Submitted Photo from Samuretta Muldrow
Article by Valerie Sliker, courtesy Wagener Monthly
WSHS girls’ basketball coach Sharetta Muldrow is teaching the Lady War Eagles about patience and discipline, about long-term goal setting, and about self-confidence. Coach Muldrow is teaching these ladies how to hold your head up high when you end a season 2 - 12 in the region.
“I’m not worried about what the record was, I’m concerned with their skills.” Muldrow said. “I can see from the first game to the last the progression they’ve made. I had some that couldn’t even dribble the ball and now have the confidence to dribble up the floor. I implement drills in practice for things I saw in the game that we need to work on. I’m biding my time, being patient, taking the time to mold and shape them into good basketball players and good students as well.”
Muldrow’s right, the players are good students, most are on the honor roll. This season’s problems were two-fold: this year presented a young, small team and Muldrow wasn’t their coach until moments before the season when the anticipated coach, Sgt. Moses Brown was transferred from Wagener PD to the Aiken County Sheriff’s Department. Winning is difficult when coaching time is limited and the team only has seven players. In one memorable game, the team had only four players on the court.
Coach Muldrow is excited about the next few years. Despite losing two seniors this year, Morgan Gunter and Wyniesha Williams, with six rising Freshmen from Corbett’s middle school team, all of which have the potential to be top athletes, Muldrow sees the opportunity to build up an unstoppable team.
“I got them such a short time before the season, I didn’t have time to work on skill development, strength and conditioning,” Muldrow explained. “But now I have March through December to prepare for next season. Everything we’re lacking in – we can get better.”
Coach Jeff Moyer was Muldrow’s coach back in her early-aughts WSHS student days when she played point guard. She credits her coaching style to Moyer’s example of teaching his players the skill of the game, taking them to college games and basketball camps and creating a family feeling among the players. Like Moyer, Muldrow wants to teach the girls the places they can go by being a student athlete and that basketball can be a way for them to go to college and certainly that it can be a conduit for the construction and demonstration of character.
Muldrow sums up her altruistic drive in one sentence: “I just want to give back to the kids of the parents who gave to me.”
Sharetta Muldrow is a 2006 WSHS graduate with a bachelor in biology from Benedict College and a funeral services degree from Piedmont Tech. She is currently employed with an apprenticeship at J.H. Robinson Funeral Home. Muldrow is the daughter of Wagener residents Samuretta and Emanuel Muldrow.