Mariposa boys face Brookside Christian for section title

Hanging in the Loyd Hobby Gymnasium on the campus of Mariposa County High School is a big blue banner which lists all the section championships the school has won.

Listed are four baseball titles, three softball championships and a section title for football, wrestling, boys soccer, volleyball and girls basketball.

The Grizzlies have won 19 Southern League boys basketball titles, but never a blue banner. Mariposa had never reached a section title game in boys basketball until Wednesday night.

The fourth-seeded Grizzlies (23-4) will try to win their first section title Friday against No. 2 Brookside Christian (25-4) in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V championship at Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento.

Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

“We want to change that,” said senior Dalton Rockwood, who leads the Grizzlies in scoring at 17 points per game. “Us seniors have all played together since middle school. Now that we have this opportunity to do this is amazing.”

Fellow senior Bradly Chambers has been dreaming about this since he was a little kid. He remembers writing a story for his third-grade class about how his dream was to win a section championship in high school.

“My mom still has the paper,” Chambers said. “I’ve known Noah (Dalton’s brother) and Dalton since third grade. It’s been a dream for all three of us.”

Chambers and the Rockwood brothers were all on the team last year that lost to Brookside Christian 68-62 in the semifinals. All three are happy to get a second shot at the Knights with the blue banner at stake.

“Absolutely, you always want to get a second shot,” Noah Rockwood said. “Last year we had a terrible first quarter and that was the difference in the game.”

The Grizzlies know they enter the game undersized against a superior athletic team, but that’s nothing new. That’s why they played a tough nonconference schedule against bigger schools like Pitman and Edison (Stockton).

“It’s going to be like everybody else we’ve played,” Mariposa coach Bob Jaekle said. “They’re going to be bigger than us, more athletic than us and quicker than us. The only way we can succeed is if we work harder than them.”

The Grizzlies have the comfort of knowing they have the whole school and town behind them. School is canceled Friday so as many people can get to the game as possible. The school is also sending six router buses to the game.

“I think we’re expecting about 140 to 160 students to go to the game, which is about a third of our enrollment,” said Mariposa athletic director Trace DeSandres. “It’s amazing.”

The players have been receiving rock-star treatment around campus.

“It’s insane at school,” Noah Rockwood said. “Everyone is super excited. Everyone is so excited they are shutting down the school.”

“I’ve had kids coming up to me wishing me good luck in the game,” Dalton Rockwood said. “Even kids I don’t really talk to much.”

The Grizzlies reached the championship game by knocking off top seed Bradshaw Christian 62-58 last week in Sacramento.

“Right when we got into the locker room after the game, you could feel the energy,” Noah Rockwood said. “We all knew we were going to Sleep Train. We were all super excited. It was a long trip home, but it felt like 20 minutes because we were all talking about the game.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 4:21 PM with the headline "Mariposa boys face Brookside Christian for section title."