Published: June 21, 2009 01:09 am      

GROWING UP VALENTINE: Kids help dad with family business

The basketball camp that he began years ago will probably always bear his name. But Robbie Valentine can envision a day where just maybe his name is all that he needs to give to keep the family business humming along.

The University of Louisville Hall of Famer and member of the Cardinals’ 1986 national championship team has certainly laid down the foundation for a legacy. His three children, twin brothers Eric and Aaron and daughter Brooke are currently spending part of their summer working as counselors for Valentine’s camps, which continue this week at Highland Hills Middle School.

“They’re excellent camp counselors,” according to Robbie, who has the whole clan at home for the summer. “They work hard and they work the kids hard. They’re role models.”

And the family business has always been their business.



PLAYING BALL

It wasn’t by design, but the Valentine children gravitated toward basketball. It isn’t a stretch of course, considering the court is where their father made his name.

“Eric and Aaron started playing when they were 2, 3 years old,” Robbie said. “They always played basketball and ended up focused on basketball.”

“We were always told our first word was ‘ball,’” Eric said.

Both brothers went on to play at Jeffersonville High School, spending their years there during a particularly difficult time in the school’s basketball history. Eric and Aaron started their careers with Mark Lambertus as head coach, spent two seasons with Jimmy Just in the driver’s seat and then finished their senior year with Tim LaGrange leading the program.

Still, each had respectable careers, and Eric accomplished enough to continue his career at Shawnee Junior College in Ullin, Ill. He spent his freshman season there before heading back home to rejoin his family and attend school at a more familiar location — the University of Louisville.

That’s where Aaron also ended up in the communications program, while Eric will pursue a degree in sports administration. If it seems awfully close to their father’s career path — from player to administrator to school board vice president of Greater Clark County Schools — it’s no coincidence.

“It’s a good fit for their personalities,” Robbie said.

Brooke is likewise continuing the family tradition. She’ll be a junior at Jeff High this season and is a big reason for the recent success of Chad Gilbert’s girls’ basketball program at the school.

Besides spending her time at her father’s camps, the youngest Valentine is also playing plenty of AAU ball — a pursuit that takes her across the country — and is already seeing interest from big schools like Kentucky, UNLV and, of course, Louisville.

“These kids have proven they can work hard,” Robbie Valentine said. “They worked their butts off for Jeff High and they’re working hard still. They’re good athletes, good Christians and they have fun with it. I can sleep at night, because I know what they’re doing. It’s great to have them.”



GROWING UP VALENTINE

Whether he likes it or not, Robbie Valentine has made his a recognizable name in the local area. And his kids say they carry it proudly, even if it isn’t always an easy one to bear.

“People do say things,” said Eric. “They might so ‘oh Robbie didn’t play much for Louisville.’ Things like that. We’ve grown accustomed to it. Overall, we just try to be good kids. You take the good with the bad.”

Certainly the public nature of Robbie Valentine’s business, as well as his position on the school board, means the Valentine kids have to deal with a certain amount of the fallout, but they say it’s taught them a thing or two about life.

“It’s taught us to have tough skin,” Aaron said. “We’re not worried about everyone’s opinions. We feel like we’ve been blessed in a lot of ways, but that doesn’t mean we’re better than anyone else.”

It’s in the area of the twins’ career at Jeff that brings the most scorn, they say. Aaron, in particular, was mostly a backup during his Red Devil days, but he doesn’t feel that he disgraced his famous last name.

“It’s like Michael Jordan’s son,” he said. “People act like he’s horrible at basketball, but he’s playing at Illinois and getting an education. We feel like we’ve had to prove ourselves since we started school, but all we wanted to make sure of was that we worked hard.”

Robbie Valentine is aware his position in local politics may impact his kids, but he isn’t worried about how they’ll react. Quite the opposite.

“The kids know there is good or bad,” he said. “They hear a lot because it gets emotional sometimes and sometimes they have to take the bullet for us sometimes. But it’s not going to take the smile off my face or their faces. That’s part of it.”

The main lesson, according to the Valentine kids, is that they’ve learned to take solace in each other.

“We’re competitive with each other, but we spend more time playing together,” Eric said. “We had targets on our back a little and we’ve learned to trust each other. It was sometimes hard to trust other people.”



THE FUTURE

Robbie likes to tell about how the kids at his camps bonded with Brooke, how they gravitate to her when she’s around. It also gets him to thinking about a day when Eric, Aaron and Brooke are the names on the camp T-shirts.

But that’s for later.

Right now, Robbie Valentine just wants to enjoy the three children who he raised and how eager they are to help send the camps into their next 25 years.

“It’s great to see as a parent.” he said. “They’ve got a great support system, especially in each other. This is a time where kids need role models and they’ve set great examples for the kids that have come through here.”

As for the kids, they say they’ll be at the camps as long as needed. Growing up Valentine means seeing your name on a shirt, even if it’s not yours yet.

“We’re almost veterans of this now,” Eric said. “We love it so much. It’s something to be proud of, to see everyone smiling and laughing and having a good time. It’s just a good time and we’re proud of our dad. It’s pretty cool to have your dad’s name on a shirt.”