RESERVE — It all started when Wilbert Thomas got his youngest child into basketball in an effort to spend more time with his only daughter.

He didn’t know, at the time, his daughter, Stasha Thomas-James, would succeed in high school basketball, play in college and come back to St. John the Baptist Parish to become head girls coach at her alma mater.

“I’m really proud of her,” Thomas said. “Initially, I don’t think she liked basketball as much as the time I spent with her.

“She is the youngest of three kids and she saw all the time I was spending with her brothers in sports. She wanted that same time with me and my wife.”

After years of playing ball, Thomas-James returned as the East St. John High School assistant coach for five years. Thomas-James has moved to head girls basketball coach this year, with her father serving as one of her assistant coaches.

“The girls on the team respond very well to her coaching,” Thomas said.

“Because she was the assistant coach, she had a relationship with the girls. She is a disciplinarian. She gets that from me, but she also spends a lot of time with the girls. She takes them to Nicholls State games, LSU basketball games and right now she is scheduled to take them to a practice at LSU. She is always trying to expose them to more. That’s what I tried to do with her, and that’s what she is doing with them.”

Before graduating from Belhaven University, Thomas-James said she pretty much had the assistant coaching job at East St. John lined up and didn’t want to play ball professionally.

“I talk with my former teammates and they say it’s crazy that I’m the head coach of where we used to play,” she said. “My coach passed away in May 2008 but I’m pretty sure he would be kind of surprised too. I love basketball a whole lot.

“It definitely keeps me active, and I get to be a role model for young athletes. I believe that my job isn’t just to coach girls basketball but also to give them some life skills they might need.”

Thomas-James, who graduated from East St. John in 2006, said she likes to think of herself as a resource and mentor for her girls.

“My former teammates come back, and I see a few of them at our games,” she said. “When I was assistant coach, I actually had a few of my teammates speak to the girls and gave them some information about how things used to be and also give them some encouragement.”

The East St. John alumna said she enjoyed playing basketball all four years in high school, a time in her life she will never forget.

“My most memorable experience from playing in high school was making it to the semifinals two out of my four years,” Thomas-James said. “We had a really good team. What’s crazy is that I actually remember all of my records, my sophomore year we went 40-2.”

Along with being the head basketball coach, Thomas-James is also an assistant track coach and English teacher. Whether through sports or academics, Thomas-James said she hopes to encourage the students at East St. John High.

By Raquel Derganz Baker