Alcha - An A+ Student and A+ Athlete

By: Bob Kaehms

If you ask her mom Cheryl about Alcha Strane's basketball skills, she would say that it all started with Alcha playing on the portable hoop she bought when her daughter was in grade school so that she could play with the kids in the neighborhood. She enjoyed the game so much, that the Stranes signed her up to play on a mixed  team at the Boys and Girls Club of San Leandro during the summer of the fifth grade.  

Alcha turned out to be the only girl on the team, and the kids in the neighborhood were mostly boys.  What Cheryl remembers most about that summer was that Alcha made a lot of three pointers.  "Hmm, this kid has some skill," she and her husband at the time, Bert Strane were thinking.

Alcha's ability should be no surprise, considering that both parents are athletic, and still involved with sports.

Bert, a former baseball standout from Saint Elizabeth High School in Oakland, played in the minor leagues, and even now continues to keep involved as a scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks.  

Cheryl on the other hand, is a former runner and tennis player who works as a personal trainer, with aspirations of running her own private clinic.

Add to that, four older brothers who all played baseball, and well, you get the picture, as to why Alcha is such a good athlete, and why she chose basketball instead of baseball.

But if you ask Erin Davenport, Alcha's coach at Castro Valley High school, she'll tell you that it's not so much natural talent, as pure hard work and determination. 

"Alcha just wants it more, and works harder than the next person," she said.

If basketball were high-energy physics, then Alcha might be the next Glenn Seaborg,  who quotes Thomas Edison  in acknowledgement of his success and eventual Nobel Prize in chemistry,  "Genius is 99% perspiration".

Add to that mix of hard work, sweat, and natural talent, the chemistry of Alcha's team.  According to Tina Frey, Trojan Frosh coach, and Alcha's coach during much of her pre-Trojan development, Alcha and two other Lady Trojans have been playing year round together since the 6th grade. The team that started at Canyon Middle School in the 6th grade continued on in NJB, CYO, and AAU because the girls just didn't want to quit. 

"Alcha has always been the top scorer, as well as a  top rebounder," says Frey, "and by the end of her three years playing league ball she had amassed over 1200 points." The team, that included Rebecca Medrano and Patricia Allen from the start, and then picked up Roxanne Rufino in the 7th grade, and Genny Anderson, Jennifer Thomas, and Jennifer Wilkinson in the 8th grade, had a number of honors bestowed on them even before they started at CVHS. 

As Bob Frey, Tina's husband and co-coach during the period remembers, the 8th grade team was 30 and 3.  In addition they won three tournaments that season including the Stanley Tournament of Lafayette and Newark Community Center Tournament. 

As an NJB team, they took 2nd place in Nationals in the 7th grade and 1st place in the 8th grade All Net division.

Rebecca, Genny, Patricia, Jennifer Wilkinson and Jennifer Thomas all played CYO together.  They won their league 3 years in a row and the Dioceses (regionals) three years.   

Today as a sophomore, Alcha is starting point guard for the Trojans for the second year in a row, and scores on average 15 to 16 points a game. She has had four 20+ point games this year. Her biggest improvement this year is in defense. 

Erin Davenport, who relies on Alcha to  provide focus and composure, says that Alcha can be her own biggest critic, but has learned to temper her self-judgment, which has in turn helped the attitude of the entire team. 

Alcha's strive for perfection has her shooting 78% from the free throw line, second in steals, and fifth in rebounds. 

Off the court, she is maintaining a 4.0 GPA, and volunteers her time teaching children about basketball.  Her favorite subject is math, and with such a good performance both on and off the court, she is hoping for a scholarship outside of the Bay Area.  

But that is two years away, and for now, with a 2-0 league record, her eyes are focused on the HAAL.

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