Vicksburg coach Dellie Robinson stands in the gym while his players have shooting practice in preparation for tonight’s Class 5A state tournament opener against Moss Point at 8 p.m. at the Mississippi Coliseum. Robinson has led his team to a 27-8 record and the Division 4-5A championship so far this season. (Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[2/25/03]The exact day comes quickly to him, like most significant days in ones life do, children’s birthdays, wedding anniversaries and such.

For Vicksburg High basketball coach Dellie Robinson, May 19 is the day he points to.

It was May 19 when Robinson answered the call from above.

It was May 19 that Robinson stepped into the pulpit for the first time and delivered a sermon as a Baptist minister.

It was May 19 when family from McComb and friends from Vicksburg piled into a small church and listened as Robinson began his sermon with his own words, only to be overtaken with God’s, he said.

“It’s something you know deep down inside, when it’s time to make a decision,” Robinson said. “Any time you’re going to become a preacher you get that urge.

“You get the urge of preaching and the spirit won’t leave you alone. You find yourself doing some preaching while you’re by yourself, or driving down the highway. You know it’s time to move on.

“You know it’s your time. I ran for a long time, but you know you can run but you can’t hide.”

For years, Robinson didn’t think he could coach the Gators, teach school and be a preacher at the same time. Just look at his Saturday night and one quickly sees he can certainly handle it.

Vicksburg had lost to Starkville in the North State championship game and a three-hour bus ride lie ahead. He got back to the school around 1 a.m., in bed around 2 an admittedly bad sleep that coaches have after big losses and back in the pulpit at China Grove Baptist Church at 11 a.m.

“What I do is sit down and write some of my sermons to get familiar with it,” Robinson said. “Sometimes I go up with one idea and God gives you the rest of it.”

Preaching is nothing new to Robinson, though. He’s been preaching to basketball teams at four schools for more than 24 years. His last 11 have been spent at Vicksburg.

“I’ve been ministering kids for a long time. That’s my job,” Robinson said. “My main goal in life is to help someone along the way and as long as I can help somebody, I think I am doing a great job.”

A disciplinarian, he instills the values that were taught to him as a youngster into his players. Most, he says, responded; some were lost.

“He’s taught me so much, not only as a player but as a man,” Jones said. “He taught me things in life that I need to be successful.”

As a standout basketball player in McComb during his high school years, Robinson reached the state championship game in 1972, a loss to Houston that he still recalls. He fouled out late in the close game and after that it was over, he said.

After high school, basketball took Robinson to Alcorn State University, but his playing career never panned out beyond college. So he did what so many players do after their playing days: went into coaching.

Stops at McComb, Velma Jackson, Canton and finally Vicksburg followed and he has no plans on leaving the Gators. With 24 years put into the school system, he needs six more to retire comfortably.

But first things first. There is no retirement talk around the Vicksburg gym these days.

Players mill around, waiting for the go-ahead to start shooting. It’s Monday, a little more than 24 hours before the biggest game in these players’ lives and the coach is calm as can be.

“He may be nervous before the game, but he won’t show it,” Jones said.

Robinson added, “It’s just like a basketball game. I may be nervous before the game starts, but once it starts everything just clicks. That’s the same as it was in the pulpit.”

The Gators are scheduled to meet Moss Point tonight at 8 p.m. The last Vicksburg High team to win a state championship on the hardwood was in 1980, and it was a Class A title (the state changed to the five class system in 1984).

Vicksburg got close in 1996, but lost to Lanier in the state semifinals.

This year’s group has already overachieved in many people’s eyes. Despite a 27-win season so far, Vicksburg has not once cracked the Associated Press or The Clarion-Ledger prep polls.

The Gators need three wins to capture the state title.

“I told them from day one that this team could make it to the Coliseum,” Robinson said. “I believed that this team would be ranked at the end of the year, and we haven’t had that yet. I told them I believed that it would happen for them and we are right on the verge of that now.”

With a win tonight, the Gators will meet South State champion Hattiesburg in the state semifinals in one week.

“Our goal all year was to make it to the Coliseum and we finally made it,” shooting guard Sedrick Williams said.

“We’re going to give him an extra present. It’s important to get a win for him, he’s been waiting on it a while.”

No matter the outcome this week in Jackson, Robinson plans to stay around, preaching to kids and as many congregations as he can. With four-fifths of his coaching career over, his path is pretty well set.

Retirement for Robinson, a church deacon for the past 15 years, will be spent trying to get through to as many as possible. He’ll know it’s time, not just because of the years, but because of another date.

Remember, he’s good at knowing the dates of important events in his life, whether they have come yet or are in his future.

“My goal is to get 30 years and I have six more to go,” he said. “My son (Delmon) is in seventh grade. When he walks across that stage as a senior, I plan to be right behind him into retirement.”