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A practice shot. Photo by Bryan Farley. Click to enlarge.

Maxwell Park resident Katinka Partridge is bringing her special brand of sports philosophy to Fremont Federated High School Lady Tigers basketball. This former Dominican College player is the team's fourth coach in five years and the only female head coach of a Girls Varsity Basketball Program in the Oakland Athletic League (OAL). She has taken on a team that is not exactly free from challenges. The Lady Tigers had a 3-17 record last year, and, as reported in the Green and Gold (the school newspaper), also suffered through a coach's temporary suspension for unsportsmanlike behavior. The team lacks funds and had to borrow money from the girls' soccer program to pay for shoes and sweats. Add to that the obstacles that usually get in the way of girls in an urban school. Katinka says, "It's the usual stuff, teenagers raising their younger siblings, foster homes, teen pregnancy, girls fighting each other, girls fighting opponents. The list goes on," she told neighbors in an email. She also said she is optimistic. "I have a great group of girls with grades and athletic ability who want to win. We have the potential to be a really great team, so I have my work cut out for me. But I believe we can do it."

To do it, Katinka is assisted by Sharee Robinson and Arlena Winn, who volunteer their time, and by JV Coach Jaliza Collins, a Fremont alumna. They share her goal that the girls finish college, whether or not they go on to play basketball. Katinka says "We want them to have academic goals and life skills, we want them to learn how to function productively and succeed positively in life." But Katinka also wants to build a program and for the girls to become a team. "In order to succeed they need to be in shape. They don't want conditioning, they want to touch the ball, but to play they need to learn defense." Sharee, who played at Cal and is now studying to take the LSAT and plans to enter law school, adds, "We are trying to get them to college, so are trying to teach them what the coaches want to see."

In the gym in some of the early practices, the girls did seem a bit lackluster at first, not understanding that a good defense would mean that they soon would be able to "touch the ball." After orders from the coaches, "It's a scrimmage, but don't you want to know how to break that press?" "Maybe by end of season you will be able to follow instruction, let's hope so," and several calls to "hustle," the girls seemed to get it. After a press and a successful move down the court, Katinka calls out, "Now we are in an offense." From the burgeoning team there's an audible "Oh, ahh."

In the fall of 1891, James Naismith invented basketball. A year later, girls were playing basketball at Smith College. Five years later, according to Shattering the Glass, the Remarkable History of Women's Basketball, Stanford and UC Berkeley played the first women's intercollegiate game. Authors Grundy and Shackelford describe it. "The game, held at a San Francisco Armory, created an enormous sensation. More than seven hundred spectators jammed the gallery and roared until the glass doors in the gun cases shivered at the noise."

Although the community may not provide quite as much enthusiasm for a local high school team as spectators did at that pioneering event, Katinka says, "I truly hope that we have the support of the community and surrounding neighborhoods. I'encourage you all to come out and watch us'play on our home court."

Just before the Metro went to press, word arrived that the Lady Tigers, both JV and Varsity, won their first games.

Shattering the Glass, the Remarkable History of Women's Basketball, by Pamela Grundy and Susan Shackelford, 2005 (the New Press) can be ordered at Laurel Book Store. See the team schedule at www.macarthurmetro.org.

You Can download a pdf of The Lady Tigers Schedule Here.