By Kelvin Cowans
Hollis Queens New York native and lifelong Coach Robert Holford Jr. looks forward to his next chapter in Basketball at preferably an HBCU. His resume is stuffed with house hold References that American Basketball followers have grown to love and respect. Mike Malone (Denver Nuggets), Billy Donovan (Chicago Bulls), Rick Pitino (Iona College), John Calipari (Kentucky University) Stephen A. Smith, Kenny Smith and Jeff Vangundy Sports Analysts) just to name a few help round up his many stops and many places with each seemingly bouncing higher than the last.
Kelvin Cowans(K.C.): What led to you having a coaching career?
Coach Robert Holford Jr.: I’ve always had a passion for the game from 10, 11, and 12 years old. I grew up in the 1970’s and hung around a lot of the older guys when Basketball was tough as it is now but back then you had to consider what the communities were going through with drugs like heroine. The guys in the community that were playing Basketball I looked up to them. Ironically some of them were doing the wrong things at the time but Basketball was the way of them expressing themselves. It was a way that they also mentored us as young people. I got to watch them play and some of them went on to college. That inspired me to play a lot of community Basketball and youth leagues. It afforded me to be around a lot of good coaches. In Queens New York you had coaches like Harvey Lawrence who had a big influence on me. I never knew that I would Coach but it became a part of my passion as a player. Even early as the age of 16, I was coaching.
K.C.: Your resume list a lot of power five school coaches. What is pushing your heart into the direction of HBCU’s.
Coach Holford: I’ve done a lot of community work working with our own kids from our own community. I’ve seen the value of them being educated by our own. Having not experienced being able to go to an HBCU but having the opportunity to Coach at Friendship College, which at the time was a very small HBCU school located in Rock Hill South Carolina, the experience really laid heavy on my heart and my spirit to be able to get to a school that had a better understanding and a different type of investment concern in our young men of color and student athletes. So if I am to coach again I believe that type of school would be my destiny. It is also the school where former New York Knicks player Harthorne Wingo attended.
K.C.: Do you see it as a prime opportunity for players?
Coach Holford: I think it’s a more diverse opportunity for our young people to be enlightened with what’s going on around them. I think the power five schools offer a lot of things that young people might be attracted to. But I also think that the benefits of being associated with and culturally to help grow and enrich that school. So we do have young men who inspire to be the best they can be as an NBA or NFL player and they see the benefit of an HBCU where they can leave their stamp.
K.C.: Do you believe that the Name, Image, Likeness new rules for NCAA Athletes help level the recruiting playing field that an HBCU can now compete with a power five school for a player?
Coach Holford: I don’t know if it totally levels it but it opens the door. Obviously a power five school clearly has more resources but it does open the door. You can have more alumni being involved to help with the HBCU players. I think it’s moving in the right direction.
K.C.: New York has long been considered the Mecca of Basketball. Who are some of the greatest basketball players you even seen and or played against from the New York area?
Coach Holford: Oh man, that would be Kenny Anderson, Kenny Smith, Pearl Washington and Mark Jackson at the High School level, including Billy Donovan.
The pros would be Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Tiny Archibald and Bernard King, they were all tremendous. Then you have the street level guys like Joe Hammond and Pee Wee Kirkland. I remember going to Rucker Park as a kid. I told my Mom I was going to a Double Feature movie but I caught the train with some of the older guys and headed to the park.. We ended up climbing into a tree to watch guys play. Honestly there were roughly five thousand people in the stands, on the sideline, in trees and rooftops watching this game. In that game was Pee Wee Kirkland, Julius Erving, Charlie Scott, etc. and I got to watch them as a kid. It had a tremendous influence on me. It was a tremendous experience.
K.C.: Let’s pretend I’m an HBCU Athletic Director. What am I getting if I signed you today as our Head Coach? What are the meat and potatoes of Coach Holford?
Coach Holford: You get a man who is committed to the betterment of young people. You get a man who is about mentoring them to be the best possible person and student they can be by taking pride in the institution, themselves and their families. You’re getting a person who knows what it takes to be successful not only on the Basketball court but in the classroom and in life. I am a strong disciplinarian but I also know they have to be loved. I am committed to representing an institution to the fullest and maximizing my efforts as a professional, a man of color to do the upmost to be successful at an HBCU.
K.C.: Any motivational saying that you live by?
Coach Holford: God, Family, Academics and Basketball. Know your family and trust your family. Coach Frank Morris, a great man who coached Billy Donovan, had a saying I also remember and repeat. It was called 12, 7, 4. That’s 12 months a year, 7 days a week and 4 hours a day you have to put in if you want to play this game of basketball. You got to out work others or you will get out worked.
Resume Excerpts:
Experience Since 2000 –
- Present, Grassroots Community Youth Development Inc. Queens, New York
Founder and CEO: Educational, Social Development and Basketball Training Program for Young Men ages 17-25, Director and Head Coach of Urban Honor Team Achieve Academy.
● Independent CHSAA, PSAL, Community and AAU Coaching Consultant.
● Provide Life Skills Mentoring, Academic Advisement, and Prep or College Placement.
2012 – 2013 Queens Borough Community College, Queens, New York Head Basketball Coach and Fitness Instructor:
● Overall Management and rebuilding of a NJCAA and CUNYAC Basketball Program.
● Recruited twenty one incoming freshman and transfer student athletes in the Summer 2012
● Maintained study halls, a high level overall student athlete academic and social accountability.
● CUNYAC Championship Runner-Ups, Region 15 playoffs participants and Sportsmanship Award. 2002-2006, Hostos Community College, Bronx, New York Head Basketball Coach and Athletic Director - Built a Nationally recognized NJCAA Division III Basketball Program in 4 years from ground up.
● 2005-06, Received CUNYAC Ellis Bullock Award for Outstanding Leadership and Service.
● 2005-06, 23-9 Mid-Season Ranked #1 in Country, CUNYAC Regular Season & Tourney Champions, NJCAA REGIONAL Semi-Finalist., CUNYAC Coach of The Year.
● 2004-05, 28-8 rec NJCAA National Champions, CUNYAC Tournament & regular.
Season Champions, NJCAA National Coach of The Year, NJCAA District Coach of
The Year, CUNYAC Coach of The Year, NYC SOBA, Utopia and BCA Coach of The Year.
● 2003-04, 26-6 rec CUNYAC Tournament and Regular season Champs, NJCAA REGION
Semi-Finalist, CUNYAC Coach of the Year 2002-03, 17-14 rec CUNY Tournament Runner-Up. - Successful recruited, maintain team disciple and academic progress of student athletes.
● Established and coordinated Student Athlete Achievement Program. Instituted mandatory Study Hall Program. Men’s Basketball Team maintain an average GPA 3.2.
● Coached several All Americans, All Region, & All CUNYAC selections over the four years.
● Basketball Program was ranked among the college’s top 5 programs based on GPA & Retention.
● Coordinated and provided academic advisement and mentoring to Student Athletes.
Coach Holford can be reached at Robert G. Holford Jr. 197-04 111th Avenue, Hollis Queens, NY 11412 (coachhone@yahoo.com)
Kelvin Cowans can be reached at (kelvincowans@hotmail.com or Instagram: @six
Be the first to comment