A positive vibe

Congratulations to the St. Louis Surge on celebrating its 10th anniversary as a women’s professional basketball franchise.

Thanks to the vision and hard work of owner Khalia Collier, the Surge has managed to cut their own niche in the St. Louis sports landscape. They play an exciting brand of basketball and the young women have become role models to a lot of young fans in the area. They are constantly in the hunt for national championships while also building a very loyal fan base along the way.

I can still remember my first meeting with Collier a decade ago when she was about to become an owner of the Surge. It was set up by the late, great Rich Gray, a man who was a definite mover and shaker in the St. Louis sports scene.

Rich: “Hey Earl, I need you to come over to my office. I’ve got a young lady here that I want you to meet. She’s going to own a women’s professional basketball team in St. Louis, and I want you to talk to her.”

Me: “What?!”

Rich: “Yeah, you need to do a story on her.”

That was how Rich operated. That was when I found myself in his office face to face with this young lady who just a year or two out of college. After meeting with her and listening to her vision of what she was going to do as a new owner, I was blown away with her plans for her new franchise.

At the time, Collier was working at a car dealership that was across the street from a restaurant where I usually hang out with a group of guys that became known as the “St. Louis Basketball Mafia.” We just sit around and talk about basketball during these lunch-time sessions, often getting into real arguments. We always sat at “Table No. 35.”

What we also liked to do was bring in guests from the basketball community and treat them to lunch and talk ball with them. I had the idea to bring Collier over to join us for lunch and she was glad to come over to talk about the Surge.

Now, this is group is full of old curmudgeonly types who are not easy to impress. What would they think about a young 23-year-old woman talking about owning a professional women’s basketball team in St. Louis. It turns out there was nothing to be concerned about. By the time the time we were done, Collier had owned Table 35 like the boss she was. The old dudes were just as blown away by her as I was during that Collier was going to be successful in this endeavor. And anything else she chose to do.

So, when that first season rolled around in 2011, I find myself serving as the public address announcer for the Surge’s home games. I don’t know if that was Rich or Collier that talked me into that. Anyway, it was a blast. The games were fun, the players were great, and Collier had already created a great game-day atmosphere for the fans all ages and backgrounds.

Everything about a Surge basketball game had a positive vibe about it. You could see the attendance growing with each game because folks who were in attendance for the first time were coming back and bringing their friends with them.

Now, just fast forward to a decade later and the Surge are still going strong. In their final home game of the season two weeks ago at Washington University, they had a record crowd for their franchise. There is star power on the floor and on the bench with a definite local flavor.

The head coach is Petra Jackson, a former star player at University City and Hall of Famer at Southern Illinois. She is assisted by Justin Tatum, who was a standout player at CBC and Saint Louis U. and now a great coach at his high school alma mater. 

The team features top local talent such as Sug Sutton (Parkway North), Shug Dickson (Lutheran North) and Brittany Carter (Incarnate Word). All three were high school stars and former NCAA Division I players. And to show how things have come full circle for the franchise, another local player on the team is Abbey Hoff, who also played an Incarnate Word. Hoff was a regular at Surge home games during her middle school and high school years. Now, she gets to put on the Surge uniform.

That’s what it’s all about.