Bret Harte girls basketball win first State Championship in program history
Bret Harte girls' basketball had redemption on its mind heading back to the Golden 1 Center on Saturday for the CIF State Division V Championship against No. 8 seed Marina.
The Bullfrogs' first time on the big stage ended in a Sac-Joaquin Section championship loss, but this time around nothing was going to stop them from winning.
“The frogs will be hopping in Calaveras county tonight,” Jeff Eltringham, Bret Harte’s head coach said. “They’ve been getting better and better all year and they deserve this win. They’re a good team and they’re like a family.”
Bret Harte’s dominating 62-39 win over the Vikings brings home the school’s first-ever state championship. The Bullfrog family will get to relish their win back in the comforts of Angles Camp.
“I was joking on the bench and I’m like ‘I hope the town doesn’t burn down because this is pretty special for our small town,” Eltringham said.
Here are the key takeaways from Bret Harte’s historic state championship win.
Ariah Fox doing it all
Bret Harte’s Ariah Fox couldn’t be contained from the moment the game started. The senior guard used her length to cut off any Marina passes on the perimeter. Her keen eye for the ball led to tons of offenses and a double-double.
She ended the game with 22 points, 15 rebounds and five steals. Fox left it all out on the floor in her final high school basketball game.
“I just wanted to go out and have fun and go out with a bang because this is a one-time experience,” Fox said. “I’ve been playing sports with most of these ladies since middle school and elementary, and it’s kind of an end of an era for basketball with them.”
When Fox wasn’t lighting the Vikings up, juniors Chase Silva and Makenna Tutthill filled in the gaps. Tutthill finished with 10 points and six rebounds while Silva added nine points.
Eltringham’s triumphant first season as head coach
As a Bret Harte alum, Eltringham’s first year as the Bullfrogs’ head coach couldn’t have been more picture-perfect. From being accepted by the girls to leading them to a historic end of the season, it exceeded all his expectations, he said.
“I bleed purple and gold, and that’s a little bit different than what they had before as coach,” he said. “They have had some really good coaches in their lives but it's a little bit different when you're from there. Getting to coach them and then pull something like this off for the community, it’s huge.”
A big win like this one wasn’t always something the Bullfrogs felt was attainable after going through adversity this season. Losing the Mother Lode League to Calaveras and then the SJS Division V championship to Valley Christian, things looked bleak.
Eltringham and his team never gave up though, and neither did the community who showed up in herds at the arena.
“Our school is pretty small as it is, so just the fact that we had so many people from our community drive this long drive just to watch us and support us means a lot,” Kadyn Rolleri, Bret Harte senior guard said. “I think that it really made us eager to win and to push harder.”
The Bullfrogs close out the 2022-'23 season with an overall record of 26-7 and with a state championship trophy to represent a year’s worth of hard work.
Record reporter Shannon Belt covers sports. She can be reached at sbelt@recordnet.com or on Twitter @ShannonBelt3. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Bret Harte girls basketball win first State Championship in program history
