McClatchy-Kennedy rivalry galvanizes Asian American community
avoisin@sacbee.com
Published Sunday, Mar. 07, 2010
The McClatchy Lions and Kennedy Cougars have tussled for decades, their prep rivalry among the most ferocious in the region. Yet sometimes – especially within Sacramento's Asian American community during tournament time – the dynamics become confusing, confounding, overwhelming.
Imagine cheering against your sister or your son? Shoving an elbow into the abdomen of a best friend? Marrying someone whose letter jacket is McClatchy red when yours is Kennedy green?
"I'm still a Cougar," insisted Julie Ota, a former All-City player at Kennedy. "My husband was All-City at McClatchy and now coaches at McClatchy. And our daughter plays for McClatchy. So as you can imagine, we have some pretty interesting conversations."
What makes this rivalry between schools five miles apart so uniquely fascinating is that its fan base encompasses much of the region's Asian community and, in some respects, traces back to the early 1940s, when an estimated 120,000 residents of Japanese descent were forced into internment camps.
Baseball was far more popular among Asians before World War II, but basketball leagues featuring males and females flourished in the camps. When the final camp closed in 1946 and the Japanese were relocated, they formed leagues throughout the country, with basketball a primary means of furthering traditions and securing cultural and social bonds among families.
"When we relocated, we had to form our own leagues because of segregation," recalled Tsuto Ota, 83, the family patriarch and a native Sacramentan who spent four years at Tule Lake. "We couldn't even join the American Bowling Congress, so we started our own bowling leagues, too.
"At some point, we became more assimilated, and while some still played baseball, basketball became more and more popular among younger generations."
Girls game on the rise
Sacramento Asian Sports Foundation officials estimate 850 to 1,000 area youngsters – many as young as 5 or 6 – compete in Asian church or instructional leagues, or play for club teams and Amateur Athletic Union squads. The number of participants is estimated at more than 10,000 in Southern California and several thousand in the Bay Area.
The advantages of competing extensively in organized basketball programs has benefited the area's boys prep teams for years, but lately, the girls are the ones moving up the rankings, storming the court and packing the stands.
When the Kennedy and McClatchy girls teams were ranked Nos. 3 and 4, respectively, their Jan. 23 meeting at McClatchy's main gym attracted a raucous, sold-out crowd. Another 50 or so partisans – relatives, friends, friends of friends – had to peer through the narrow windows from outside.
The scene inside was a vivid spectacle of sports and community, and except for the sellout part, was repeated Wednesday night, when the teams met in a California Interscholastic Federation Sac-Joaquin Section Division I semifinal at the much larger Pacific facility in Stockton.
The Legion of Lions fan club members occupied sections of bleachers and stood throughout. They painted assorted body parts red, their voices raised to heckle the Cougars and applaud McClatchy. Across the court, members of Kennedy's Green Scream Machine maintained an equally vocal and colorful presence.
"The kids play on other teams at other times of the year, but the epicenter is Kennedy and McClatchy," said Rod Kunisaki, former president of the Sacramento Asian Sports Foundation and father of former Lions star and current assistant Jessica Kunisaki.
"When Jessica lost to Kennedy, some of those other kids were my cousins. But I would tell them: 'You can't come over to the house for three days. (Laugh) Don't even knock on the door.' "
Take a closer look, though, and the audience reflects basketball's increasing significance within the Asian community, with almost everyone related or connected to someone favoring the opponent's color; after awhile, the colors begin to blur.
"Some of us have been playing together since we were in middle school," said Kennedy forward Leslie Leong, "and our parents and grandparents are good friends. And while we're competitive, one of the best things about playing are the socials and the dances afterward.
"I don't want to say basketball is our life, but it's a very big part of our life from the time we're little kids."
Friends become family
When teary Lions senior Tricia Ota limped off the court Wednesday night, her left leg protected by a balky brace, she was embraced by several of her opponents. Having overcome multiple knee surgeries since her freshman season, she rejoined the team only weeks ago to put a glossier finish on her basketball experience and give a close friend a fond farewell.
"When we won the section title three years ago," said Ota, "that was the best moment of my life. I don't know what I would have done if I wasn't a part of all this.
"It's not just a sport. Ariel and I have been together since freshman year, and she has been so supportive of me through everything. She has become one of my best friends. We're so appreciative that she stayed at McClatchy."
Ariel, of course, is the highly recruited Ariel Thomas, a Bee Player of the Year candidate and future member of Paul Westhead's squad at Oregon. Thomas, who is African American, is everything most of the current Lions are not: quick and athletic, tall enough to excel at the next level, and owner of a major college basketball scholarship.
One of the issues confronting the McClatchy girls team is increasingly common to the boys – Thomas routinely was approached and urged to transfer to a more dominant program such as Sacramento High School or Kennedy.
"We don't have a lot of post players," joked Lions coach Harvey Tahara, who enjoyed previous success coaching the boys. "If we've got a kid who is 5-5 or 5-6, they're automatically in the post. That's probably why the girls have become more dominant.
"Size is more of a factor for boys at the high school level. But we were able to build around Ariel, and the fact she stayed says a lot about her loyalty."
Thomas resisted pressure to transfer from her father, among others. Despite occasional frustrations, she has no regrets.
"Most of the teams we play against are taller," she said, "and other players look down on you, like, 'Wow, your team is so short.'
"But we maximize our strengths, which is a great coach, fundamentals and teamwork. We try to run them (foes) out of the gym. Plus, these are my close friends. McClatchy has become a family to me."
Blurring the lines
The thorniest issue facing the Asian leagues involves the very definition of family, or ethnicity. Through the years, leagues originally restricted to Japanese expanded to include other Asians. As intermarriage and assimilation persists, this has led to other questions regarding ethnicity and eligibility.
"If you look at most of the leagues," said Christina Chin, a UC Davis graduate and UCLA doctoral student who has written about basketball's influence on the Asian community, "the numbers vary a lot. It's very informal. What percentage of you has to be Asian to compete? Twenty-five percent? Fifty percent?
"These leagues were started because of segregation, so Japanese Americans had their own space and could preserve their culture. But in my research, what I have found is that the rules are changing. The older folks want to keep it the way it was, but the kids say, 'I think everybody should be able to play.' I believe the next generation will change and reflect those views."
In "Crossover," Justin Lin's 2000 documentary about the Japanese American leagues, 7-year-old Tricia Ota appears in one scene, dribbling a basketball. A decade later, after her Lions were routed by the more balanced Cougars, she was asked to look beyond the Northern California tournament that starts this week.
"I don't like the idea of having a league just for Asians," she said. "I like the idea of broadening (the rosters) on the church and club teams. One of the leagues in (the Bay Area) didn't let one of our teammates (St. Francis' Aurora Singh) play in a tournament last summer, so we all decided not to play. We didn't feel it was right.
"Basketball isn't supposed to be about that. It's not just a sport."
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