By Joseph Staszewski
Tina Charles still recalls attending homecomings for Christ the Kings girls’ basketball greats as a high school athlete.
So there was a feeling of disbelief for her as she walked back into the Middle Village school and her old locker room for the first time in three years and spoke to the current Royals players.
“I remember when I was in their position and Chamique Holdsclaw came back. Sue Bird was the person who came back,” Charles said. “For me to be the person coming back now it’s surreal, but I’m happy to be able to be someone they can look up to.”
The CK players, and the rest of New York City for that matter, will get a chance to familiarize themselves with Charles, a St. Albans native, soon, just as much as she is doing the same with them.
A blockbuster WNBA draft day trade brought the former UConn star from the Connecticut Sun to the New York Liberty, whose home opener is May 17 at Madison Square Garden. She was the 2010 league rookie of the year and its 2012 most valuable player.
Charles makes the Liberty a title contender again, and although she doesn’t crave the spotlight, gives them a public face that can make them more relatable in this town.
“I’m so glad she is back in New York,” Christ the King Coach Bob Mackey said. “It’s a big market. It’s where she belongs. I think it’s a great thing for the Liberty. I think it’s great for Tina.”
More importantly, it gives not just the Christ the King players, but girls’ basketball players across the city, one of their own back home to look up to, watch play regularly and be around.
Basketball didn’t come easy for the now 25-year-old Charles at a young age. Sure her athletic 6-foot-4 frame helped, but it’s something she worked at in order to get to where she is today.
“She is an inspiration for all girls who play basketball,” said Sierra Calhoun, CK’s McDonald’s All-American guard. “She has a lot of accomplishments that a lot of girls’ basketball players want to reach.”
The faces of players in the crowd lit up when Charles sat among them and they took pictures with her on their phones. Charles already said she plans on stopping by the Royals’ basketball camp one day this summer.
“She’s closer to our age,” Royals forward Kollyns Scarbrough said. “She’s one of the top players, you know.”
Charles got reacquainted with CK and took in every bit of the experience. She noticed the changes in the gym, read old newspaper clippings in the locker room and told the students to appreciate the athletic and academic preparation they get at Christ the King. Even some of her former teachers were there to greet her.
“So many [memories],” Charles said. “Running laps around here, doing gym, doing PE, seeing my locker from downstairs.”
It provided a chance for her reminisce on all of the great things and memories she has of her time the city before embarking on making a few more.
