Honor for hoops great
Dillard girls basketball coach has Florida-best 903-195 record
Winningest girls coach is All-American pick.
Marcia Pinder has always craved McDonald’s.
As a kid growing up in Miami, her family madeaweekly trip to the fast-food giant as a treat. To survive in college, at BethuneCookman, she needed cheeseburgerHappy Meals. And now, the legendary Dillard high school girls basketball coach isn’t afraid to admit she’s shown up at practice, finished with a Filet-O-Fish, with a little tartar sauce on her shirt.
When it comes to the Golden Arches, Pinder’s respect is undeniable. And the feeling is mutual. The organization announced in January the choice of Pinder to coach in the 15th annual McDonald’s All-American game at the United Center in Chicago. Pinder leads theEast rosterof12national all-stars against theWest’s best onWednesday at 6:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
“I was like ‘Oh, my gosh,’” said Pinder of her reaction to being selected as aMcDonald’s coach. Her next thought? Not her impressive career record. Not the state titles she needs two hands to count. And not the Hall of Fame laurels either. Pinder doesn’t think about those things.
“The french fries,” she admitted. “They
have the best fries.”
Pinder’s longtime assistant at Dillard, George Adams, says Mickey D’s was the Panthers coaching staff’s go-to meeting spot.
“There were plenty of times we were game-planning and going over our notes while eating breakfast at McDonald’s,” said Adams, now the girls coach at Calvary Christian. “We got a lot accomplished inside those doors.”
A lot got accomplished outside of those doors, too.
Pinder has compiled a Florida903-195 career record. The Panthers have won a record nine overall state championships — including five in the last six years— with her at the helm, and she was inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2014.
Over her 39-year run, Florida’s winningest all-time girls high school basketball coach remembers accomplishing a lot. Except one thing.
“Somewhere in there, I can’t remember exactly when, but that’s when I changed,” she admitted. “I think it was after the fourth state title. I quit the cheeseburgers and moved to the fish sandwiches. Always with tarter sauce and cheese. Yeah, I got a thing for those.”
So much so that Adams credits her with helping him create more than a winning attitude, a feeling of self-respect and a high basketball IQ at his new school. She assisted him when he created a masterpiece of a different sort.
“She helped me come up with a secret sauce,” Adamssaid of the tartar sauce/ketchup concoction he said he now can’t eat McDonald’s fried cod filet without. “She knows a good fish sandwich.”
And a little about basketball, too.
“I’m coaching a dream team,” Pinder said. “When you watch them, you see why they are All-Americans. They’re the best of the best. I’ve got one or two girls that can dunk, and I’m not talking Chicken Nuggets.”
While no Broward or even South Florida players are on the McDonald’s girls rosters, Pinder and her staff -- including Adam’s cousin, Brandon Adams, an assistant at Dillard -- are prepping some of the nation’s most talented prospects for Wednesday night’s game.
Among the East’s all-stars are signees headed to play with college basketball’s best programs, including Connecticut (point guard Crystal Dangerfield of Murfreesboro, Tenn.), Baylor (guard Natalie Chou of Plano, Texas) and Notre Dame (forward Erin Boley of Elizabethtown, Ky.).
Adams says the girls listen when Pinder talks.
“She really know show to treat people,” Adams said. “She has class. Win or lose, she treats people with respect.
“And she always paid the check.”
Not today.
This time, McDonald’s is picking up the tab.
“I’m coaching a dream team. They’re the best of the best.” Marcia Pinder, coach of East at McDonald’s All-American game