When Columbia High promoted then head girls basketball coach Charlie James to the position of Transportation Director, Nicole Robinson seemed like the obvious choice to fill his shoes as the leader of the Lady Wildcats.
But she didn’t want that job to just be handed to her. She made her pitch to the interview committee, headed up by then athletics director Chip Bilderback. She brought her portfolio and laid out her agenda for what her team would do over the summer with her in charge, and by the end of her interview, her preparation was evident and made quite the impression.
“It was such a challenge because I never felt like I was entitled to it. A lot of people felt like, ‘You’re entitled to it. You’re the middle school coach, you’re the assistant.’ But for me, it wasn’t that. I told the interview committee that I wanted to pitch why I felt like I deserved it,” Robinson recalled. “I walked out of my interview and coach (Chip) Bilderback was like, ‘We gave you a shot, and you took your shot. I guess if you stay ready, you never have to be ready.’ They posted the job on a Monday, and I got a phone call that said they were interviewing me that Tuesday.”
When the Columbia School Board of Trustees officially approved the hire of Robinson, she said she received a text message from Bilderback that not only described the hiring process but encapsulates what she wants this summer to look like for the Lady Wildcats.
‘“Earned, not given,’” she recalled. “So that’s been something that we’re going with. Our summer shirts say that. We’re going to come in here, even this summer, and earn every single thing. We don’t want anything to be given to us. We just want to come in here, grind it out and earn everything.”
“One thing about Nicole that stood out was just her sincere desire to make the Lady Wildcats a top-notch program,” Columbia superintendent Jason Harris said. “It’s hard to put into words, but when you’re sitting there talking to someone, you just know that they’re the one. And it didn’t take long for our committee to realize that.”
Robinson spent her playing days at North Pike where she went to “The Big House” during her junior and senior seasons before accepting her first coaching gig as a volunteer coach in Hattiesburg. She then received a call from Sherri Cooley, who Robinson knew from her tenure at South Jones, to go to Laurel as an assistant coach. In her three seasons with the Lady Tornadoes, Robinson’s teams did plenty of winning, including Elite Eight appearances in all three seasons, two Final Four appearances and a state championship during her second season. When James brought her in to lead the girls at Jefferson Middle and serve as an assistant for the Lady Wildcats, a strong relationship was formed from the get-go.
“I feel like when I came in, I was the female of the program because they only had two males. So the girls kind of clinged to me, and he would let me handle things because I was the female of the program,” Robinson said. “We had a wonderful relationship. I also learned a lot of things from him, just being under him. Him going from only winning two games (in the 2021-22 season) to where we ended up in his final year here – him being coach of the year here. He showed me how to just stay and keep grinding it out. He didn’t give up. He wasn’t frustrated. It comes – the wins will come.”
When she was initially brought in before the 2021-22 season, Robinson already had the goal of one day taking over the program from James when he was ready, she said. It wasn’t a secret between the two, but it didn’t cause any friction. James continued to mentor her to the point that now, as the new head girls basketball coach, Robinson feels more than prepared to lead a program on the rise.
“I knew this was a program we could be very successful in, but the shoes are big to follow,” she explained. “We are coming off of finishing runner-up in district, making it to the second round of the playoffs and a winning season. The shoes are big to feel, but I’m so excited because we have a chance to make basketball something big here in Columbia.”
The Lady Wildcats recently wrapped up their summer practices, which were successful in Robinson’s eyes. Defense was a strength of last year’s squad, but Robinson believes this year will feature an even fiercer Lady Wildcat defensive unit. The reason, she explained, is that they’re trusting the playmakers on the offensive side of the ball to do their job, leading to less pressure on their side.
“One of the things that I’ve been preaching to them all summer – and it finally clicked like midway through summer – is if we make a mistake on offense, I trust our defense enough that we’re going to go get it back on defense,” she said. “Once they saw that, our offense started to flow naturally because they were not worried about making a mistake on offense. … We want to be a defensively sound team.”
Robinson named players such as Jakira Brown – who recently received her first collegiate offer from the Mississippi University for Women – and Sariya Robinson as those who are expected to be key contributors offensively. Playing teams such as Biloxi and Callaway gave the team a massive confidence boost, Robinson said, as the Lady Wildcats were competing against teams that massively outgunned them.
Though many will point to wins and losses as what measures success as a coach, Robinson said there is more to the story than that. She wants her players to be prepared for what comes after because basketball won’t always be there.
“One day, the ball stops dribbling. And we have to teach our youth how to fight through things when they get into the real world. It’s not just about how to fight through being down 10 or being down 20 because if you correlate that to the real world, that’s you having a bad day and still having to go to work,” Robinson explained. “I know it’s wins and losses for some people, but for me, it’s so much bigger than that. It’s teaching them how to be able to fight through adversity.
“Now on the wins and losses, our goal this year is 85 miles. There’s 85 miles to the (Mississippi) Coliseum, and we feel like whatever is in our way, we want to take it one day at a time. We started May 28, preparing for the 85 miles to the Coliseum.”
Though reaching The Big House in Jackson and claiming the Lady Wildcats’ first state championship is the ultimate goal, there are other boxes she would like to check first. She wants to add another banner to the wall first – a district championship, something that the Lady Wildcats haven’t accomplished since 2011.
Earned, not given.
