A highly successful season and tumultuous week ended Thursday for the
Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland, Calif.) girls basketball team when principal Pam Shay announced the school's battle to keep the squad's year is over.
Bishop O'Dowd senior Alex Kalmbach (11) said
the Dragons will win state next season.
File photo by Mitchell Reibel
With coach Malik McCord, three seniors and administrators by her side — and the rest of the team behind her — Shay told a group of reporters that she wouldn't be "whining sour grapes," that "we screwed up," and that that "we're very, very sorry that our season ended this way."
The Dragons (23-4), the defending state Open Division champions who are ranked
19th nationally by MaxPreps, were
barred from the North Coast Section playoffs Sunday for playing one more regular-season game than the allotted 26. O'Dowd administrators tried to gain support of the NCS to leap-frog into the CIF State Northern California tournament, but NCS commissioner Gil Lemmon
announced Wednesday he could not back that request.
"It's been a long week," McCord said by phone Thursday afternoon. "This one really hurts. More than any defeat in any game. That's because of how truly special this group was and as the captain of the ship I feel I let them down. I just missed it. … At the end of the day, this happened for a reason. I'm trying to figure out what it is right now. … To hear my girls talk about rising and falling together and sticking together, it fills my heart, and shows you how special and close they are."
McCord took partial blame for the extra game schedule - he and administrators thought one of the game was a scrimmage — and when made aware of it late Saturday night, "I was first just in total shock," he siad.
After losing five Division I players to graduation off last year's team, the Dragons were supposed to struggle somewhat this season. Instead they flourished from the start, including an early win over nationally-ranked Saint Mary's (Albany).
"We had so much to prove and the girls did it. But it was like we were just getting started (going into the playoffs). Then to have the rug pulled out...it's just painful. It was painful to see the looks on the girls faces. The kids obviously didn't deserve any of it. To see how they've stuck together and made the most of it reflects who they are."
According to Phil Jensen of the Contra Costa Times, senior Alex Kalmbach said: "It's very hard to imagine that this is all over and my basketball career is over. But I know that next year this team will win state."
Said senior Maya Williams: "Our coach always taught us that we rise together and we fall together, so we are going to stay together as a team, no matter what."
