Notebook: HS teammate of Kobe Bryant remembers playing together, ‘witnessing history’
In a league game during the 1996 high school basketball season in Pennsylvania, the announcer stopped the competition after a senior guard scored a basket:
“Lower Merion High School’s Kobe Bryant had just surpassed Wilt Chamberlain for the most career points in state history.”
“It was one of the moments when you realize you were witnessing history,” Dan Pangrazio said.
Pangrazio, the assistant superintendent of business services for Ceres Unified School District, was a teammate of Bryant’s for two years at Lower Merion.
Pangrazio received texts from family and friends on Sunday when news broke of Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash that also claimed eight other lives, including Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.
“I saw the report come out and looked at the TMZ article and was in disbelief,” Pangrazio said on Monday. “You hold on to hope that it was an error.”
Pangrazio spent his freshman and sophomore years at Lower Merion before moving to Connecticut and said while the spotlight was always on Bryant, the future five-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers was always humble.
“He was remarkable in a lot of ways,a highly intelligent individual who was well-loved and respected around the school,” Pangrazio said. “He carried that same charismatic, compelling personality that he always had (in the pros).”
Led by Bryant, who won numerous national player of the year awards in 1996, the school won a state championship.
Bryant finished his high school career with 2,883 points, according to PennLive.com, eclipsing Chamberlain’s more than 2,200 points at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia.
Pangrazio said Bryant inspired the team to “rise to the best level you could.”
“I was a shooting guard and he would kick the ball out to me,” Pangrazio said. “I knew he threw it to me because he believed it was the right play and you didn’t want to let him down (and miss).”
While Bryant was known for his scoring in high school and the pros, Pangrazio said the games he remembered at Lower Marion were the games where Bryant would be triple-teamed and get 15 or more assists.
Pangrazio said Bryant modeled his game after Michael Jordan and even before Jordan’s infamous “flu game” against the Utah Jazz in 1997, Bryant imagined how Jordan would play a game sick as Kobe was “sick as a dog” for one high school game.
“Thinking about that before and during the game, nobody else would play that like and he put on an absolute show that night,” Pangrazio said. “It was just his will to compete and he wanted to win.”
There were also games where Lower Marion had big leads and the team would throw alley-oops to Bryant, who had some memorable dunks.
One of those dunks, Pangrazio said, was a replica of former Duke guard Grant Hill’s alley-oop against Kansas in the 1991 NCAA Championship. Hill went up for a alley-oop from the right side of the rim and nearly hit his head on the backboard before dunking it with his right hand.
“There were times in games where I would marvel at things he could do on the basketball court,” Pangrazio said.
Washington Wizards head coach Scott Brooks, an East Union High School graduate, spoke with reporters before Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks about Bryant’s legacy.
“Words can’t describe and it doesn’t do any justice to who he is and how he impacted the sports world,” Brooks said. “The guy had a mentality that you want your team to play with.”
Local volleyball players honored by Cal-Hi Sports: Five local volleyball players were recently named to various Cal-Hi Sports All-State teams.
Central Catholic sophomore Abby Castillon, who was named the Bee’s Player of the Year, was named to the first team All-State sophomore team as well as the first team All-State Medium Schools team.
Gregori senior Mara Semone was named to the third team All-State team for seniors only.
Escalon sophomore Amanda Murphy made the first-team All-State sophomore team as well as first team All-State Small Schools team.
Hilmar senior Mikela Labno made the first team for small schools and Gregori junior Olivia Keller made the first team for juniors.
Local wrestling teams compete in Clovis: Three local wrestling teams competed in the inaugural California State Team Duals Championships on Jan. 25 at Clovis North.
Although it was an unofficial event, several of the top teams in the state competed in the event.
Oakdale finished in fifth place in Division II while Turlock finished in fourth in Division III and El Captian came in seventh in Division IV.
Vacaville won the Division II title.
The CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Team Duals Championships are this Saturday at Lincoln High School in Stockton.
Games of the Week: Here are some of the top high school sporting events for this week.
Boys Basketball: Gregori at Enochs (Wednesday, 7:15 p.m.), Ripon at Hilmar (Friday, 7:00 p.m.)
Girls Basketball: Patterson at Atwater (Thursday, 7:15 p.m.), Beyer at Lathrop (Thursday, 7:15 p.m.), Sonora at Calaveras (Thursday, 7:30 p.m.)
Boys Soccer: Gregori at PItman (Wednesday, 3 p.m.), Waterford at Le Grand (Wednesday, 5 p.m.)
Girls Soccer: Beyer at Ceres (Wednesday, 5:45 p.m.), Ripon at Hilmar (Friday, 3:30 p.m.)
This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 12:17 PM.
