Year.

Nobody had ever won both awards once, let alone twice. He's considered one of the The City's greatest all-around athletes .

As impressive as he is as an athlete — he averages a team-best 15.2 points per game and is the team's defensive stopper — it's his quiet and strong leadership that lifts the Bears. He lives the team's struggles away from school. He was raised in a single-parent home with two older sisters in Hunter's Point, one of the most economically disadvantaged areas of San Francisco, near recently demolished Candlestick Park.

The area is known for high rates of unemployment, poverty, disease and crime.

One of Harris' first childhood heroes, record-breaking Lincoln running back David Henderson from his neighborhood, was shot and killed in 2011 at the age of 21. No arrests have been made.

Harris said over the last two months, he's lost two friends to gun violence. "It's hard to sleep some nights," he said. "You can just be at the wrong place at the wrong time. I just try to stay in my space. Do the right things. Be with my family. Do homework. Get to school. Get to practice. …You have to take out your anger in positive ways."

Harris' older sister Capriisha Moody, a licensed family therapist living now across the bay in San Leandro, said: "Navigating in the inner city for young males is a major challenge. But he's had lot of great male mentors. And he's had his sports."

Harris said sports and the Bears' season has been a major getaway. Zelaya is a major father figure.

"He's always there for me," Harris said. "For all of us. He's tough on us, but he believes in us."

Though he's getting plenty of college interest in football, where he led Mission to three straight title games at quarterback, basketball is his first love.

"I love the way it makes me feel when my team wins," he said. "I love to make the fans happy. I love seeing everyone smile."

And the Bears are doing that. Led also by double-digit scorers Jamion Wright and Jayden Foston, Mission is likely the underdog again against a larger, longer and equally athletic Villa Park team.

In the past, Zelaya has had the Bears utilize their speed and quickness to play nothing but up-tempo and scattered. What has set this team apart is its ability to slow the game down and lock teams down on the defensive end.

Ultimately, this team is bonded at a much deeper level than basketball.

"These kids have had to leave their beefs from the streets and come together," he said. "We're all lined up wearing the same uniform. … It's been an incredible journey thus far. Just one more to go."