Winston – Salem Stealers & the WBCA

Coach R:) With HSAA Committee Members

chairman of the WBCA High School All-American Game Selection Committee.

Coach R:) has served as a committee member since 2008.

The position requires Coach Robinson:) to oversee all high school All-American Selection Conference Calls, all activities before, during and after the High School All-American Game which will be played in Denver, Colorado in 2012 (and in other cities in years to come), and to help with the evaluation of players for the Nine (9) Districts that nominate players for the game (among other duties).

The WBCA High School All-American Game features 20 of the top high school senior girls basketball players in the United States and is held in conjunction with the WBCA Convention and Women’s Final Four each year.

Click HERE for an article on Coach R’s 🙂 new job.

Click HERE to learn more about the WBCA.

The game will be played in conjunction with the Women’s Final Four Games.

Here is a LINK to read the press release from the WBCA.

Coach R:) is the chair of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association High School All-American Team Selection Committee and will help organize and coordinate the activities for the twenty high school All-Americans (seniors) from Wednesday, March 28th – Monday, April 2nd.

Wednesday, March 28: I am now in Denver (two hours behind you in N.C.).  The trip was good and the weather, so far, is great.  We have our first staff meeting tonight at 8:30 PM in preparation for the players arriving on Thursday.

Most of the girls in our game will participate in the McDonald’s All-American Game which will be played Wednesday, March 28 on ESPNU and then fly to Denver on Thursday.

Thursday, March 29: Today is airport run day. We’ll start picking up players and coaches at the Denver Airport at 9:15 (MST) and bring them back to the host hotel so they can go through the process of being registered for this weekend.  We just five players / coaches to pick up this morning. Our big group comes in around 2:15 from Chicago, where the majority girls played last night in the McDonald’s Game.

We’ll have the mandatory NCAA Educational Session with the players, followed by a brief rules meeting, dinner and then lights out as we have a full day on Friday.

Friday, March 30 (and late Thursday, March 29): 18 girls are here, and 3 of the 4 coaching staff members as of Thursday Night. The one remaining player and coach fly in late Thursday Night. One girl will not be attendance.  On Friday, the girls will take their photos for the Jumbotron at the Pepsi Center in downtown Denver. We will then head to tourney town for an autograph session before heading back to the Pepsi Center, where the Final Four will be played at, for practice.  There is a picture below of the girls after dinner on Thursday.

Friday’s pictures include: (middle top row) Brittney Griner (#42) and the Baylor Bears head to practice as we are waiting for the girls to finish their photo shoots. The girls sign autographs at the Denver Convention Center’s Tourney Town.

Second Row: (Left-to-Right): The entire WBCA Team at tourney town; former Stealer (2000-2005) Brittini Young is now working on the college level and I ran into her at the NCAA Registration booth; the coaches and chaperones take a picture on the Final Four Court in the Pepsi Center, Team Co-Captains Brianna January and Sophie Young talk to the girls with Nike Representative Lauren Westendorf.

Third Row (Left-to-Right): ESPN’s Carolyn Peck, Kara Lawson, and Trey Wingo prep for the upcoming games; Nike Sparq Trainer Jackie Ansley works out the girls before their practice in the Pepsi Center.

Saturday, March 31 (and late Friday, March 30):  The girls had a full day on Friday (see pictures below). Saturday is game day.  The game is at 4:30 (MST), but will not be shown live on TV.  Before the game, the girls will be guests at the WBCA’s Awards Ceremony where they announced the WBCA All-American Team for college players. The girls will get to watch all four Final Four Team practices before taking the court at the Pepsi Center for their game.  More pictures coming later on Saturday, or early on Sunday.

Sunday, April 1 (and late Saturday, March 31): Pictures are posted below from our Saturday All-American Game, beginning on Row 3: (Beginning with the third picture) UConn Women’s Practice, Tip-Off our the WBCA High School All-American Game, Row 4: Fellow Committee Member Kevin Keirnan (Mater Dei’ High School) and one of our two ball girls Sophia, our other ballgirl Bella with Team Captain Brianna January and Chaperon Glenna Warhurst (and if you look in the background Pat Summitt is behind them), last picture is the WBCA College All-Americans (4 of them) Elena Delle-Donne, Glory Johnson, Shenise Johnson and Alyssa Thomas with the WBCA HS All-American Team following the game. Row 5: The WBCA College All-American Team was announced before our game. On Sunday, April 1st, the girls will participate in the Mile High Dribble in downtown Denver then we will attend the Women’s Final Four Games that evening.

Monday, April 2: Three more pictures were added to Row 5 below.  The Mile High Dribble festivities, the Mile High City Dribble led by our WBCA Team, and then a shot from the UConn / Notre’ Dame Game. The Row 6 picture is from halftime of the Baylor / Stanford game. Each head coach from the past (and current) USA Basketball Olympic Teams was honored by the NCAA and WBCA (Sue Gunter and Kay Yow, also former USA Olympic Coaches were honored).  Monday starts early with a 4:30 (MST) run to the airport to take four players.  I then have to make a second run around 8:15 to drop off another set of kids, before driving to downtown Denver. I have to speak at the WBCA / National High School Coaches Meeting. I will be discussing how the WBCA HS All-American Team and Selection Committee are chosen among other topics. Following that speech, it is back to the airport to catch my flight back home.

You can click HERE to learn more about the WBCA or click HERE to learn more about the High School All-American Game.

The WBCA national high school girls basketball committee is chaired by Winston-Salem Stealers / 292 Director Brian Robinson.

Click HERE to read a story on the selections.

GO STEALERS!!!

Coach R:) is the Chair of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) High School All-American Selection Committee, and will help coordinate and oversee the activities of the twenty seniors selected to play in the game, which takes place on Saturday.

To read more about past WBCA activities with our program, go to our WBCA page on this site.

To learn more about the WBCA click HERE.

Keep checking back for updates!!!

April 3: Coach Robinson is now in New Orleans and is preparing for the initial meeting tonight in preparation of the players and coaches arrival on Thursday. Next update coming Thursday, April 4th.

April 4: Today is pickup day. 17 of our 20 participants fly in from Chicago where they played in the McDonalds All-American Game last night.  Our four-person committee will pick the players and coaches up from the airport, the girls will then have a brief meeting and go through the NCAA Educational Session.   Tomorrow, all of the activities start, beginning with a volunteer service project at 8:00 AM.

April 5: Wow, the joy of travel… the 17 players flying in from Chicago had several flight delays causing their 6:30 PM arrival to be pushed back to 10:15 PM.  The others arrived around their time.  I spent most of the day with the committee chaperones in the airport waiting for the players and coaches to arrive.  The waiting wasn’t all for naught, as I saw many of my college coaching friends and met Yolanda Griffith, who is a former Olympian and ironically, a new member of the USA Basketball Selection Committee, that I was a part of the past four years.
I also ran into former Stealers player and current Hall-of-Fame member Brittany Cox (2002-2009). Brittany is here taking part in the WBCA’s “So You Want To Be A Coach” Program.  Today, we take the girls to work at the New Orleans Food Bank. They will prepare 750-some meals and then after our lunch, they will go to the New Orleans Arena, next door to the Mercedes Benz Superdome, for their team practice.

April 5 Recap:  What a great day for the high school all-americans and our staff!!!  We started the day with a trip to the New Orleans Food Bank. The girls and chaperones helped prepare 262 meals, label 3000 cards, and stack food in the warehouse from 8-11 AM.  It was definitely an eye opener, especially when the staff talked about how Hurricane Katrina is still taking its toll on the area.  From the food bank, we took the girls to La Madeline for lunch.  Neat place to eat with a lot of local cuisine. We had a little time to kill, so we went across the street to the mall and spent an hour there before reporting to the New Orleans Arena for practice.  When we arrived, we had to wait an hour while the Final Four Women’s Teams finished their ESPN Interviews.  The Louisville, Notre’ Dame and UConn Players were there, as well as the California-Berkeley head coach, Lindsay Gottlieb.  Skylar Diggins, Notre’ Dame’s point guard stopped by briefly and talked to the girls.  The girls took their pictures and then changed for practice.  There was a brief five minute period where no one was on the Final Four Court, so I took advantage of the opportunity to take my one shot a month, and of course, made it (those who know my philosophy on shooting, know what I mean).  Lauren Westendorf of Nike and her assistant Emily talked to the girls before practice.  Those two picked out the gear that the girls and the chaperones are wearing throughout the trip. ESPN was setting up to do their pre-game show shots, so we had to cut practice short, but the girls got a decent amount of time in.  Following practice the girls had the opportunity to have an hour Q & A with WNBA Players Tamika Catchings and Swin Cash.  Those two really gave the girls a lot of great information about life, basketball, and balance, then gave each player and chaperone a book (written by Swin Cash) and 24 points to being a champion (by Tamika Catchings).  Really, really good stuff.  We left the arena and headed for dinner, then returned to the hotel. I think the girls were really tired after yesterday’s adventures with flight delays.  Saturday approaches and it will be game day, as well as other activities ahead of the game.  More updates coming Saturday!!!

April 6: Game Day!!! However, before the game… the girls signed autographs and took part in the first portion of “Big Easy Bounce”, the annual dribble through the city with kids program.  The program was held outside of the Superdome.  We took the girls over to the New Orleans Arena afterwards to prepare for their game.  We caught the end of the Louisville Cardinal practice, then the girls got to see the WBCA College All-American Team announcement.  The ten college players selected were: Elena Delle-Donne, Alyssa Thomas, Odyssey Sims, Brittany Griner, Chelsea Gray, Chiney Ogwumike, Skylar Diggins, Kalena Mosqueda-Lewis, and Stefanie Dolson. Following the announcement, the girls watched Notre’ Dame practice, and the first part of the UConn Practice before heading back to the locker room to change.  The girls used the California-Berkeley locker room which was neat.  ESPN announced Kara Lawson talked to the girls before the game, and then Nike Sparq Trainer Jackie Ansley worked the girls out before warmups.  In the game, the black team defeated the purple team 74-70. Future Northwestern University player Nia Coffey was the Purple Team MVP while Tyler Scaiffe, who will attend Rutgers, won the MVP for the Black Team.  Good day today…. tomorrow, we will have some afternoon activities and then go to the Final Four Games.

April 7-8:  The Final Four Games were fun. The girls, coaches and chaperones all attended as guests of the WBCA.  UConn defeated Notre’ Dame and Louisville ralllied past Cal-Berkeley.  Before the game, the girls took part in an autograph session at “Tourney Town” and participated in the activities there such a 3-point shooting and hot shot contests. The girls also met Ann Meyers-Drysdale, who was one of the greatest female basketball players of all time. Lisa Leslie also stopped by the festivities.  Following that we took the girls to Mardi Gras World where they learned the history of Mardi Gras and saw the warehouse where all of the floats were held. It was pretty interesting stuff.   We arrived at the hotel at a decent hour following the Final Four Games, and some of the girls had flights as early as 6:00 AM this morning, so our runs to the airport started early.  I had to speak at the WBCA High School Roundtable Session at the New Orleans Convention Center this morning after one of my airport runs.  High School coaches from across the country were in attendance to share ideas and learn about what I do as the Chair of the All-American game.  I am also looking for possible future committee members.  Now I am off to the airport for one more run with a player, dropping the van off, and heading home this evening.

Hope you have enjoyed the daily blogs and pictures below.