Veteran college basketball coach and ACS alumnus Billy Robinson (’87) and his Milligan College mens’ basketball team led a fast-paced basketball skills clinic in the ACS gym after school on December 15 for members of the ACS boys’ and girls’ varsity basketball teams. Girls’ Varsity Coach Pam Hitchner reached out to Robinson to return to his alma mater to run the clinic and also share his testimony about how God has used him to reach others for Christ through the game of basketball. Robinson and his team were on a week-long East Coast road trip and traveled to south Jersey after playing (and beating) King’s College in Manhattan the day before.
During his devotional message with the ACS players and his 16 Milligan players, Robinson encouraged the athletes to live their lives as Christians in a way that will stand out and make others want to know more about their faith. “Dare to be different,” Robinson said. He also encouraged the student-athletes to trust in God and the plan that He has for their lives. “My plans for my life were vastly different from God’s plan, and I had to learn along the way to have faith and trust that God knew what was best for me and He did,” Robinson said.
Coach Hitchner taught Robinson in PE class when he attended ACS from the 6th-12th grades. He was a stand-out player on the ACS varsity boys’ basketball team, earning national acclaim (and an interview on ESPN) during his 1985-86 junior year as the highest scoring high school player in the country. By the end of high school, Robinson had scored 2,695 career points. He went on to play basketball at King’s College, followed by an internship with the Dallas Maverick’s basketball team. He began his coaching career at Montreat College, becoming the youngest-ever college coach at the age of 25. Robinson is now in his 23rd year as a college head coach, spending the last eight years at Milligan College in Johnson City, Tennessee.