VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (WTKR)- Things can get competitive in Dwight Robinson's household. Everybody under the roof loves to win, no matter the activity.
But Robinson stopped battling his sons for basketball bragging rights a few years ago.
"They're not going to beat me and be able to tell me," he smiled. "I stopped playing DJ when he was 12 or 13 and I stopped playing [Damien] about the same time. I always win the last one, so I know when it's time to quit."
"We're competitive at everything, it doesn't matter what it is," added his son, Damien. "I'm not very good at golf, but he always wants me to come play golf because he's good at golf."
Damien grew up around the game of basketball. You might say he was born with a ball in his hand and hoops in his heart, constantly at the court from a young age.
"When I was younger, I was just always around basketball," he recalled. "I would come to practices and try to get in the drills, even though I was very small."
"He's been on the bench watching since he was two, three years old," noted Dwight. "He's always just been at my side."
Now a sophomore in high school, Damien is a star guard for Landstown, playing for the Eagles' longtime head coach- Dwight, his dad.
"He pushes me, but he doesn't force me to do anything," Damien pointed out. "It's what I want to do. If it's my career, my dream, I've got to make myself do it."
"He's already playing for me, so he hears it enough already," said Dwight. "I don't want the dynamics to be strained in our household."
Over the years, the two have learned how to balance their relationship between player and coach, as well as father and son. It's served them well as the younger Robinson takes the court for his father.
"As soon as we get off the court and we go to the car, he's always asking me what I want to eat," Damien said. "We don't talk about practice as soon as we leave the gym, but when we're in the gym he's my coach."
"Last night he came downstairs and he said 'hey, dad, can I watch some film?,'" recalled the Eagles' head coach. "I'll get my computer out and I'll walk away."
Dwight added that he's always there for advice when Damien asks him for it, but keeps to conversation off basketball unless his son wants to take it to that topic.
Damien works on his own terms, but is motivated by the success of his sibling. His brother, Donald Hand Jr., currently a guard at Boston College, helped Landstown win its first state title back in 2019. Now he's chasing a ring of his own.
"I think Damien chases a ghost," his father observed. "Because his brother did win one here with me."
"Since I was younger, I always wanted to win a state championship," added the sophomore guard. "My older brother won one when he was a freshman, but I also want to get one myself."
He's 32 minutes away from accomplishing that feat. Damien has played with some of his Landstown teammates since they were younger and now they all hope to put their stamp on the program. For the younger Robinson, Thursday's state title game against Westfield will also give him a chance to add another chapter of success in a long family basketball story.
"We would definitely cry, shed a lot of tears," Damien said of a chance to win a championship with his dad. "It would just make our bond very strong. Our bond is already strong, but it would make us stronger and connect more."
"For our team, it just means that we're the second unit to do it and most of them will be back next year, too," Dwight said.
Landstown and Westfield tip off in the Class 6 state championship game Thursday at 2:30 p.m. at VCU's Siegel Center.
