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NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. Peekskills James Robinson Jr. led the Monroe womens basketball team to the NJCAA Division II National Championship for the second straight season.
Robinson took over as head coach at the start of a season filled with tumult. The Mustangs lost players for disciplinary reasons early in the year. The starting point guard tore her ACL in the district tournament, which occurs just before the national tournament.
But Robinson stuck to his motto of what dont break you, makes you. The Mustangs finished the season at 31-6, earned the ninth seed in the tournament and defeated the eighth, first, fourth and seventh seeds during their title run.
I was going to ride the wave as far as it would take me, Robinson said days after the title game. At Monroe we've had such success on the national stage that we actually use the regular season as preparation for the playoffs and with all we went through together, we were prepared for anything. So at the biggest moment, we were calm.
Monroe relinquished an 18-point lead to the Lake Michigan Indians and fell behind, 71-70, with 2:24 to go in the title game. But the Mustangs held on and won the title, 78-73. Robinson said his team was so cool under pressure because I coach their minds first, then their bodies.
Robinson knows all about big moments. He was a star at Peekskill High School and led his team to the sectional title in 1981. He stayed true to his roots as he mentored young athletes in the Peekskill Parks and Recreation League. Philadelphia 76er Elton Brand, former Syracuse guard Mookie Jones, UCONNs Hilton Armstrong and Monroes own Allen Jenkins, who later played at Alderson-Broaddus College, studied under Robinson.
I've always been about teaching young people to make the right decisions and be accountable for themselves, Robinson said, and if you stay consistent to your values when you lead them, then they reap the rewards of making the right decisions. This national championship is as good an example of how that works as anything.
Robinson has been married for 17 years and has three children. His job as coach keeps him busy and he is already in the process of scouting potential players for his two-year college as he will try to lead the Mustangs, who have appeared in nine straight national tournaments, to a third consecutive title.
It's hard work. It's not easy, Robinson said. But you know, what don't break you, makes you.
From a report by Monroe College Athletics/Gary Axelbank
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