Pete Holbert
DC Basketball Interview with W.T. Woodson All-Met Pete Holbert
Pete Holbert was a fine player for Coach "Red" Jenkins at W.T. Woodson High. He was nice enough to recollect his scholastic career to DC Basketball©
DCB: Who were your early basketball influences?
Holbert: My earliest basketball influence was my high school coach Paul "Red" Jenkins. I couldn't have asked for a better person to jump start my basketball career. I met coach in my old neighborhood (Falls Church) when I was 5 years old. My dad told me that day he was going to buy a house in the W.T. Woodson school district so I could play for him someday.....two years later he did just that. If you were part of the basketball family it was a year-round opportunity to improve your game and have fun doing it.
DCB: Any special playground or summer league memories?
Holbert: My schoolyard basketball experience included the #10 Police Boys Club run by "Doc Robinson". There I got to play with Derek Whittenberg, Sidney Lowe, Billy Martin, Earl Jones, Anthony Jones, Adrian Branch, Johnny Dawkins, Thurl Bailey, Tom Sluby, and the list goes on and on!!!! The other location was Notaway Park in Northern Virginia. The players there were the local group of Carlos Yates, Tommy Amaker, Mike Jackson, Billy King, Derrick Sims, Mike Tissaw, Doug Newberg, Chris and Jeff Knoche, and Mike Pepper, etc. The University of Maryland counselor games at night when Lefty had his summer camps were great for four weeks every summer. The top college players in the country worked there along with many pros coming by for a summer workout. Last but not least were the Northern Virginia Basketball Camp games at lunch time and after camp. All of the local college and high school players worked for Red Jenkins and this gave us a chance to play for an hour at lunch, and then after camp. The games at police 10 Boys Club usually made up the AAU team from the area. The Under-14, Under-16, and Under-18 year teams all won national championships.
DCB: Pete, what was your high school team like?
Holbert: My high school team (W.T. Woodson) was a well-coached team that got the most out of what we had. Red Jenkins, had us all playing at high level for our limited athletic ability. If you played for Red it was a year-round experience. Optional fall workouts started the first day of school. We were not allowed to have organized practices, so the seniors would lead us through conditioning drills and we would play against other schools in pickup games. When the season ended we would start with AAU, summer league, Five-Star Basketball Camp, and Red's own Northern Virginia Basketball Camp until it was time start all over again with fall conditioning. I think we had the best team when I was a junior (‘79). We were the first team to beat a Metro Conference team from Northern Virginia ( St Johns ) and we were up 2 points going into the 4th quarter against DeMatha when they were ranked #1 in the country.... only to lose by a few points at the end. My senior year (‘80) we lost the other four starters to college so we had to rebuild. The way we did it was by playing a freshman- Tommy Amaker- one of the best guards ever to come out of the area. Tommy, was my best friend that year and we did everything together. We would go to all the Maryland games and sit at the press table. When not playing or at Maryland games we would watch every ACC basketball game on TV. We watched so much basketball we could probably tell you the 12th man on every ACC team, where they went to high school, and give you a scouting report on why they were not playing. That is how much we were into the game and our future.
DCB: What high school players impressed you the most?
Holbert: The high school players that I was the most impressed by were the guys from my AAU teams (the players listed above but if I had to pick one it would be the best point guards- Sidney Lowe and Tommy Amaker). The DeMatha team of 1978 (Ranked #1 in the country) was the best high school team I have ever seen. In Northern Virginia we had a T.C. Williams team in 1977 (my freshman year) that had a star guard in Craig Harris that went undefeated and won the Virginia AAA State Championship. To this day I think T.C. Williams (1977) was the best team Northern Virginia ever produced.
DCB: What schoolyard player that you saw was the most special?
Holbert: The schoolyard player that people might remember was “Ducky Vaughn”. He would play in the Urban Coalition league and lead the league in scoring every year. I don't know where he played in college or even if he did, but at the end of each summer his name was at the top of the board scoring 40 points a game or better. Another guy was Michael Britt aka "T" Bird. He was one on the early players that could dunk from the foul line. He played for UDC and won a division II national championship with Earl Jones. Ernest Graham ( Baltimore ) was another great schoolyard player. He scored 70 points in an Urban Coalition game, and 48 points in an ACC game against N.C. State .
DCB: Could you share your greatest basketball memory?
Holbert: My greatest basketball memory was simply playing for the Red Jenkins and the W.T. Woodson basketball family. You had a person you could go to for anything and to this day the door is still open. Red's program gave me great friends to associate with off the court and I still stay in contact with today. He provided a basketball related job every summer (even though I was the worst employee in Northern Virginia Basketball Camp history). He signed us up for organized summer leagues and camps to attend as a player. Last but not least, you were part of a winning tradition that we all carry with us in our adult lives. Thank you Red for everything!!!!!
DCB: And thank you, Mr. Holbert
