Football players at McClymonds High feted with parade for 2nd consecutive state championship

OAKLAND, Calif. - The football players at Oakland’s McClymonds High School were feted on Friday for winning the state championship for the second year in a row with a parade and rally.

The players arrived at school at 1 p.m. on a double-decker sightseeing bus, waving up at SkyFox capturing the moment overhead.

"It feels good to bring something positive to the school," senior Dwayne Washington, a defensive tackle, told KTVU in December, after the team won the division 5-AA championship defeating Golden West High from Visalia by a score of 42-12.

The win capped a perfect 14-0 record and sealed the second straight state championship. No Oakland public high school has ever done that before.

Not bad for a school with less than 400 students, of which 330 of them qualify for the free- and reduced lunch program. "Lot of violence. Poverty. Lot of homeless. Housing problems. There's a lot stuff going on in this community and we've managed to overcome that," Dwayne said.

The players couldn’t be more stoked.

"Everybody thought last year was just like a fluke. It wasn't supposed to happen. And we came back this year and did it again," senior quarterback Emoreea Fountain said after the win.

The trophy – and the community pride – means so much to the team. And the neighborhood.

"You hear all the bad things about West Oakland. But the last few years there have been great things coming out of West Oakland. So we're on the other side of the fence right now," said coach Mike Peters.