End of an Era for Pace Basketball

Pace Academy senior leaders Kaitlyn Dinkins and Josh Swan often work on their shooting together at the school's Inman Center.

“We’ve practiced together a lot this season,” said Dinkins. “We usually play follow the leader,” added Swan. “It’s fun.”

Behind the leadership of Swan and Dinkins, Pace's boys are No. 6 in the state and the girls No. 8, headed into their final regular games Saturday against Whitefield Academy. 

Both players have scored more than 1,500 points in their careers. Dinkins is headed to Harvard in the fall, while Swan remains undecided about his college plans. He’s considering several schools, including Colgate, Davidson, St. John’s, Southern Illinois, SMU, Wake Forest and Wichita State.

Dinkins is a sharpshooter who once hit nine three-point shots in a single game and has made a total of 159 for her career.  Swan is a dynamic guard who averages 20 points, eight rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks per game. He likes to take it to the hoop, and he’s a good shooter too, though he concedes that Dinkins could probably beat him in a game of H-O-R-S-E.  “Yeah, probably,” he said. Then Dinkins added, “as long as he’s not allowed to dunk!”

Swan recalls that his first dunk occurred in the summer after eighth grade. “June 7, 2007 to be exact.” Now it’s a regular occurrence — Pace often runs alley-oop plays to get the ball in Swan’s hands as he soars above the rim. That’s quite a sight to see, but to fully understand the extent of his leaping ability, consider the recent home game against arch-rival Paideia, where a 6’2” Swan jumped center twice against the Pythons’ 6’9” Sidki Muwallif, and won the tip both times. “Yeah, that was pretty cool," he says. "But the truth is I can’t remember ever losing a jump ball.”

Dinkins and Swan credit their success on the court to their teammates, and to their coaches, Regina Tate and Demetrius Smith.  They are also grateful to their parents, who collectively have watched their children play well over 1,000 games, and not just in Georgia. The two have played AAU basketball since middle school, and their travels have taken them to at least 10 different states, from Florida to Texas to Ohio, and everywhere in between.

That’s a lot of hours on the court, and a lot of hours on the road. Swan noted that both of his parents worked throughout his developmental years, Cheria Swan with the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta, and Steve Swan as an officer in the U.S. Army.

“He used to drive two hours in the morning to his base in Birmingham, then drive two hours back in the evening in time to watch me play. I don’t think either of my parents have missed a single game in all the years I’ve been playing.”

Dinkins said both of her parents work as well. Lynn Dinkins has her own retail clothing business, and Jim Dinkins is an executive with the Coca-Cola Co. Yet despite these career demands, they’ve always made time to support their daughter’s love of basketball. “Especially my mother, she’s very into it,” commented Dinkins.

Aware of how blessed she was, Dinkins decided she wanted to do something to support other student-athletes who may not have the same advantages. She founded a non-profit called “Hope for Hoops” that awards scholarships based on academic achievement, to give young female athletes an opportunity to play in developmental leagues.

“I wanted to help out as many girls as possible. Academics and athletics have always been important to me.  So I came up with this idea for a scholarship,” said Dinkins. Thanks to a partnership with Converse, the program has also been able to provide shoes, uniforms and other supplies to inner city teams.  “We’ve raised a lot of money, established over 10 scholarships, and funded four different teams.”

Off the court, Dinkins and Swan participate in the Peer Leadership program at Pace, where senior students, both boys and girls, partner together to mentor freshmen in all aspects of high school life. They both take Advanced Placement courses, and classwork is always a priority.  In the middle of the interview with Buckhead Patch,  one of Swan’s coaches invited him to attend the Georgia State basketball game that evening. GSU was playing host to Hofstra and apparently the Hoftsra coach wanted to meet Swan, who paused to consider, then opted to pass on the invitation. “Two tests tomorrow — English and Spanish. Have to study.”

The Pace boys’ team was 20-2 overall headed into the weekend and ranked sixth in Class A, according to the latest Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll . The Pace girls (18-4) are ranked eighth  by the AJC.  Both teams are capable of making a post-season run at the state tournament, but they’ll have to play host to Whitefield Academy first. The girls’ game starts at 3p.m., and  the boys tip off is at 4:30 at Pace's Inman Center.

Headed into the weekend, the Whitefield boys were 20-3 and ranked third in the AJC poll. Last year they took three games from Pace, but this is the only regular season contest of the year between the two teams, and Pace clearly would like to use the opportunity to avenge those losses.  “Yeah, we’d like to beat them. They’re a good, hard-nosed defensive team that gets in your face and tries to force turnovers,” Swan said.

The Whitefield girls’ team is 13-8. “They’re very good,” said Dinkins.