[su_carousel source=”media: 33500,33501,33502,33503,33504,33508,33506,33507″ limit=”60″ link=”lightbox” width=”800″ height=”540″ responsive=”no” items=”1″]<\/p>\n
With the high school bands playing, the spotlight focused on center court for the finale of San Francisco\u2019s basketball \u201cCinderella\u201d story, as the Mission High School Bears (35-1) faced off against the Villa Park Spartans (27-7) for the state championship in Sacramento.<\/p>\n
Niamey Harris, the heart and soul of the Bears, savored the moment with his teammates as they stood inside the Golden 1 Center, the home of the Sacramento Kings. He was unsure of how things would unfold over the next two hours of his life.<\/p>\n
After four quarters of intense basketball\u2014and a nail-biting overtime (12 ties and nine lead changes\u2014the Bears made history by becoming the first San Francisco public school ever to win a state basketball championship, claiming the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division III title.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe outpour [of support] from the city and from other high school coaches has been amazing,\u201d said Bears head coach Arnold Zelaya. \u201cFrom all parts of the city, but mostly from the Mission community. These guys have really embraced us and really just believed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moments after the historic 82-75 victory, Mayor Ed Lee tweeted: \u201cCongrats Mission High School on an amazing game & for bringing the state title home to #SF. Go Bears!\u201d The Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr also congratulated the team, inviting them to the April 2 game against the Washington Wizards.<\/p>\n
Harris, a senior and one of three captains on the team, was emotional after the game. The 6-foot-2 guard had a game-high 31 points, but perhaps the most memorable were the final two he scored as the clock was winding down.<\/p>\n
With nine seconds remaining in the game, Harris drove to the hoop and dunked the ball with his left hand, capping an illustrious high school career, one of the best in San Francisco history. Mission High fans hugged one another in the stands, students high-fived and the players met at center court, celebrating the biggest sporting accomplishment of their young careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means a lot, just coming from a public high school in San Francisco,\u201d Harris said.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cKnowing that a lot of teams don\u2019t come this far, so making history is just really amazing and playing for the community is something special. We went through a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n The significance of Mission High\u2019s win is even greater given that the city is steadily becoming less black and less Latino due to gentrification. The team that represented San Francisco in the state final was comprised entirely of black players. The 15 kids (Jamion Wright, Adrian Otis II, Tyrese Johnson, Jayden Foston, Marcel Mcrae, Willie Chase, Jamir Melton-Dreher, Ben Knight, Niamey Harris, Mahki Williams, Ijah Pratt, Robert Lee III, U\u2019jah Pratt, Anthony Mcbride and Faraji Abram) who play for Mission High are from Potrero Hill, Bayview-Hunters Point and Fillmore.<\/p>\n Harris is a native of Bayview-Hunters Point, one of San Francisco\u2019s most impoverished neighborhoods. He lives just a few blocks from where Mario Woods was fatally shot by police in late 2015.<\/p>\n \u201cThese guys, I love them,\u201d said coach Zelaya, who is Latino. \u201cAfrican-American males, they have it rough. I can\u2019t pretend to be them, but I love them like they\u2019re Salvadoran, like me. It doesn\u2019t matter. These guys know, they love pupusas.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, Harris used his athletic platform to voice his activism. Harris, who is also the starting quarterback for Mission High\u2019s football team, followed in the footsteps of the 49ers then quarterback Colin Kaepernick. After the shooting of Woods, Harris knelt on one knee during the playing of national anthem before football games, in protest of police brutality.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see the type of man that he\u2019s grown into,\u201d said Caprisha Moody, Harris\u2019 sister. \u201cMy goodness, he\u2019s had a lot of support and that brought him this far and we\u2019ve all worked together to help him and let him know that it\u2019s okay to be the best that he can be.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite a few negative comments on social media and much received local and national media attention, Harris\u2019 teammates\u2014some who also play on the basketball team\u2014followed suit.<\/p>\n As for the self-proclaimed \u201cGrimy Bears\u201d (a reference to their hustle, scrappiness and toughness on the court), they have become darlings of the city and one of the best sports stories in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n Despite only losing once during the regular season, the Bears were considered underdogs going into postseason play. On their way to the state title, they defeated the No. 1 Northern California seed St. Ignatius (64-54) and No. 3 Northern California seed Vanden High, both times on the road. When they met Southern California\u2019s No. 2 Villa Park, the Bears were smaller at every position, but it mattered not.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means a lot. It means for public school that we\u2019re here, we\u2019re significant,\u201d said coach Zelaya.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cA lot of times we\u2019re left for dead when it comes to athletics, but winning a state championship ups the bar.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Niamey Harris, the Bears team captain plans to continue on to play college basketball after graduation.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s [Harris] been with me for four years,\u201d said coach Zelaya. \u201cHe drives me crazy but I love him to death and he really epitomizes what the [basketball] program is about. He doesn\u2019t stop playing.\u201d<\/p>\n [su_youtube url=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IK6NVGHVEvA”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [su_carousel source=”media: 33500,33501,33502,33503,33504,33508,33506,33507″ limit=”60″ link=”lightbox” width=”800″ height=”540″ responsive=”no” items=”1″] With the high school bands playing, the spotlight focused on center court for the finale of San Francisco\u2019s basketball \u201cCinderella\u201d story, as the Mission High School Bears (35-1) faced off against the Villa Park Spartans (27-7) for the state championship in Sacramento. Niamey Harris, the heart […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":33506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[13247,13267,13087,9193,13257,13243,13245,13269,13273,4213,5415,13261,13081,13255,13083,13259,13251,13079,13075,13077,13271,13263,13275,13249,13265,13253],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-33499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-en","tag-adrian-otis-ii","tag-anthony-mcbride","tag-arnold-zelaya","tag-bayview-hunters-point-en","tag-ben-knight","tag-california-interscholastic-federation-division-iii","tag-cif","tag-faraji-abram","tag-fillmore","tag-gentrification-en","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-ijah-pratt","tag-jamion-wright","tag-jamir-melton-dreher","tag-jayden-foston","tag-mahki-williams","tag-marcel-mcrae","tag-mission-bears","tag-mission-high-school-basketball","tag-niamey-harris","tag-potrero-hill","tag-robert-lee-iii","tag-steve-kerr-en","tag-tyrese-johnson","tag-ujah-pratt","tag-willie-chase","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n