Small Indian reservation team Pyramid Lake tests heartbeat at massive new Girls California Live 23 basketball event

The headliners are many, from future women’s basketball stars such as Connecticut bound Morgan Cheli, of Archbishop Mitty, to Cal commit Kamryn Mafua (Folsom) and 4-star 2026 guard Devin Cosgriff (Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland).

There are nationally ranked and recognized teams such as California Interscholastic Federation state Open Division runner-up Mitty, La Jolla Country Day, Windward of Los Angeles, Bishop O’Dowd, Camas (Wash.) and South Medford (Ore.).

All are scheduled to gather Thursday through Saturday at the massive 160,000-square foot Roebbelen Center in Roseville (Calif.) for the inaugural Girls California Live 23 tournament, an NCAA-certified scholastic viewing for college coaches and the public.

• DOZEN PLAYERS TO FIND AND WATCH AT GIRLS CALIF. LIVE 23

More than 100 teams and 1,500 athletes from California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii sanctioned high school will participate in the event that is intended to not only showcase their skills for NCAA college coaches in a scholastic setting, but also help get them ready for the 2023-24 season.

It’s the first event of its kind in California — other such showcases for boys have been sanctioned throughout the country since 2019, but once the NCAA also certified one for the girls, the NFHS and CIF supported it as well — and will be run in conjunction with a 160-team Boys California Live 23 event that runs Friday through Sunday in Orange County. 

Small numbers, big heart

The novelty, opportunity and enormity of the event — with 12 games being played simultaneously on adjacent courts for more than eight hours a day — isn’t lost upon Pyramid Lake (Nixon, Nev.) coach Raymond Charles.

With about 90 high school-aged kids on campus, Pyramid Lake, a tribal secondary school on the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation, might be the smallest school in the event.

The Lakers aren’t big in numbers — they had eight players on the roster last season — or stature — “most of the girls are between 5-3 and 5-6,” Charles said — but they are enormous in skill, competitive edge and basketball IQ.

"We just play," Charles said. 

It has all added up to huge success since Charles took over in 2013, culminating in February with its first state (1A) title since 1981, when the Lakers capped a 22-3 season with a 59-23 win over Eureka at the Lawlor Events Center on the campus of the University of Nevada.

The championship not only broke a 42-year championship drought but also helped erase a bitter 66-62 overtime loss to Coleville (Ca.) in the 2022 state title game. That Lakers’ team went 24-5.

'Best of the best'

“The girls definitely know how to play,” said Charles, a former college athlete and now special-education teacher on campus. “We can run and shoot, and play really good defense. They’re really excited and I’m excited for them to showcase their talents against the best of the best.”

They definitely won’t be intimidated playing against competition from bigger schools.

They showed that in December, at another massive showcase, the 100-plus team West Coast Jamboree played in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Traveling more than 250 miles from its own campus, located about 55 miles northeast of Reno, the Lakers won the eight-team Ivory Division. The beat Granada-Livermore, a school of 2,300 students, 57-54 in the semifinals before defeating St. Mary’s-Berkeley 62-37 in the finals.

Clearly, bigger schools, big venues, new surroundings don’t affect the Lakers, who will be led this week by guards Shalaya Barazza, Olivia Lara, Raynan Mix-Tapija and Kaitlin Mandell, state champions all. 

They lost three seniors off the state-title team, but will add five to six players to get the roster up to at least 10.

'Respect the Game'

No matter the number, the Lakers promise to compete, said Charles, who took over the program following three winless seasons (0-43). They immediately went 24-3 in his first season and is 141-79 in his career.

It’s a no-star, true team operation at Pyramid Lake, which had eight girls score between 5.1 and 9.6 points per game last season. Lara and Mandell, both incoming juniors, led the way at 9.6 each.

No one averaged more than 5.0 rebounds per game, but all crash the boards. Charles admits that playing taller teams offer bigger challenges.

But, the bigger the obstacle, the bigger the reward is how the Lakers look at things. That’s why this week’s event has Charles and his girls so excited.

“I think the girls are both super excited and nervous,” Charles said of playing in the event.. “We don’t have a club team. We just play. Doesn’t matter if we were playing the Miami Heat or the girls in our area, we just play. Our attitude is to work hard. Show up and don’t showboat. Respect the game.”

That is definitely what college coaches want to see, Oak Ridge-El Dorado Hills coach Steven White said. “(College) coaches are always interested to see how players interact with their teammates,” he said. “And fans get to see how the elite athletes perform.”

Longtime St. Francis-Sacramento coach Brittany Woodard said: “This is a great opportunity for players to rise to the occasion, and do it in front of college coaches. It allows the girls to grow and compete. Tournaments like this really push your limits.”

EVENT NOTES: Among other notable, longtime high school coaches at the event are Mitty’s Sue Phillips, LJCD’s Terri Bamford, Monica Mertle (Cardinal Newman), Marlon Wells (Rancho Christian), Bryan Gardere (Piedmont), Mary Hile-Nepfel (University-San Francisco), Chris Roemer (Lincoln-Stockton), Christopher Kroesch (Mission Hills), Jerica Williams (Windward) and Kristina Santiago (St. Joseph-Santa Maria). … Fans are invited to the event which starts 9 a.m. each day and will continue into the evening. Admission is $10. … Each team will play four or five games. … Though Cheli will likely be starring for Mitty, the Monarchs’ other big star, SBLive’s National Newcomer (Freshman) of the Year in 2022-23, McKenna Woliczko will not be on hand because she’s playing overseas for the USA’s Under-16 squad. ... Camas, the Washington State 4A runner-up in 2022-23, will be the favorite next season with the return of forward Addison Harris and guard Reagan Jamison, plus the addition of combo guard Brooklynn Haywood, one of the Northwest's top 2026 prospects.