Final Four profile: Marin City’s Trammell treasures ties to community
Senior Darrion Trammell, standing beside San Diego State University men’s basketball coach Brian Dutcher on the court, was interviewed before millions watching nationwide on television.
Trammell had just knocked down the game-winning free throw with 1.2 seconds left in a 57-56 victory over No. 6 Creighton on Sunday that sent the fifth-seeded Aztecs (31-6) to their first Final Four in school history.
“It’s all about believing in yourself,” the Marin City native said. “I feel like I put in the work. I had nothing to be nervous about. It’s just a game. I’m doing this for my family …”
Then, Trammell became emotional as he mentioned his siblings and family.
“… for the people back home. I’m just doing it for them. (With) my journey and what I’ve been through, it’s just a blessing to be here. I’ve been dreaming about this my whole life. I can’t even put this into words.”
"It's all about believing in yourself"
An emotional Darrion Trammell is lost for words after San Diego State earned its first trip to the Final Four #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/NIUvMfmV7Z
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 26, 2023
The sentiment Trammell shared about his family and his city is mutual.
Marin City has always cheered on its beloved point guard, but the zealousness has ratcheted up during March Madness.
With a victory from SDSU and one by UConn over Miami in the other Final Four matchup, Trammell could face fellow Marin native Joey Calcaterra in the final.
Height restrictions
Locals remember when Trammell played Pop Warner football for the Southern Marin Broncos. They recall him being cut from a North Bay Basketball Academy team. They were there when he crossed the Golden Gate Bridge to attend San Francisco’s St. Ignatius High School, where he starred for the Wildcats and became a trending topic among Bay Area basketball fans. They also stuck by Trammell when he received zero Division I college offers.
Long before he led San Diego St to
NCAA Final Four, Darrion Trammell was an elusive RB for the Southern Marin Broncos as an 11 year old in 2011. From my video archives. Shot, edited by Vern Glenn Productions. @PlayMarin @PauleasyA @dtrammell__ @GoAztecs @Aztec_MBB @KPIXtv pic.twitter.com/5w6ZhSImre
— vernkpix (@vernKPIX) March 27, 2023
Trammell was listed as 5-feet, 7-inches tall at St. Ignatius. His height kept college coaches away, so he decided to take a gap year and join Golden State Prep, a post-grad basketball academy working alongside Napa’s high school-level Prolific Prep academy staff.
The following year he landed with City College of San Francisco, leading the Rams to a 30-0 record before being named first-team all-Coast Conference. Trammell then received a long-awaited D-I offer from Seattle University, where he earned first-team all-WAC honors in both seasons with the Redhawks. He averaged 18.7 points, 5.1 assists, 3.8 assists, 2.3 steals and was named to the conference’s all-defensive team in 2022.
The chip on his shoulder has lived on, despite his roster-listed height increasing with each collegiate stop — 5-9 at Seattle and 5-10 at SDSU.
“He forced everybody to understand who he was,” said Lorenzo Bynum, a trainer, friend and mentor of Trammell. “He’s a very humble kid. He puts his head down and works hard for everything. I realized he was going to be something special when he was a junior in high school because of his work ethic.”
Ready for a change
In his final game with Seattle, Trammell recorded 39 points and seven rebounds.
After the loss, Trammell felt it was time to move on, Bynum said, so he entered the transfer portal and landed with the Aztecs.
“At San Diego State, he wasn’t being relied on to score 20 points a game, and that helped him a lot,” said Bynum. “He worked so hard in the offseason on his defense, and it showed. He said, ‘If I get to that tournament, I can show everyone what I can do.’ Now he’s there and you see the rest. The opportunity presented itself and he’s not going to let you down.”
Trammell opened his SDSU career with a bang, scoring 18 points in a season-opening rout of Cal State Fullerton, followed by a 21-point performance against BYU. He was steady throughout the season, tallying 9.9 points per game.
As he has always done, Trammell saved his best for the brightest stage. In AAU ball with the Oakland Soldiers, he went viral online for drilling the game-winning shot on Team CP3, a squad created by NBA superstar Chris Paul. His heroics in the postseason for St. Ignatius put him on the Northern California high basketball map. And plenty of dazzling plays for all of his college teams prior to SDSU garnered buzz online.
So it’s not surprising Trammell has thrived in his first March Madness. After winning the Mountain West Conference tournament, Trammell started the dance with a five-point output against the 12th-seeded College of Charleston. He then registered 13 points against No. 13 Furman, 21 points and five boards in an upset of No. 1 Alabama and 12 points and five rebounds in an Elite Eight triumph against No. 6 Creighton.
“Darrion has always performed the best in the biggest moments,” said newly-hired University of Idaho men’s basketball coach Alex Pribble, a former Drake High standout and longtime Marin coach who coached Trammell at Seattle University. “Darrion steps up on the biggest stages.
“Nobody deserves this more than Darrion. Darrion works incredibly hard on his game. Not only does he take advantage of every opportunity that is given to him, but he creates more opportunities by putting in so much extra work. He is so humble, too. He really separates himself with his work ethic, and the work is paying off.”
Putting in the work
A tattoo that reads “DWMTM” is inked on Trammell’s arm. The acronym stands for dreams worth more than money. His father, Damien Trammell, lauded his son’s discipline. One of his dreams was to reach the Final Four, Damien said, and some others are to win a national championship and play in the NBA.
When Darrion was 8 years old, he told Damien how much he admired Kobe Bryant. Damien informed Darrion that when Bryant was not at games or practices, when nobody was watching, he was working out and training. So if they were watching TV together, during commercials, Darrion should try to knock out 25 pushups, Damien said. Sure enough, when Damien walked by Darrion’s room, he peeked in the door and saw his son doing pushups –when he thought nobody was watching.
Damien said he and Trammell’s mom, Diema, did all they could to provide Trammell with ample opportunities, including driving him around California for camps. When Trammell twisted his ankle playing freshman football, he decided to shift his focus exclusively to basketball. Trammell’s grandma bought Darrion a car in high school so he could drive to practices and games.
“We could see how hard he was working, so we did what we could do,” Damien Trammell said. “You have to be resilient and have faith in yourself, and he definitely has had that. He picks up on stuff a lot faster.”
Damien said Darrion was walking on his own at 7 months, talking before 1 and dribbling a ball at 1.
“He’s also very humble,” Damien Trammell said. “He would score four or five touchdowns a game in Pop Warner and kids would come up to him and ask why he’s not celebrating. He was always very mature.”
Damien, Bynum and a contingent of family and friends from Marin City are flying to Houston for the Final Four. Damien said he has heard from dozens of people getting ready to watch the games in person. There have also been watch parties in Marin City for SDSU games.
Sarah Finney, Seattle University’s associate athletic director for strategic communications, said in January 2021 that of all the team’s players, when the department posted about Trammell on social media, they got the most engagement. Trammell, at the time, credited his Marin City roots, calling the area a tight-knit community where “everyone is connected.”
When SDSU played at Stanford this year, Paul Austin, the founder of Play Marin, rented two buses to take people from Marin City to the South Bay game, Bynum said.
“It has always been like this, even back in high school,” Damien Trammell said. “He always had that love and support. He makes it easy for people to like him.
Marin City fully invested in the Madness!
Darrion Trammell led San Diego State to their first ever Elite 8 in Louisville, while friends and family across the country watched their hometown hero ball out on the big stage. @dtrammell__ @SIscores https://t.co/8YmDfZUpEQ
Storypic.twitter.com/07TNqsk49L
— Charlie Walter (@CharlieWalterTV) March 25, 2023
“I’m too excited (for Houston). I wish it was Friday. I’m always more nervous than him. Even when he was a little kid, I’d ask if he had butterflies, and he always said, ‘Nope.’ I played football and had butterflies and nerves until that first hit. He is just always calm because he knows he put in the work to get the job done.”
‘Marin City has talent’
That job is not done yet. But, Bynum assured, Marin City already couldn’t be prouder.
Bynum — who brought a young Trammell to countless open gyms and pickup games growing up, exposing him to older, bigger, stronger players at an early age — said when any kid he currently coaches says they’re tired, he reminds them of Trammell’s story. He knows Trammell is a role model to so many in Marin City and beyond, with an exceptional work ethic and “contagious smile.”
“We always say, ‘Marin City has talent,’” Bynum said. “But Marin City is not always known for positivity. Kids sometimes make the wrong decisions with that talent. But Darrion stayed the course and was able to stay away from the streets and out of trouble. He just focused on school, basketball and family, and I think people around his age respected him more for that because he wasn’t trying to be something he’s not. Not many people around here can afford to go to college, so him getting all of his scholarships is such a huge deal.
“This is huge for Marin City. One of our own is out there. This is once-in-a-lifetime, and nobody deserves it more than Darrion.”