Scholars and ballers: West Campus girls speak other languages, find way to win in playoffs
John Langston has been around the sport his entire life, gleaning lessons and rewards through effort and observation.
In high school in the late 1970s in North Carolina, decades before he became a championship girls basketball coach in Sacramento, Langston faced off against a bruiser in Buck Williams and a skilled guard in Phil Ford. Both went on to enjoy productive NBA careers. But what Langston witnessed earlier this season during a practice at West Campus, nestled in the heart of the Sacramento City Unified School District, truly moved him. It wasn’t a basketball moment as much as it was a worldly, wonderful one.
“This is not an easy school academically and these kids, in the classroom, are geniuses,” Langston said. “At one practice, we had two girls talking French on the court. They said, ‘Coach, we’ve got a big French test tomorrow and we’re going over the verbiage.’ That’s the sort of kids we have and I love it. Just brilliant, talented kids. What a joy they are.”
Here’s what else the longtime area coach known for his class and results appreciates: team growth and achievement. On Tuesday night at home, the No. 7-seeded Warriors beat No. 10 Sierra of Manteca 51-42 in a Sac-Joaquin Section Division III opener. Langston told his team afterward that his group has gone from “a motley crew that couldn’t catch the ball, couldn’t shoot, couldn’t defend,” to one that can do all of those things and is “now just a crew.”
Star guard Leilani Edinburgh leads that crew. The senior scored 25 points and was masterful in handling the ball, passing it and calmly making free throws. She refused to get tired. Sophomore guard Esabel Otsuji scored 18, including three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to pull away from Sierra and impressive junior guard Emma Gilmore, who had 17.
No one spoke French during this contest, but afterwards junior guard Dejuan Wang wowed her coach by offering bits of several different languages, including Chinese and French. This is West Campus, 17-4 on the floor and off the charts in the classroom. The universal language otherwise here is teamwork, fundamentals, trust, effort and fun.
The fun now includes a Thursday trip to Placer County to take on No. 2-seeded Lincoln. Langston challenged his starters — Edinburgh, Otsuji, Wang, Talia Quady and Azia Williams — to up their game even more.
“Listen with everything you have, and give everything you have,” the coach told them.
Yale engineering camp
Edinburgh was one of the girls speaking French that day in practice. She not only embraces the memory but encourages people to give French and exercise a try. Her game belies her serious academic nature. She plays with flair, whipping the no-look pass. She doesn’t get flustered. She wears jersey No. 23 in honor of her favorite player: Michael Jordan.
The youngest of eight children, Edinburgh averages 23.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 5.5 steals. She is the daughter of early 1990s baseball star Daree Edinburgh, who played at Elk Grove and McClatchy. She adores her dad, a fixture at the scorer’s table every game, but she cannot resist the chance to tease him, saying in the parking lot before their drive home when reminded he still looked game fit, “Oh, don’t let him fool you. He has a dad gut!”
Edinburgh has big dreams. She takes a load of challenging courses, including advanced-placement physics. She wants to attend Yale of the Ivy League and was beaming at the invite to attend Yale’s summer engineering camp.
“I can’t wait!” she said excitedly. “I want to be an architect, to build things.”
Edinburgh plays to the point of exhaustion, generally playing every moment of every game, because the team needs her and because this is what she craves.
“My favorite saying is pressure either breaks pipes or makes diamonds, and I love diamonds,” she said with a laugh.
Langston legend
Langston is in the midst of one of the great coaching careers in area history. He elevated the Sacramento Dragons to a state-championship level as coach in the 2000s, including mentoring Vicki Baugh, an all-time area great who went on to star at Tennessee.
At West Campus, Langston infused immediate impact upon his arrival in 2009, rooted in conditioning. Players run the school track in the summer until their legs become rubbery. West Campus won D-IV section championships in 2017, 208 and 2019. The Warriors made regional history by winning CIF state championships in 2017 and 2018, becoming just the third area program to repeat as a state champion, joining Colfax in 1983-84 in D-III and Grant in 1987-88 in D-II.
Langston didn’t expect to be here this season, however. He took a season off two seasons ago to work on his golf game, to spend more time with his wife, Cheryl, to take a breather. But he was drawn back to competition and the chance to work with student-athletes who are supremely motivated to be the best.
“One thing I demand is these girls give the same effort on the floor as they do academically because these are great students who give us their all in games,” Langston said.
Molded by hard labor
Langston had no idea he would coach girls basketball growing up in North Carolina. His childhood was dominated by working the tobacco fields with his parents, including many a summer under the searing sun. His outlet was his passion: basketball.
“The industry was tobacco, and I learned valuable lessons,” Langston said. “I experienced things that made my work ethic different than a normal person. Working those fields was not something I liked. At 15, I told my parents that I can’t do this anymore. I knew everything about the fields, about tractors, how to feed cows, pigs, how to ride horses, planting crops, and I’m familiar with fertilizers. I had choices. I chose to go to college after high school.”
Langston wound up on the West Coast. He attended Fresno City College and graduated from Sacramento State after playing his final two collegiate seasons for the Hornets in 1981-82.
Watching the Super Bowl on Sunday, Langston said he was reminded of sports and its meaning.
“It hits me when I hear the national anthem,” Langston said. “I get extremely emotional. I saw the Philadelphia Eagles coach during the anthem on TV, and he’s crying, and I completely understood what he was feeling. I’ve felt that. It’s a feeling of, ‘I can’t believe I’m here.’ It’s such a good feeling.”
This story was originally published February 15, 2023 at 5:00 AM.