By Jonathan Okanes, Cal Athletic Communications
BERKELEY – Unlike her surname, there is no need to clarify Reshanda Gray’s commitment to help those less fortunate.
In fact, the working title for the foundation she plans to start after her days at Cal are over says just that: No Gray Area.
The Bears’ All-America candidate has made a lasting impact as a basketball player in Berkeley. An All-Pac-12 performer, she helped Cal reach its first Final Four in school history as a sophomore. She also is expected to be a top pick in this spring’s WNBA Draft.
But Gray is looking to make a different kind of impact – one similar to the one she had made on her.
“Growing up, I had a lot of experience with the social work system from past experiences,” said Gray, now a senior. “I know how I felt to be part of the system. This is definitely why I used basketball to get my way here and get my degree in social welfare. I want to be able to help families keep their children in their homes and not have them taken away.”
Gray grew up in a rough neighborhood in Los Angeles but made it on to the right track after joining an after-school program called “After School All-Stars” while attending Bret Harte Middle School. Part of the program included the “Start Something” curriculum, devised by the Tiger Woods Foundation and aimed at developing character in children and encouraging volunteerism.
After urging from program coordinator Tyrone Dinneen, who ultimately became Gray’s godfather, she immersed herself in Start Something and continued to come back to help even after moving on to Washington Prep High School.
“I think a kid who has been in the situation like she has – with adults outside her family having an impact on her – it makes you want to do the same for others,” Dinneen said.
Gray is likely headed for a career in the WNBA, and hopes to leverage her status to help start her foundation and provide for those in need. Gray would like to hold free basketball clinics for kids and start an after school program similar to the one that had such an impact on her life.
“I want to open up an actual program at several low-income high schools and middle schools to keep them busy after school instead of getting in trouble like me when I was younger,” Gray said. “I definitely want to give them the opportunity to keep them happy and do something positive.”
It took Dinneen a while to convince Gray to join After School All-Stars. He repeatedly asked her to give his program a try but she resisted. When she finally relented, Gray formed a irrevocable bond with Dinneen that lasts to this day. By the time Gray was a sophomore in high school, she had moved in with Dinneen and his wife, Missy.
Gray now calls Tyrone and Missy her Godparents.
“She’s definitely one of my favorite kids of all time,” said Dinneen, who was the coordinator at After School All-Stars for 11 years. “It started out that she would come over a couple of days a week, then all of the sudden she just didn’t go home.”
Dinneen marvels at the spirit and zest for life Gray had as a child despite her difficult circumstances. Gray still vividly remembers the day social workers arrived at her home and took her and her six siblings away in a van and subsequently divided them up in foster homes. She acknowledges she didn’t always do the right thing when she was younger because she wanted to be perceived as “cool” by her friends, or was simply defiant due to her situation.
Gray says things began to look up when her grandmother, Velma Livingston, took her and her siblings into her home so the family could be re-united. The family eventually went back to live with their mom, Janice Jones.
“If you knew seriously what her background was like, the fact that she came to the program with a smile on her face every day is pretty amazing,” Dinneen said. “She had that kind of demeanor through all of her struggles. A lot of kids use some of the things that have happened to them as an excuse to behave in a certain way. She was never like that. She was going to be better than that. She was going to make a difference.”
She’s already done that, and has plans to do a lot more. Working with Cal’s women’s basketball program and the Golden Bear Advisory Committee, Gray has served meals to the homeless, volunteered at the Boys & Girls Club of Oakland and spoken to numerous kids at local schools, among other things. Along with the influence of Dinneen and After School All-Stars, the game of basketball helped her overcome a challenging childhood.
Now, with the aid of her sport, she hopes to do the same for others.
“The team definitely looks up to her and respects what she does and who she is because of where she came from,” said teammate Brittany Boyd. “She’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. Through all of that, she still is always smiling and so happy. That’s one of the things I really admire about her.”
