wvitbear said:

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> Good luck to Alexis.

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thanks rex. more here..

sampled in case paywall bites..

Quote:

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The former Cal and Oakland Tech star is St. Joseph Notre Dame's new girls basketball coach, the school announced Tuesday.Gray-Lawson replaces interim coach Brian Sato, an assistant who took over from Shawn Hipol in late January after Hipol resigned in the aftermath of being called out by an administrator not in the athletic department for winning league games by too wide of a margin.

"Alexis has an impressive track record as a player and most recently, as a high school coach," athletic director Carlos Arriaga said in a statement. "She brings a wealth of knowledge and experiences that will tremendously benefit our student-athletes both on and off the court. We are fortunate to have someone of her caliber return to the Bay Area to lead our program into the future."

The program Gray-Lawson takes over is one of the area's best.
Despite the coaching change this past season, SJND won the inaugural North Coast Section Open Division championship and reached the Northern California Open Division final, losing to Archbishop Mitty.

The league games should be much more competitive next winter, with SJND's girls and boys basketball programs moving from the Bay Counties League to the stronger West Alameda County Conference.

Gray-Lawson built quite a resume in five seasons as the head coach in St. Paul, Minnesota. She led her team two section championships and a trip to a state final while becoming the youngest coach in state history to reach 100 victories. Last year, she was named the metro area's coach of the year.

As a player, Gray-Lawson was spectacular. She led Oakland Tech to two state titles and was a Parade and McDonald's All-American in 2005. She went on to play in 143 games for Cal the most in program history and was named first-team all-conference in 2009 and 2010.

"Alexis' contributions to the game of basketball, along with her character and heart to serve those around her, is remarkable," interim principal Julianne Guevara said in a statement. "Alexis utilizes the game as a vehicle to teach, inspire and lead young people; we are excited to welcome her into our Pilot family."

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Good to see Alexis Gray-Lawson come home -- and she did well in Minnesota in the second-highest bracket (though Minnesota basketball has not been strong lately).

SJND lost three key seniors -- Malia Mastora, Maila Lepolo and Sophie Nilsson -- but does have a lot returning. And NorCal will be down next year, so AGL should be in a position to do reasonably well. But it may not be as easy as people think.

Congratulations, Lexi--you're still one of our favorite Cal players, and we're glad to see you teaching your skills.

From an Old Bulldog and Bear, way to go AGL and welcome home!

wvitbear said:

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St Joes of Notre dame. Jason Kidds old school. They were runnerup to Mitty this year in Northern Cal. Their coach was released in the middle of the season. Controversial. St. Joe wants to be an elite academic school along with a very good athletic resume. Trouble is, they are in a conference where they hammer everyone. Like 84 to 12. So the other teams are sensitive to being pounded. St. Joe should play in a tougher conference. I'm sure the players would like that.

Good luck to Alexis.

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The name of the school is St. Joseph's Notre Dame HS. Also, SJND already is a top academic school. The hiring of a girl's hoops coach will not change that fact. And lastly, SJND already possesses a strong athletic resume. For example, no HS in Northern California has won more boy's state hoops championships than the Pilots.

signed, a proud SJHS (in my day, it was exclusively a boys HS) alum.

I fully appreciate pride in SJND ...

Let's note, however, that SJND won those state titles by playing in Division V, against the smallest schools. (It was also very interesting how every year, SJND just slid under the enrollment number that divided Division IV and Division V. If the number was 406 one year, SJND's enrollment was 399; if it was 396, SJND came in at 387. A lucky coincidence, perhaps ...)

For many years, though, SJND was in a strong league in the Oakland/Alameda/Berkeley area, and did reasonably well in basketball in the regular season before beating up on tiny schools in postseason. It was, however, overmatched in many other sports (not cross country, in which it has always been good). The administration felt it needed to boost its academic credentials and also find a better fit for sports other than basketball, so essentially forced its way into the Bay Counties Leauge-East, which includes high-level academic schools Head-Royce, Bentley, College Prep and Athenian, among others.

This was a ridiculous move on the basketball side, but was driven by the administration. Then the administration was shocked, shocked, to realize that its basketball team was winning games by such large margins.

The BCL-East created some of the problems as well by requiring SJND to play its teams twice this year instead of once, doubling the number of 89-4 scores, and eventually got the basketball program booted into another, tougher league while the other sports stay in the BCL-East.

AGL will have her hands full in the new league, if there is a season this year, as three key seniors graduated. But Talana Lepolo is Pac-12 level guard (not a great scorer, though), and Mykena Mastora is also very talented.

71Bear said:

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> signed,,

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saw what you did there 71B. welcome aboard the Signed cliche train.

signed, longtime cybers rock,, Big Time <- copyright blueblood

When Kiid was there they petitioned up and played Division I Ball. Won the championship in back to back years beating Manuel Arts first and then Mater Dei the second year. They humiliated MD. Two players on the MD team played at Arizona. Miles Tarver played at University of Minnesota.

St. Joe was not as good academically then as it is now Jason Kidd played there but was rejected from BOD academically. St Joe is better but they are no Head Royce. And BOD is probably still ahead of them.

By the way. Frank LaPorte was the coach at St Joes then. When he left, the team started going down the ladder in divisions.

wvitbear said:

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By the way. Frank LaPorte was the coach at St Joes then. When he left, the team started going down the ladder in divisions.

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Prehistoric knowledge like this is written on the walls of caves.

Just kidding. Hope that you are doing well.

BOD and St Joes both had great high school teams and had a great rivalry. They had to move their games to Cal State Hayward to get t bigger venue. But that wasn't big enough. So they played a hig school game at the Oakland Arena. 10,000 fans were there.

Jason Kidd's teams sold out of every high venue they played at. Saw him at Albany High School his junior year and it sold out. No other game was close. No other high school player had the magnitude he did. Oh the days when high school teams were big. Before AAU ball ruined the fan atttendance.

I remember the game at the Coliseum. Kidd came down on a fast break and an O'Dowd defender, about 5-8, slipped over to take a charge -- and closed his eyes just before Kidd got to him.

Nothing happened -- Kidd jumped over him. Missed the layup, but I'll never forget that moment, or the look in the O'Dowd player's eyes when he finally opened them. It was like "Where did he go?"

Also, BOD had a great coach named Phelps. What a war between BOD and St. Joes. One of those years when Jason won the state championship, BOD upset them at the Arena.

My first time going when I came in California was when BOD won (Tournament of Champions then against Castlemont. Both from Northern Cal.

The TOC was an all-Bay Area event really, and it used to pack the Coliseum. It was really something, and totally different from the sparsely attended state championships.

There was no state championship till 1982 I think. But the TOC was more than the Bay area. Used to have the Poindexter Boys from down around Fresno. Bill Cartwright and Elk Grove won it when I first came here.

You're right -- they would bring in one or two elite teams, but mainly it was OAL, Berkeley and Bay Area teams, which is why the place was packed. In terms of atmosphere and energy, there hasn't been anything like it since.

Didn't LaPorte also coach BOD?

He did. Caught some good programs.

Nice to see Lexi paying her dues and back home. She will have a bight future.