DeMarcus Nelson (left) is flanked by his doting father Ron Nelson after he broke the California all-time state scoring record during a 2004 Sac Joaquin Section semifinal playoff game at ARCO Arena vs. Lodi Today. DeMarcus broke a state scoring record that stood for 11 years and also finished his career Top 10 in rebounds and assists. Photo: Mark Tennis
California has a new all-time boys basketball career scoring leader in 6-foot-3 Duke-bound DeMarcus Nelson of Sacramento Sheldon, and as with all such accomplishments, it came with the aid of fatherly guidance.
By Mark Tennis & Lee Hubbard
Editor’s Note: We hope you enjoy this free story on CalHiSports.com. The first portion of this feature was written by Cal-Hi Sports co-founder Mark Tennis, then the executive editor of Student Sports Magazine, who covered the record-breaking feat. The second part was written by Lee Hubbard, a free-lance writer and former sports editor, as part of a longer feature he wrote for NorCalPreps.com, a site on the Rivals.com high school network.
For 59 seconds during a California Interscholastic Federation Sac-Joaquin Section Div. I semifinal playoff game on March 4 between Sheldon of Sacramento and Tokay of Lodi at ARCO Arena, the state’s all-time career scoring record was knotted up at 3,359 points.
Then Sheldon’s DeMarcus Nelson was fouled and headed to the free throw line. With 1:04 left in the third quarter and Nelson’s team leading 70-46, the 6-foot-3 senior swished his first shot from the stripe. The state record was his and a group of family and friends in one section of the arena showed off some t-shirts that were made for the moment.
They read: The Ice Man 3,360 DeMarcus Nelson.
Some of the fans on hand for the game also realized what had happened, stood up and applauded. But there was no additional celebration and the only acknowledgment from Nelson came a few minutes later on the bench with a wink and a smile to his family.
Nelson went on to finish with 30 points, 11 rebounds and four assists as Sheldon defeated Tokay of Lodi, 91-68, and advanced to the section final that was held two nights later, a game the Huskies lost.
“Going into high school I never would have imagined something like this, but I’ve played well throughout my whole high school career,” Nelson said of eclipsing the previous record of 3,359 points set in 1993 by All-American center and former Student Sports Magazine cover subject Darnell Robinson from Emery of Emeryville. “I’ve worked hard to be in this position and it’s one of the best records you can get. There’s been a lot of great players from California, so it says a lot when you can be on the top of that list.”
Nelson’s father, Ron, joked in the hallway afterward that he thinks he might have lost 20 pounds in the last few months, wondering if the prestigious record would be broken by his son. A number of things, after all, could have derailed the quest, like a turned ankle, an early playoff exit, even someone inducing a fight, then a one-game suspension.
DeMarcus Nelson considers Vallejo “home”.
“Well, it’s been a long four years,” Ron Nelson said. “DeMarcus might even have been a better football player than a basketball player, but he gave up football so he couldn’t get injured. It’s all just a part of the journey to make his dreams come true. He certainly didn’t rush out to break any records at the beginning, but to be the best is very special.”
Nelson’s former head coach at Vallejo, Duke Brown, stuck around well after his own team had lost in an earlier game to witness the historic moment. Many of Nelson’s former Apaches’ teammates, whom he played with for three seasons before the family moved to the Laguna area of Sacramento last summer, also were on hand.
“Most of this record is Vallejo’s,” said Nelson, who will play next season at Duke. “It’s still my hometown and the people there can take most of the credit for helping me get it.”
Nelson’s current head coach, Scott Gradin, was hoping the record would fall before the finals so that the team could become even more focused on winning the championship and gaining a high seed in the regional playoffs.
“The record is definitely his own personal accomplishment more than a team one and we’re very proud of him,” Gradin said. “He faces great pressure in every game, but he still finds a way to put 30 points and seven assists in the books. He’s such an unselfish player. All the credit for this record goes to him and the hard work he’s put in.”
His father put in some hard work, too.
It’s just after 4 p.m. at the Vallejo Sports Academy, a massive sports facility located on Mare Island in Vallejo. The facility has three basketball courts, a batting cage, two indoor soccer rinks, and track space for athletes. Ron Nelson has a stern look on his face, as he stands in the middle of a basketball court, giving basketball instruction to 10 middle school age kids.
“Take a stop, dip across and then shoot,” says Nelson. As the young man does the crossover dribble, Nelson smiles after it is completed correctly. “That’s good.”
During the week, Ron drives from Sacramento to Vallejo to see his parishioners, who attend church at the Revival Center Church, where Nelson is an Associate Pastor under the church headed by Pastor Ricky Nutt. But in between ministering to souls, Nelson also takes some time out to teach basic basketball fundamentals to a select group of kids from the Vallejo area.
“There are a lot of people who can play basketball, but they don’t want to work hard at developing their skills,” said Nelson. “People have to have that mentality to get better and to receive the correct information. A lot of kids are being told how great they are but they can’t dribble with their left hand, they don’t know how to do a jump stop and their fundamentals are bad. They may be having some success at a point, but it is only a momentary success.”
DeMarcus learned how to play under his father’s tutelage, which is something he still receives from time to time. It was in a gym like this that the elder Nelson helped to shape DeMarcus into the player he has become. At his workouts, which last for close to two hours, Nelson works strictly on offensive fundamentals. Things such as basic ball handling, moving without the ball, shooting off the dribble, and coming off of screens to shoot.
Ron wipes the sweat off his brow as he looks at one of his pupils doing the shooting exercise. Dressed in a dark green sweatsuit, he watches at half-court as two lines of kids, ranging in age from sixth to ninth grade students, work on shooting jumpers off of the dribble.
“Stop,” says Ron. “Now I did not tell you do the drill like this. Listen. You come to a complete stop, jump and then shoot. You don’t skip.”
After he finished speaking, another student does the drill incorrectly, which makes him pause and take a deep breath.
“Listen everyone,” said Ron, as the balls stop bouncing and the parents who are seated to the side of the court look up. Nelson’s basketball instruction is basketball, psychological and part evangelical. “I minister to people everyday, who don’t follow the rules. They go to church, but they don’t listen to the message. Now you are here to get better. If you don’t want to get better, you are wasting your time, your parents’ time, and my time.”
Striving for improvement is one of Ron Nelson’s monikers. It was something he strived for when he was playing basketball in the gyms and streets growing up in Richmond, California, where he played at De Anza High in the late 1970’s.
After graduating from De Anza, Ron continued to play in various Pro-Am leagues in San Francisco and other adult leagues. He was even offered an opportunity to play professionally in Switzerland.
As his family grew, he did decide to pass on his basketball lessons to his sons. The first athlete in the family was Darnell, who was the older sibling DeMarcus idolized.
“When DeMarcus was in the sixth grade, he was dominating all of the local tournaments and leagues. I then took him to Oakland to play, and he was dominating the play out there.”
When he first set foot on campus at Vallejo High School, Nelson came with a mentality to be the best. As a freshman, he averaged 17 points per game (scoring 432 points) and was voted the state Freshman of the Year by CalHiSports.com. In his sophomore year, he continued his impact on the basketball court, scoring a sophomore state record 1,010 points (29.7 ppg) in leading Vallejo to first place in the Monticello Empire League (MEL), but the team was knocked out of the playoffs by Oakland Tech.
During his junior season last year, Nelson helped lead Vallejo to the MEL title by scoring 960 points, but Nelson’s team was knocked out of the sectional playoffs by Valley of Sacramento. It was during the playoffs when he made a lasting impression on Brown, his head coach at the time.
“When we played against Lodi in the sectional playoffs, the game was tight. We had played them earlier in the season and when a team usually faces the same team again, the game usually tightens,” said Brown. “No one is stepping up as it is getting tight, and Markie is a team player, but at some point, I want him to take over. So while the game is going on, someone in the stands yells out, ‘He is just an average player.’”
Brown said that the comments helped to light a fire under Nelson as he single-handedly destroyed Lodi.
The lasting impression that Brown had for Nelson on the court could also be felt off the court. During the start of last year’s basketball season, Brown was going through personal problems, as his 2-month old son died. He said that Nelson comforted him during his grieving period.
“DeMarcus was my son’s god brother, and his parents were the god parents,” said Brown. “He would call in the morning and evening, just to see how I was doing. He did it not because he had to, but because he is a very caring person.”
It was a late Spring day last year. Gradin was sitting in his office waiting for class to start, when he got a phone call that would change his team and his school’s fortunes.
“As a head coach in the spring, you get a lot of phone calls from parents who move into the district,” Gradin recalled. “They will tell me about their sons, and about how he is a basketball player, but when the kid comes on campus, he is 5-foot-5, 100 pounds, and has never played before.”
In his 10th year of head coaching, Gradin said he has heard it all. But when Ron Nelson called, he got extremely animated.
“When he tells me who his son is, I start banging the phone because I don’t think that it is working,” continued Gradin. “And low and behold, the Nelsons moved into our attendance area and it was a blessed day for us at Sheldon High School.”
Postscript: DeMarcus Nelson ends his senior season with 1,060 points in 35 games (30.3 ppg along with 10.9 rpg and 5.8 apg) to put the state career scoring mark at 3,462 points in 130 career games (26.6 ppg). Sheldon finished the 2003-04 season with a 28-6 record and ranked No. 16 in the Cal-Hi Sports State Top 20 after advancing to the NorCal D1 final, where it lost to De La Salle of Concord. When his numbers between Vallejo and Sheldon were tallied, Nelson had 1,582 career rebounds and 794 assists, both top 10 marks at the time of his graduation As of 2025, his rebounding mark is still No. 5 on the all-time state list and his assist total is still in the Top 20 all-time. In January of 2025, Vallejo retired his No. 21 jersey. In the past 50 years, Nelson and Bill Cartwright of Elk Grove (1974 and 1975) are the only two players from the Sacramento Metro region to earn Mr. Basketball State Player of the Year honors.
