WS Chronicle

Brian Robinson has built a dynasty with the girls basketball team at Bishop McGuinness. The Lady Villains are championship contenders nearly every season and this year they were able to claim their 10th state title under Robinson.

The Lady Villains were poised to have a great season after enduring tough losses in the playoffs the past two years. This season Robinson felt they had the necessary combination of talent and experience to challenge for the title.

“I think those two losses set the table for this year’s team. They came in with a different focus than they had the last two years and being that they had experienced some failure, I think that really just motivated them that much more to see if they could finish the deal this year, which they did,” said Robinson about his team.

Robinson is very strategic with how he puts his team’s schedule together. He likes to test his team early on in the season, as well as late in the year heading into the playoffs, to find the voids in the team.

“We have to do that, and we have to mix in some tough non-conference games towards the end of the season as well,” said Robinson when asked why he schedules tough non-conference opponents. We do that early on to figure out what holes need to be filled before we get to conference because, obviously, conference is going to set you up for the state playoffs.

“When we get to the middle of the season or the end of the season, we try to mix in some tough non-conference games so that anything we are lacking we can get as prepared as possible for the state playoff run. Playing Winston-Salem Christian twice at the end and playing Myers Park at the end really exposed us. Obviously, we don’t want to lose, but I felt like losing actually set us up to win the championship.”

To get his girls in the right frame of mind for the playoffs, Robinson made sure to emphasize all of the hard work they have put in to get to that point.

“I told them that we have prepared for this pretty much since last summer,” he said about the conversation he had with his team prior to the playoffs. “We talked about it every day.  Everything we were doing was preparing for a state championship.  

“I thought that mentally and physically we were as prepared as possible. Once you’ve done all that work, it’s a matter of just trusting that you have put the time in to do it. I just felt like they trusted themselves a lot and trusted each other and that’s what got us through those tough games.”

Prior to the state championship game, Robinson reminded his team of the sacrifices all of the girls had made for one another. He wanted them locked in on the goal and they listened.

“We met just as a team and talked about the fact that we got there by being selfless, by giving up something personally to get to this point,” he said.  “Also, I talked to them about controlling their emotions because in an environment like that, you could get easily distracted. To their credit, they handled it very well.”

In 20 years, Robinson has won 10 state championships at Bishop McGuinness. He is not one to hang on to past achievements, as he prefers to enjoy the moment and then move on to the next goal.

“Honestly, I am always looking forward. I feel like if I look backwards, I am going to get away from the teams coming up,” he said. 

“It’s something I keep telling myself, I need to sometimes reflect and take some time to really cherish what we have done, but I am so focused on this next season to try and get these girls prepared to do this again, I don’t even take time to even really enjoy it as much as I should have. I guess maybe one day when I stop coaching I will, but right now I feel like I owe it to this next team to get them as prepared as possible to try and win again.”

This amount of success was not expected by Robinson when he took over the Bishop McGuinness program. He was previously an assistant boys basketball coach at Reynolds in the late ‘90s and the varsity boys basketball coach at Starmount High, but was told by many to never coach girls. He was actually offered the girls head coaching job at Bishop three times before actually taking the job.

According to Robinson, people would tell him that he would never have the same success coaching girls as he would with the boys. He says it was never a priority to prove the doubters wrong and preferred to focus on getting his girls to the next level.

“At first it was a little rough, but once it got going, this program has taken me around the world,” he continued. “USA Basketball has come from this, obviously the state championships, the lifelong friends I’ve made and the relationships that I have that are going to last a lifetime. There are just a lot of wonderful things that have happened from being a part of this program.”

Robinson prefers to continue getting better as a coach rather than focusing on his accomplishments. He feels he may become complacent if he spends too much time thinking about what he has done.

“Every time I feel like I’m getting to the top, something happens to remind me that I’m not,” he said. “This year I wasn’t voted conference coach of the year and that kind of reminded me that I have to keep working and getting better.  

“Even though I spend a lot of time concerning myself with what other people think, I felt like obviously I wasn’t good enough this year to win that. My focus has got to get better, my attention to detail has got to get better, and I really think it’s things that happen that keeps me humble and focused so that I can help these girls get better. Those types of things keep me motivated the entire time.”

The Villains only had one senior on their roster this season. They will return thirteen players next season and Robinson is hopeful to go back to back once again. He says winning the second year of back-to-back titles is always more difficult because of all the things you have to guard against.