Oakland Tech Girls Play Some of the Best Bay Area Ball You're Not Watching... Yet

The Oakland Technical High School girls varsity basketball team can ball.

It’s not a stretch to imagine that the Bulldogs — two-time defending state champions (2019 and 2022) — might have three or four trophies already, had much of the country not shut down two days before their scheduled championship game in March 2020; or had their 2021 season not been canceled altogether due to COVID.

The team’s success has even garnered the attention of local sports legends. They’re regularly visited by football great and Oakland Tech alum Marshawn Lynch. The Warriors’ Klay Thompson made an appearance at the team’s ring ceremony last summer, and his teammate Steph Curry sent the team a personal video message of congratulations late last year for their championship banner ceremony.

Now, they’re on a quest to three-peat with another state title. For sports fans still lamenting the Warriors and Raiders leaving Oakland, this high school team is showing that there’s still plenty to be excited about.

‘The best team I’ve ever had’

“If we make shots, we can beat anybody,” LeRoy Hurt, the team’s head coach, said. “But if we’re missing shots — and it happens — anybody can beat us. We just got to maintain our composure.”

Maintaining composure, as well as good sportsmanship, are two of the team’s core values under Hurt — an Oakland Tech alum who’s been coaching the team since 2015. He led the team to an undefeated regular season in the Oakland Athletic League this year — the Bulldogs are 23-5 overall, including non-league games. On Feb. 10 at the team’s final home game, he notched his 150th win as head coach. Next up, they’re preparing for the local Oakland Athletic League playoffs, which is the first hurdle they need to clear in the journey to the state championships in March.

“This is the best team I’ve ever had,” Hurt said from the sidelines of that final home game. “It’s a fantastic group.”

The group includes six graduating seniors who were feted during the team’s “Senior Night” celebration on Feb. 10: co-team captains and point guards Marisela Somvichian and Erin Sellers, center Sophia Askew-Gonçalves, plus guards Nia Hunter, Jada Williams and Jala Williams.

The celebration was a glimpse of the kind of love the team receives and the community it’s built as it racks up achievements.

“They’re all super supportive and they’re all very, very involved,” Anne Omura, Somvichian’s mother, said of the team’s family members — many of whom brought homemade posters, t-shirts and pom-poms to the game.

1-2-3, Bulldogs! 4-5-6, Family!

Somvichian, who has been playing basketball since the second grade, said one of the keys to the team’s success is their team spirit.

“We’re very, very energetic,” she said. “And I think the main thing is that outside of basketball, we all get along and we all connect. So on the court, our energy is just way better because we have that connection.”

Nia Hunter underlined that connection. “We’ve really built a family,” she said. “I honestly can say those girls in that gym are my second family.”

Fitting, then, that the team’s cheer before every game is “1-2-3, Bulldogs! 4-5-6, Family!”

The Bulldogs family has done well embracing its newcomers, too. Terri’a Russell, a 6-foot freshman who began playing basketball in the fourth grade, feels right at home.

“I love it very much,” she said. “I love our team captains. I feel like their leadership is A-One.”

Russell, along with 6-foot-3 freshman Jhai Johnson, are considered ones to watch in high school basketball circles. Johnson, daughter of Oakland Tech alum and 49ers quarterback Josh Johnson, made an impressive showing this year as the only female participant in the Oakland Athletic League dunk contest.

Even when the team is winning handily — it’s not uncommon to see the Bulldogs score upwards of 40 points before the other team gets a basket — Russell said the team mentality is to stay bullish while also exhibiting good sportsmanship. “We still play as if the score is 0–0. And say the other team falls down, pick ’em up, you know. Because [one day] we could be on the other end of this.”

The sportsmanship the team practices and the Bulldogs family they’ve cultivated take on more significance in the face of personal losses some players have experienced.

“Some girls lost their sisters, lost their parents, lost people to gun violence and all these different things,” Jasmine Braggs, assistant coach for the team, said. “So if they play sports as their outlet, and there’s joy there, and they’re also doing good in it, and then also being recognized: that gives you motivation. That says, ‘I mean something and somebody notices me.’ Because sometimes our girls — and our youth in general — go unnoticed so much.”

Filling the gap in Oakland sports stories

With the Warriors- and Raiders-sized holes in the Oakland sports scene, and the future of the A’s hanging in the balance, it can be easy to say there’s not much sports action going on in the East Bay — with men’s sports, anyway.

“These young ladies are good,” Braggs, a former basketball player and Oakland Tech alum, emphasized. “They’re not dribble, dribble, step, shoot. They’re like, between the legs, hezzy – like, they’re all those things. And we have to acknowledge that because it’s so easy to slip through the cracks and say, ‘Oh, Oakland’s not doing nothing.’”

As the Lady Bulldogs build a dynasty, efforts to bring a WNBA team to Oakland are also heating up. Oakland Tech’s own athletic director, Dr. Alexis Gray-Lawson — who led Tech’s girls basketball team to its first two state championships in ‘04 and ‘05 and later played in the WNBA — has become a front woman for the movement.

Yet, the reality is that women’s and girl’s sports still don’t garner the respect or media coverage they deserve. Among U.S. sports fans, 79% say they don’t actively follow women’s sports, according to a recent study. It’s why Braggs is passionate about putting out the call to witness this girls varsity team in action.

“Come see these girls. Just come see them,” Braggs encouraged. “On our leisure, let’s not go to the hookah lounge. Let’s be like ‘Aye, let’s catch a game at Oakland Tech because I heard they were good.’ You know what I mean? Even just showing up in whatever school — if that’s Fremont [High School] or Oakland High.”

Co-team captain Erin Sellers said she’s excited to have the support and appreciation of fans — from Steph Curry to classmates — even though it brings added pressure.

“I think we’re doing a pretty good job of carrying it,” she said. “The only thing that’s left is to win the championship this year. So that’s what we tryin’ to do.”

First stop: the Oakland Athletic League playoffs, which tip off the week of Feb. 20.