VCU news

By Dina Weinstein

Thomas Jefferson High School boys varsity basketball coach Kendrick Warren faces his share of challenges on the sidelines.

But Warren brings decades of understanding about how to approach the long game for high school athletics and to build a unified team. Warren’s coaching philosophy emphasizes playing hard, “leaving it all on the court,” and trusting each other. “You’ve got to trust your teammate,” he said.

For Warren, that trust is built through daily practice.

“You’ve got to have my back on the court, that's how you build it,” Warren said. ”You run drills. You’ve got to make sure that man’s going to be there. That player’s going to be in that spot.”

Warren, who grew up in Richmond, started playing high school basketball as a ninth grader in the very same Richmond Public Schools gym where he now coaches. As a student, he racked up achievements, being named a four-time All-Metro player, three-time All-State player, 1990 McDonald’s All-American, 1990 Parade All-American and 1990 Street & Smith All American. His achievements took him to Virginia Commonwealth University, where he finished his career with 1,858 points – the most in school history at that time. (Eric Maynor, career total 1,953 points, and Treveon Graham, career total 1,882 points, have since surpassed Warren.)

“Kendrick is easily one of the greatest players to ever to come through this program,” said Chris Kowalczyk, assistant activities director for athletics communications at VCU. “Kendrick was a top five prospect in the country when he came here. And it was very much a recruiting coup. It was a seismic event as far as college basketball goes, because at that point the program really wasn't in a great place. They got pretty lucky that Kendrick decided to stay here.”

Kowalczyk described Warren as a dominant player from the moment he started playing at VCU until he finished. His No. 23 jersey is one of only six in the program that has been retired, and Warren was inducted into the VCU Hall of Fame in 2005.

“He's probably one of the top five players ever to put on a VCU uniform,” Kowalczyk said. “He was almost violent in the way he dunked the ball. He had such power and force and was a dynamic athlete who was adept at getting to the rim.”

A game-changer at VCU

Art Mills, who was sports editor at The Commonwealth Times student newspaper at the time of Warren’s arrival at VCU, remembers how quickly the program changed because of the star forward’s impact.

“When he came, the vibe for basketball, for covering sports became much more fun,” said Mills, who now lives in Minnesota. “You got to see that from the moment he stepped on campus, what was clearly an athletic ability that was beyond that which we had seen previously. The vibe was big. The hype around him was big and watching him play – the strength, the explosiveness – you just knew you had a player who was different for that time at that school.”

“He dunked, and he was a one-handed, right-handed … slasher,” recalled Mills. “He was so much more athletic than everyone he was going against. He just dominated through sheer ability. That was astounding. He was the undisputed leader of that team.”

Mills also recalled, in contrast to Warren’s explosive quality on the court, the athlete’s extremely laid back, calm, quiet and almost shy personality. That was reflected in the way Warren worked with his teammates rather than hogging the ball and the spotlight.

“He would get these free breakaway lovely, glorious dunks, just flying through the air,” Mills said. “Warren turned that program around and made it something unique, different and special.”

Warren’s former VCU coach, Sonny Smith, heaped praise on his former star player in a phone interview from Auburn, Alabama, where the 85-year-old is a color analyst.

“He was one of the best players to play for me ever, and I had Charles Barkley,” said Smith, who shepherded the Rams through the Sun Belt, Metro and CAA conferences. “He was quick as a cat, jumped like a deer. Ran fast. Every game had a highlight for Kendrick. He could outrun everybody and block shots.”

Smith recalled when Warren took over the last five minutes of a matchup against high-ranking Louisville.

“We beat them, and it was a Kendrick Warren win,” Smith said.

The 1993 game against Long Beach State at the Richmond Coliseum is a standout memory for Brian French, who was a sports reporter for The Commonwealth Times and is now an editor at The Washington Post. A visiting sportswriter from California asked French who was VCU’s best player.

“I'm like, ‘We got this one kid, Kendrick Warren,’” French told the reporter. “He's like, ‘Who's he?’ I told him, ‘Number 23, but don't worry. You won't have difficulty finding him for very long. It'll become very obvious who Kendrick Warren was very quickly.’ And sure enough, [Warren] was explosive. Block on one end of the court, dunk on the other end, fans going crazy. VCU beat them 95-61. It was delirious up and down. Everyone was happy. It was easily the best game I'd ever seen VCU play.”

A structured student

As a VCU student athlete, Warren, who majored in criminal justice, recalls a regimented life.

“We had to put a lot into it, traveling, being on the road a lot, going to class, eating dinner, study hall most of the nights. So, you pretty much ain't having the time for yourself because we were always in study hall.”

The bond among Warren and his teammates from those years remains. Rodney Ashby played forward and center for the Rams from 1990 to 1994 with Warren. One day, he asked a coach where he should play on the court. The answer, “Where Warren’s not.”

“He was an amazing athlete,” Ashby said. “He would do stuff every day in practice and every game that we would see as an athletic miracle, whether it was dunking on somebody, whether it was getting a steal that nobody thought he could get to or blocking a shot that nobody thought he had a chance to block. It was incredible to be able to play with him.”

Ashby said Warren’s electric play on the court made him popular off it.

“Everybody wanted him to succeed. He was a local legend, in the community, on campus, everybody wanted to say hi to him,” Ashby said. Still, Ashby said Warren was a fairly quiet student except around his inner circle. “It was an absolute contrast. In between the lines of the court, he was very aggressive, and he did things with such ease. He did not want to lose. He was very competitive.”

College was a springboard to opportunities to play basketball professionally. Warren played in the Continental Basketball Association before playing overseas in France, Sweden and England, among other places.

The path was exciting but also draining and difficult. His wife, Melanie Reid, stayed in Richmond. Playing basketball overseas does not necessarily have glamour when meals on the road consists of fast food, Warren said.

A homecoming

In 2009, Warren accepted the coaching position at Thomas Jefferson High School.

“TJ is what got me started in my career. My coach here taught me a lot, just developing me to be a great young man on and off the court,” Warren said. “Following directions, listening to people, being respectful, that's one of the main things he taught us, making positive decisions.”

Warren describes his own basketball coaching style as focusing on playing an up-tempo style, using transition basketball on offense to create easy points. On defense, Warren’s players create turnovers and play strong defense.

At TJ, Warren’s players respect his insight as a student athlete who ran on the same court, his commitment and the high expectations he sets. The banners on the walls of the gym that their coach won and having a McDonald’s All-American as their coach inspires the athletes.

But Warren is not just coaching his players in tactics on the court. He imparts that basketball is an opportunity to access higher education, scholarships and social skills. Even though Warren made it far, he doesn’t give his players any illusion of being able to reach the highest levels of achievement in the sport.

“I just try to encourage them to get their books first and basketball after,” Warren said. “Everybody can't be good, but you can push yourself to be good. You just got to put those books first because a lot of people don’t make it in basketball. The opportunities in basketball have gotten lower. They don't have all these leagues like they used to.”

Sophomore Carmell McCloud did not know about Warren’s celebrity status at TJ or VCU until recently.

“If you go anywhere, people respect him,” McCloud said during a break in practice this winter. “We experienced that when we went to a restaurant. That was surreal to see my coach is a superstar from here.”