Cornelius Walker is excited and ready to build a basketball program all his own.
An assistant men’s basketball coach at Wabash Valley College in Mount Carmel, Ill. the past seven years, Walker was hired by Jefferson College in July as the men’s and women’s basketball head coach.
Three days after Walker accepted the twin jobs, his son, Kahlil, was born. Walker and his wife, Jami, live in De Soto and have four children. Their oldest, Kali, is a sophomore at Hillsboro and plays basketball for the Hawk girls team.
“Taking this job made sense,” Walker, 32, said. “It was an opportunity to get the kids closer together, with me being closer to home. It’s everyone’s dream to move up and coach your own team. There’s nothing more (special) than walking into a gym and knowing it’s yours. I’m 30 minutes closer to home and closer to (my) mom, who’s going through health issues. (This job) checked every box possible.
“I’m excited about coaching (the Viking men) next year. At some point in my career at Jefferson College, we’ll do something special.”
Wouldn’t that be nice? Jeffco once competed in men’s basketball, but the program was dissolved in the late 1980s because of budget cuts. The college decided in 2021 to bring back the men’s program and now entrusts it to Walker, a Vashon graduate who played for area coaching legends Floyd Irons and Anthony Bonner.
In 2018, Jeffco brought in another graduate from a high-profile St. Louis high school, CBC’s Brocklon Chatman, to coach the men’s and women’s soccer teams. In similar fashion, the school was adding a women’s team for Chatman to develop. When he suddenly resigned last summer, women’s soccer was put on hold. Chatman did a good job coaching the Vikings and is now the athletic director at all-boys St. Mary’s High School in St. Louis, where the football team is coming off back-to-back state championships and the basketball team churns out collegiate talent like Yuri Collins of St. Louis University. Chatman probably has college recruiters lined up at his doorstep every day.
I asked Walker, who played for Wabash Valley and for Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro, if his status as a former Vashon Wolverine provided him with a good network to recruit locally.
“I think so,” he said. “People remember me for playing hard and I’m known in St. Louis.
“I want to be in position to provide opportunities for these kids. The key word is ‘chance’ that is there. More if you are wanting that chance to play and get an education. (Jeffco) is in my back yard, and I want them to be a family. That will create a good fan base.”
Whether men’s basketball will compete well enough to pack the Viking field house remains to be seen. It’s good Walker’s daughter plays in the county because it’s giving him a first-hand look at how passionate the fans are here. Nothing gets my blood up more than being at, for example, Herculaneum on a Friday night for a boys and girls conference doubleheader. Obviously, I could say that for just about any rivalry in the JCAA during basketball season. My point is, there are some really good local basketball players being coached the right way and who are available for both the men’s and women’s teams at Jeffco.
International recruiting contributes to the rosters of many colleges these days and Jeffco has signed a number of athletes from around the world for basketball, women’s volleyball and the soccer teams. Signing a bunch of kids from Jefferson County doesn’t guarantee winning, of course. And while getting an education and enough playing time to be seen by four-year universities are genuine benefits of playing at a junior college, winning is the heal-all salve for any program.
With a women’s roster of players he didn’t recruit, Walker and his new team not surprisingly started the season 1-13. But home wins over Vincennes and Missouri Baptist University JV and a victory at John A. Logan College in Carterville, Ill. last month give the Vikings a three-game winning streak going into 2023. Jeffco hosts North Arkansas College (Harrison) at 2 p.m. Saturday.
“I didn’t have a say-so in the roster and from Day 1, I reached out to the young ladies and told them to compete and play hard,” Walker said. “They’re figuring out how I coach.”
A big part of the recent turnaround stems from a conversation Walker had with sophomore point guard Talia Lawson, who’s from Oklahoma City. (None of Jeffco’s women players are from the county).
Walker said he could tell the losing was weighing heavily on Lawson’s mind and making her try to do too much as the main ballhander. She leads the team in rebounds per game (8.8), assists (4.7) and is second in scoring (10.4 points), and had triple-doubles in each of the last two games.
“I told her, ‘Let the game come to you’ and that led to some wide open 3s,” Walker said. “Her triple-double helped us beat a good Vincennes team.
“The girls are embracing their roles. The players coming off the bench understand their value and role. I will reward those who give me effort all the time.
“For the past three weeks we’ve been a different team with energy in practice. We were in close games and playing well and I told them sooner or later we’d get into the win column.”
Last month I reported that Herculaneum senior Gabe Watkins was the first player to sign with the reanimated men’s team. Walker couldn’t have landed a better cornerstone recruit, based on Watkins’ ability and local notoriety. It’s cool that a local player is the first in the fold.
Watkins is averaging 19 points per game for the Blackcats, who were 7-3 going into the later rounds of this week’s 67th Bob Sechrest Jr. Christmas Tournament in Park Hills.
“He’s exciting to watch,” Walker said. “He competes on both ends and is very athletic for his size. What other way than to start locally for a kid making a name for himself. It was a no-brainer and he was excited to be the face of the team that’s coming.”
I could imagine a freshman back court of Watkins and Festus senior Arhmad Branch in 2023, if just for a season. But Branch wants to play college football and might be attractive enough to land on an elite team in Division I. We’ll see. A lot of people eagerly await his decision.
“He’s high on my list,” Walker said. “I am slowly doing my homework more and more. I’d love him to stay closer to home. He’s a hell of a football player as well. A lot of people have approached me about him. It’s my job to let him know that there is a place here for him, but I won’t force a kid to do something he doesn’t want to do.”
Sound advice, which I’m sure Branch is getting from those around him. It’s one of the most important decisions a prep athlete makes on the road to adulthood.