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Maumee Valley senior forward Julius Turner is averaging 15.8 points per game.
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Hawks want to send Robinson out in style

THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER

Hawks want to send Robinson out in style

Veteran coach back after suffering stroke in May

Maumee Valley is enjoying its best basketball season in school history and veteran coach Jim Robinson feels extremely fortunate just to be a part of it.

For their part, the Hawks players feel the exact same way.

When Robinson, 68, was installed to his latest head coaching position in 2008, it would be his 10th such assignment at the high school level in a career that has spanned 45 years.

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It might well have ended last May, when Robinson suffered a brain stroke. But, because of prompt treatment that was crucial in minimizing greater potential damage, plus his dedication to rehabilitate, Robinson was able to return.

He said that his goal of guiding the Hawks served as "a carrot driving the horse" throughout his recovery.

Robinson has broken some of his old habits that led to the stress that likely precipitated his stroke. He enables his assistant coaches to play more of an active role, refrains from in-game exchanges with officials, and generally tries to stay calm on the bench.

One aspect that has not changed is his borderline obsessive attention to detail in the preparation for games.

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He still logs all the details for each practice and game throughout the season, in neat handwriting, one page at a time on what he calls his 'basketball bible.' It is a yellow legal tablet on which he meticulously breaks down every aspect in the ongoing journey from November through March.

This current 'bible' will be Robinson's last. Although determined to see this veteran group through, he has decided not to tempt fate any further. He told his team this will be his final season.

"This is it," Robinson said. "The timing is good. I'd love to stay for [junior point guard] Dave Brown's senior year, but 45 years of this is a long time. Stress is a factor. I need to sleep more. It was time for me to be able to relax and think about all the wonderful kids I've had a chance to coach this whole career.

"I'd do it again. It was fabulous. People ask me if I'm going to miss coaching. I will miss the idea, but I won't miss the reality."

Armed with that emotional knowledge, the Hawks players are determined to send Robinson out in style.

Maumee Valley moved to 17-1 overall, 11-1 in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference with a 70-41 win Tuesday at Danbury and is one win away from reaching the final step of a four-step goal Robinson laid out four years ago.

They can clinch at least a share of the TAAC championship with a win Friday at Northwood. Maumee Valley's last title came in 2002, and banners in the Hawks' gym list only one sectional title for boys basketball.

Seniors Jared Sturt, Julius Turner, Rick Deichert, Jonathan Krueger, and Dixon Stoddard, plus Brown, are inspired to secure that league title and add some more numerals to the tourney banner.

"The most important thing about these guys is that they have developed a wonderful chemistry," Robinson said. "They like each other. They hang out together. They go places together.

"They're so unselfish, and that's the key. We have such balance that it's led to great success."

Although stats do not necessarily reflect the true value, Robinson reserves special respect for 5-foot-5 junior points guard David Brown, who hails from DeVeaux Junior High, where he teamed with Marc Loving of St. John's Jesuit and Clemmye Owens of Rogers.

"By the second year we were 2-4 at Christmas and Dave was a freshman," Robinson said. "I inserted him into the starting guard spot, and from that point on we were 12-2 the rest of the year."

Brown averages just 5.2 points per game, but dishes out 6.4 assists, adds 2.5 steals, and basically runs the show.

"We would not be where we are without any of those [other] kids, but the catalyst to all of it is Dave Brown," Robinson said. "People say he's small, but he is not small because he doesn't play small. When he's in the game we perform on both ends. We are 45-6 since he became a starter."

"After we bonded for two years we just made up our minds that we had a pretty good team, and we wanted to make a run at a league championship," Brown said. "Coach Robinson loves coaching, so I had a feeling that he was going to come back and be with us.

"This year we want this for him. We want to get to the regional and get to the state. We appreciate him so much for what he's done for us, and we want to do something for him."

Turner, a 6-0 senior forward who transferred before last season after starting for two seasons at Emmanuel Christian, leads the team in scoring (15.8). He has scored 1,014 career points. Turner adds 5.4 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 2.6 steals while shooting 40 percent (31-of-78) from 3-point range.

"Julius can score and get up and down the floor and rebound," Robinson said. "He's very talented."

"The team really bonded over the summer going into my junior year," Turner said of transferring. "They welcomed me right in. It took a while to learn the offense, probably about four months. But I gradually got better at it.

"I was worried for coach's health, and was praying that he'd return. He came back strong, and he's leading us to a good season.

Sturt, a 6-6 senior post player, is a third-year starter who averages 15.1 points and a team-best 7.2 rebounds.

"Jared is very mobile and runs the floor well," Robinson said. "He has great inside moves, and he's a good passer back out to the perimeter. He's a very smart player. He's done a great job on the boards."

"It's all been about playing together as a team," Sturt said. "We played together all summer, and we've just come together to the point where we play for each other.

"I was 50-50 on my thinking whether or not [Robinson would] be back. But I knew he wanted to come back. This was going to be our year, and he's not a quitter. It's great having him back and helping us get better."

Deichert, a 6-foot senior guard, adds 11.6 points per game on 39 percent (37-of-94) 3-point shooting.

"Rick Deichert is a pure shooter," Robinson said. "At our level, he's also very strong defensively."

Deichert's athletic talents are not limited to basketball. He placed third in the Division III state golf tournament.

"I was hoping he could come back," Deichert said of Robinson. "He really fought through it. He probably works harder than anyone on the team in preparation and scouting.

"He's always said that it's for us and not him, but we want to give that to him this year. It's his last year. We want to keep this win streak rolling and make it down to Columbus."

Krueger and Stoddard add 5.0 points and 4.2 points per game, respectively.

Maumee Valley's lone loss this year came on Dec. 9 when it fell 46-43 in TAAC play to visiting Gibsonburg.

Gibsonburg (14-3, 9-2) fell a week later, 45-44 in overtime at Toledo Christian, allowing Maumee Valley to assume first place alone.

The Hawks are on the verge of accomplishing step No. 4.

Step No. 1 was just playing competitive basketball, and the Hawks lost seven games by five points or less during that 4-16 season in 2008-09. Step No. 2 was winning some games, and Maumee Valley went 14-7, 8-4 in the TAAC in 2009-10.

Step No. 3 was to compete for a TAAC championship, and the Hawks came close, finishing 16-4, 10-2 and only a 48-35 late-season loss to eventual champion Ottawa Hills prevented a title share.

On the brink of its first TAAC title in a decade, whatever happens in Division IV tournament play will be viewed as a bonus.

Robinson has a career record of 526-310 with coaching stops at Port Clinton, Cincinnati Western Hills, St. Francis, Lima Senior, Libbey, Maumee (twice, 14 years and seven years), Milan (Mich.), and Lake.

He began as a 20-year-old assistant in 1963 at the Ohio School for the Deaf, spent four years as an assistant at the University of Akron in the early 1980s, and one season at Eastwood to assist his son, Jim Jr.

Robinson's teams have reached 10 district finals but never advanced to a regional. Twice, he had 19-1 teams (at Maumee and Lake) which lost their opening tourney games. Oddly, each were in double-overtime by an identical 47-46 score.

Robinson admits feeling snake-bitten in March, and that is something his final team hopes to finally rectify.

Maumee Valley opens this year's Division IV tourney with a sectional final March 2 at Eastwood against the winner of Ottawa Hills-Fremont St. Joseph.

"When I was sick with this stroke in May, I was done, I thought, forever," Robinson said. "The assistant coaches took over the summer work. These kids played over 60 games this summer without me. I came back to try to solidify everything and pull everything together as best we could."

"We're very motivated," Turner said. "We want to go as far as we can in the tournament for [Robinson]. Getting him some championships would be great. It would make us feel like we did our job."

Contact Steve Junga at: sjunga@theblade.com 419-724-6461, or on Twitter @JungaBlade.

First Published February 16, 2012, 5:00 a.m.

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Maumee Valley senior forward Julius Turner is averaging 15.8 points per game.  (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)  Buy Image
Hawks senior Jared Sturt looks to shoot over Gibsonburg’s Dylan Dorfmeyer. Sturt is averaging 15.1 points and 7.2 rebounds.  (The Blade/Jeremy Wadsworth)  Buy Image
Jim Robinson says this will be his final season after being a head coach at nine schools.  (The Blade/Jeremy Wadsworth)  Buy Image
David Brown shoots against Toledo Christian’s Ben Ivan. The 5-foot-5 junior does it all for Maumee Valley, averaging 5.2 points, 6.4 assists, and 2.5 steals per game.  (The Blade/Lori King)  Buy Image
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