Principal player: Robinson’s path to education paved by career in basketball

Principal Paul Robinson knows well that there are many paths to a destination. He took an uncommon one before finding his passion for education. Robinson spent four years playing basketball for Point Loma College in San Diego, now known as Point Loma Nazarene University, as well as playing basketball for a group called Athletes on Mission on tours overseas.

Robinson first picked up basketball during his childhood in San Diego. In seventh grade, when his coach took note of his potential, Robinson started to consider the sport as a possible career.

“[My] coach grabbed ahold of me and said, ‘You could be pretty good at this,’ so I really started putting in a lot of time and effort,” Robinson said.

At that time, club sports were not as common as they are today, so Robinson had to train on his own. Robinson also played tennis and football, so he was almost always in shape. At that time, basketball players trained just by playing games instead of the modern scripted workouts. Robinson especially enjoyed basketball because it required little equipment.

“All I needed were tennis shoes, shorts, T-shirts, a basketball and somebody to get me to a gym,” Robinson said.

Robinson was extremely devoted to basketball. He and his friends would even bring hammers and screwdrivers to take off his school’s gym doors just so they could play in it.

“We would play for hours,” Robinson said. “Three, four, five hours worth of playing 2-on-2, 3-on-3, 5-on-5, whoever we could get.”

Beyond playing for his alma mater, Poway High School, Robinson also played at gyms with players at the NBA level from teams such as the San Diego Rockets and the San Diego Clippers, now known as the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Clippers.

Players would play together at different courts depending on their skill level. If a player played well enough on one court, he would get invited to another court with better players. Through this system, Robinson was able to reach the courts where he would play basketball with NBA athletes as well as NFL athletes from the San Diego Chargers and MLB athletes from the San Diego Padres.

Robinson recalls playing with pros like former NBA all-star World B. Free from the Clippers, and Hall of Fame baseball player Dave Winfield from the Padres. Robinson found playing with NBA players like Free was a very different style of play from what he was used to.

“You pass the ball to [Free], and then you pick up his man on defense and watch him [shoot],” Robinson said. “But most of the time it was going in.”

Eventually, Robinson’s skills in basketball as well as tennis got him into Point Loma College with a double scholarship for both sports. Point Loma College was in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) at the time; now it is a part of the NCAA Division II.

Getting into college meant a lot to Robinson, since most of his family had not attended college before him. Without sports, going to college would have been a much more difficult path for him.

At Point Loma, he was given the chance to play at the college level with other student athletes. Robinson performed well, starting for all of his years there except for his freshman year. Robinson was an accurate shooter, finishing his college career with now broken records of free throw shooting at 87 percent in one season and 84 percent. Robinson also played with high basketball IQ and crisp passing averaging about 12 points a game during his senior year, and finishing his college career near then-school record for most all-time assists.

Robinson played well enough to earn the opportunity to play for the traveling Christian team called Athletes in Mission. They traveled overseas and played against national teams of Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, while helping build local churches along the way.

Having played with NBA players and at the international level in the ‘70s, Robinson noticed how different the style of play was between international basketball and the NBA.

“The international game was faster, [with] a lot more ball movement,” Robinson said. “The NBA game was a little bit slower, [and] it was a very selfish type of play back then.’”

Robinson and the other athletes were each paid $10 a day on the Athletes in Mission tour through the different countries. But during their travel to the Philippines, Robinson was offered to play for a professional team abroad for about $200 a month. Despite his love for basketball, he turned down the offer because he realized that he wanted to begin his career as an educator.

“Basketball was not really what I wanted to do,” Robinson said. “I wanted to come back to the United States. I wanted to teach and coach.”

Having majored in English in college, he began teaching English as well as coaching basketball, tennis and football on the side. Robinson credited his decision to become an educator to former UCLA coach John Wooden. Robinson got to know Wooden while working for the famed coach as a camp counselor at Wooden’s summer camps for basketball while he was in college.

Like Robinson, Wooden had majored in English. At that time, Robinson was deciding between having a future in either law enforcement or journalism. Robinson discussed these possibilities with Wooden, and Wooden, based on how he saw Robinson work with kids at the camp, advised Robinson to become a teacher.

“When John Wooden speaks to you like that, you take note,” Robinson said. “And so I decided to follow that.”

Even though he decided to take the path of being an educator, Robinson has continued to play recreationally for the past 40 years, and still plays pickup games at Saratoga High as a way of staying in shape.

Robinson believes that it is his duty to spread the idea of hard work. He worked hard to excel at basketball, and that opened the door for him to get into college, which ultimately led him to his career in education. He advises students to follow their dreams and do what their heart tells them to do.

“Go out and find something that you’re passionate about and just go all in, because that’s what I did with basketball, and look where it’s led me,” Robinson said. “It helped me get a great education and got me involved in a great career that has lasted almost 40 years now and has been the best thing in my life.”