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Golden Nuggets: From Laney to Cal, Meet Marcel Dancy. Also Meet New WBB Players

First week of school and Jim Knowlton brings the student athletes together.

NCAA Basketball: Utah at California Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Football

  • Find out how junior transfer Marcel Dancy mentored young football players while at Laney, and also find out how Jared Goff was the one who may have gotten Dancy to Cal.

Before he snapped on a Cal helmet for the first time, Dancy played two seasons at Laney College in Oakland. During his time at Laney, he met Thirland Ross, head coach of the Oakland Dynamites Pop Warner football team. They met through Ross’ son, Mekhi, who played on a flag football team with Dancy. After chatting with Dancy for a bit, Ross was impressed with his football knowledge and asked him if he would like to meet the kids he coaches and teach them more about the game of football. Dancy jumped at the opportunity. ”He’s great with the kids,” Ross said. “The kids can relate to him because he had the same upbringing. Growing up in Oakland, you don’t see a lot of people who give back the way he does. He teaches them that there’s more to football besides what you do on the field. He tells them to make sure they’re a student first and to make sure their grades are good. He tells them to respect their parents and give back when you can.”

Back to School

  • In my previous Golden Nuggets I showed Cal Athletics’ video highlighting the Student Athlete Orientation... here’s a writeup of the event from the Athletic website staff.
  • Jim Knowlton also published his first Knowlton’s Notes of the semester highlighting that event plus the great offseason that the Bears have had.
  • The Daily Cal’s Can Sariöz writes about how he thinks Cal Athletics can increase school spirit, an “alarming dilemma” given poor attendance over the years.

Meet WBB Freshmen

  • Meet Women’s Basketball freshmen McKenzie Forbes and Sierra Richey. More to come soon.