Basketball legend has many great memories

BY KYLE LOVERN
FOR THE MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — When area sports fans talk about the best basketball players to come out of Martin County, Robin Harmon-Newsome is one of the first names to come up.

A pioneer in women’s basketball in Kentucky when the sport was in its infancy back in the 1970s, Robin is one of the greatest players ever to come out of eastern Kentucky. Title IX had been passed requiring schools to offer the same sports for girls as they did for boys. That opened up an entirely new world for athletes like Robin Harmon and many others.

Robin Harmon (now Newsome) grew up in Lovely and was the youngest of nine children. She has four brothers and four sisters.

“I watched my brothers play sports and I tagged along,” she recalls. “I just always loved anything to do with sports. We had the neighborhood goal, which hung over the hardtop down our lane, so we thought we were big-time because we had hardtop. All the neighborhood kids came to our goal to play.

“My dad had a rule if my brothers didn’t let me play, they couldn’t play, so I grew up playing against my brothers and the boys from my neighborhood,” Robin remembers. “We always had a court growing up. I wore the grass off a few in my yard. I can’t ever remember not having a basketball in my hands. Not because I had to or was pressured — because there wasn’t even a high school team back then. I just played for the love of the game.”

Robin led her Sheldon Clark “Cardinalettes” to a 96-8 record during her playing career, earning all-state honors three consecutive years from 1976 to 1978 and all-state honorable mention as a freshman in 1975.

Following a 43-year lapse in Kentucky, the girls state basketball championship returned in March 1975 — and Robin made her first appearance in the tournament that year as a freshman.

The high-scoring basketball star led Sheldon Clark to four consecutive appearances in the KHSAA Girls’ Sweet Sixteen from 1975-78, twice earning all-tournament team honors.

As a senior in 1978, the 5-foot-5 guard was the state’s leading scorer, averaging 33 points per game (shooting 51 percent). Her 10 assists and eight rebounds per game also ranked high.

“She’s an outstanding offensive player and can score from anywhere,” Robin’s coach John Haney told the Courier-Journal following a state tournament appearance in 1978. “She has a fighting spirit. She never knows when to quit.”

Sheldon Clark dominated the 15th Region during that era, with Robin leading the way, and the Cardinalettes were ranked No. 1 in the state.Robin holds the record at Sheldon Clark for most points scored in a single game, which was 52 points before halftime Dec. 15, 1976, in a game against Belfry. Needless to say, that also was a school record for points in a half.

Ranked in the all-time top 20 scorers in the state by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, she credits her dad for her great shooting ability.

“My dad took a basketball goal to the mines and had it cut down to where a basketball would just barely fit through it,” Robin said. “He put that goal up, and I shot on it all summer.”Because of that, it was easier for her to shoot the ball on a regular size goal.

“My brother-in-law (Jim Whitt) played for Billy Ray Cassidy and the Inez Indians and taught me how to shoot a jump shot,” Robin recalls. She also credits Whitt with her offensive game.

Using a men’s-size basketball, Robin scored 3,098 points in her four years of high school — and that was before the 3-point shot.

Robin was a member of the Kentucky All-Star team and got invited to the USA National Junior Olympic Team tryouts. That USA Junior Olympic Team was coached by the legendary Tennessee coach Pat Head Summitt.

After high school, Robin attended Morehead State University on a basketball scholarship.“I started all four years at MSU,” she said humbly.

Robin had a distinguished career at Morehead as a starting guard.

She ranked fourth on MSU’s all-time scoring list, fifth on MSU’s all-time assist list (429), and led the Eagles in assists in 1980-81 with 129.

Robin’s MSU teams went 86-36. As one of the outstanding shooting guards in the country, she scored 34 points against Brigham Young (BYU) and 31 against Northern Kentucky (NKU) during her 1980-81 campaign.

“I didn’t just play basketball; I played softball for Morehead State for three years and started at second base,” she said with pride. “I played tennis and ran cross-country in high school. I was just athletic and loved all sports.”

Robin knew when she got to high school that there would be a girls basketball team.

“My freshman year in 1974-1975 was the first girls basketball team,” she recalls. “Mary Lou and John Haney, my high school coaches, had a vision to start the girls team at Sheldon Clark. They had church league teams — and a few girls were pretty good and they wanted them to play. So they approached the administration, Title IX came about, and we were allowed to play. I give them all the credit for my career.”

After graduating from MSU, Robin moved back to Martin County, where she became the girls basketball coach for her alma mater Sheldon Clark from 1982 to 2007. She guided the Lady Cardinals to the 1983 state tournament in her first year as coach.

Robin served as Martin County athletic director from 1994 to 2013. She also served as an assistant coach. Robin retired from teaching and administration in 2017. However, following the untimely death of Coach Tim Rice in 2019, she felt the call to return as head coach for the new Martin County High School, where she is still leading the Lady Cardinals.

As a coach, she has accumulated over 500 wins, making her the winningest coach ever at Sheldon Clark and Martin County High School and one of the top 10 in the state. She also won four regional championships and coached Martin County’s only Miss Kentucky Basketball, Ida Bowen.

Robin was inducted into the MSU Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017. She is also a member of Sheldon Clark High School Hall of Fame, Kentucky All-Stars Hall of Fame and the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches Court of Honor.

The legendary player and coach has many great memories and achievements. Some of her favorite player moments include making it to the state tournament four years straight with her pioneering teammates, being named First Team All-State and making the KHSAA All-Tournament team.

Only two players ever made the KHSAA All-Tournament team in the school’s history, Harmon-Newsome and her daughter Katelyn Newsome.“Having the opportunity to coach my daughters and being on the bench when Sheldon Clark won the first game in the State Tournament is a fond memory,” she said. “My daughter was the point guard.”

Her daughter Boo Newsome is currently assisting her on the bench coaching the Martin County girls team.

“That is very special,” Robin said.

“I played with a lot of great teammates and coached some great players,” she said proudly. “While I was head coach, I had lots of kids sign to play at the next level at all divisions.

”Some played Division 1, including Ida Bowen, Miss Kentucky Basketball 1991; Kelly Moore, who played at Marshall; Lori Mills at Colorado State; and Mandy Harmon at Morehead State. She had numerous others play at smaller colleges. So her influence in Martin County has been long and successful.

“I somehow knew as a small child I was going to play basketball,” the Martin County legend said. “I call it destiny sent from above. So many things had to fall into place for me to have been given the opportunity to play, and the timing had to be just right.

”Robin Harmon-Newsome has made her mark in eastern Kentucky and continues to do so. Her Lady Cardinals just won the 57th District tournament Thursday, marking Newsome’s 13th as a coach.