{"id":519818,"date":"2026-03-07T06:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T06:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/519818\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T06:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T06:30:12","slug":"california-high-school-basketball-program-names-gym-after-wnba-star-sabrina-ionescu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/519818\/","title":{"rendered":"California high school basketball program names gym after WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a decade ago, Sabrina Ionescu was dominating the girls\u2019 high school basketball scene in California. <\/p>\n

Now twelve years after she graduated and left for the University of Oregon, the WNBA star will see her name permanently etched into history at Miramonte High<\/a> in Orinda. A petition that garnered more than 500 signatures to name the school\u2019s gymnasium after Ionescu was approved by the school district\u2019s governing board in a unanimous vote this week. <\/p>\n

In doing so, she was noted as somebody who has made \u201ccontributions of state, national or global significance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is not a retired legend being honored in hindsight; she is a living, breathing, active athlete in the prime of her career, shaping the sports world in real time,\u201d Kelly Sopak, her longtime high school and club basketball coach, said in a news release. \u201cThat makes this moment even more extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ionescu was California\u2019s Ms. Basketball in 2016, named a McDonald\u2019s All-American and later won MVP honors of the game after scoring a record 25 points and pulling down 10 rebounds. Nationally, she was a top-5 recruit in her class and a late signee for Oregon<\/a> as the highest-ranked recruit to ever sign with the Ducks at that time. <\/p>\n

At the college level, she was twice named the John R. Wooden women\u2019s national player of the year, as well as earning Naismith Player of the Year honors as well in 2020. Ionescu was also tabbed as the Pac-12 Player of the Year three times and was named to the all-league team in each of her four seasons in Eugene. <\/p>\n

Ionescu has continued her dominance in the WNBA<\/p>\n

The New York Liberty selected her with the first overall pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft, and since then she has been a four-time All-Star and led the team to a championship in 2024. Renowned as one of the most popular players \u2014 among both men and women \u2014 she also became the first women\u2019s player to launch a unisex signature shoe with Nike.<\/p>\n

At the high school level, she was was a dominant force, foreshadowing what could come at the collegiate and pro levels. <\/p>\n

In Ionescu\u2019s four season, Miramonte went 119-9 while she set school records for points (2,606), assists (769), steals (549) and triple-doubles (21).<\/p>\n

Added Superintendent Dr. John Nickerson: \u201cShe was not only one of the greatest athletes to come out of Miramonte, but also one of the greatest athletes of her generation and a role model whose courage, work ethic, and leadership can inspire our students and community every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than a decade ago, Sabrina Ionescu was dominating the girls\u2019 high school basketball scene in California. Now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,205238,82,630],"class_list":["post-519818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-miramonte-matadors-orinda","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}