After Mallard Creek basketball player’s father dies, team chases title in his memory
Whenever Eddie Robertson was around the Mallard Creek High School girls’ basketball team, he’d talk about the tools its players had and how much he felt it could achieve.
When his daughter, Olivia, was a freshman, it was head coach Karlyn Dixon’s first season at the helm. Her father really trusted the school’s new coach with Olivia’s development, and Dixon started coaching Robertson’s AAU team in the summer. She felt his positivity rubbed off on her team.
Eddie Robertson passed away on Feb. 16. Olivia, a 6-foot-2 junior for the No. 1-ranked team in the latest Charlotte Observer Sweet 16 poll, has scored in double figures in each of the Mavericks’ first two N.C. 4A state tournament games, and has dedicated the season to her late father.
“It’s something that you can’t really explain it unless you go through it,” Olivia Robertson said after a 17-point performance in Mallard Creek’s blowout win to advance to the third round on Tuesday. “It’s definitely a mental battle. And I just think that winning the state championship would be what helps me overcome my mental battles.”
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Robertson, who starts at center, is impressed with how her teammates have shown up for her as she’s coped with such a tragedy over the last several weeks. Her fellow players have respected her space and been there for her every time she’s needed.
Robertson’s father, who was 50, was born and raised in High Point and played football at the University of Virginia. He graduated with a degree in psychology and became an accomplished sales executive in the Charlotte area.
“Eddie was a strong, kind, loving, and supportive father,” his obituary reads. “If he wasn’t attending a Mallard Creek basketball or volleyball game with Brandi, or serving as a deacon or with the security team at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, you could find him in his backyard on the grill — cooking and talking — sharing his food and his wisdom with those closest to him.”
For Dixon, it’s been inspiring to watch someone go through this as a junior in high school the way Olivia Robertson has. Robertson has a younger sister, Erin, who has been keeping the stat book for the Mavericks. It’s meant a lot to just have their presence around the team as they all push for that goal of a state championship.
“It’s rare that you come across people that are just great individuals, great human beings — especially in the world today — and he was all that,” Dixon said. “He was always positive, always laughing and pouring into the girls and the coaches.
“All the AAU trips and all that kind of stuff, he’s just an amazing guy. It’s a huge loss. But I think you can feel his positivity and his presence because of how involved and how much he meant to all of us.”
The team went out for a dinner last Thursday evening, where Dixon noticed all her players just laughing, joking and reminiscing on memories throughout the season.
Their chemistry has been strong throughout the season. Robertson’s late father’s involvement played a role in that.
“During times like this, it’s really hard to think about playing basketball,” Dixon said. “It’s a game, at the end of the day. This is a real-life event and a real-life tragedy that has happened. But again, everybody, because we knew him so well and because of how involved he was, we know that he would want us to keep playing and keep fighting — and to honor him through our play. Everyone’s riding on that.”
The final Mavericks starter introduced in Friday night’s 80-45 win over Mt. Tabor, Robertson high-fived all her teammates as she headed to center court for the tip-off. She drove to the basket for multiple impressive and-ones throughout the game and slapped her teammates’ hands as she stepped to the free-throw line with the crowd on its feet.
The next step in their chase for the school’s first girls’ basketball state championship comes on Tuesday, as Mallard Creek travels to Boone to battle top-seeded Watauga. She has her eyes on the accomplishment, just as her father would have wanted.
“That was the only goal he was thinking of,” Olivia Robertson said. “That’s the only goal we’re thinking of. Family, team, everybody — it would mean a lot to everybody involved.”
PHOTOS: Mallard Creek girls’ basketball player Olivia Robertson
