STAB’s Poindexter continues local UVA basketball walk-on tradition

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Posted on Saturday, Mar. 28, 2020, 8:46 pm

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By Jerry Ratcliffe

St. Anne’s-Belfield’s Malachi Poindexter committed to Virginia Saturday (Photo courtesy WCAV CBS19 Sports).

Tony Bennett has had a pipeline of preferred walk-on basketball players from Charlottesville-area schools, and that tradition continued on Saturday when St. Anne’s-Belfield guard Malachi Poindexter announced he would be the next.

Poindexter is a 6-foot-2 guard who averaged 12.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists for the Saints, who advanced to the VISAA Division I state quarterfinals. He was named first-team All-Prep League and honorable mention all-state as a result.

“Nothing but smiles all day,” Poindexter said of his announcement. “This has been a dream most of my life.”

He has been familiar with recent local UVA walk-ons, including Jaden Nixon, also from STAB, along with Grant Kersey and Austin Katstra from Albemarle.

“I played against [Kersey and Katstra] during my freshman year, and I knew Jaden for a while,” Poindexter said.

His announcement drew a strong reaction from both Wahoo Nation and some of Virginia’s players — past, present and future.

“It already seems like a brotherhood on social media,” Poindexter said. “A few players, a few recruits and some UVA players that have graduated have shown a lot of love. It’s something I really want to be a part of.”

Family and friends who have watched him grow in the game have been excited for him and extended congratulations as well. 

“People closer to me have been talking about how I’ve been working so hard for the opportunity. And Jabri Abdur-Rahim (one of UVA’s top incoming recruits) reached out to me and said it’s time to go to work,” Poindexter said.

The new Cavalier actually started his basketball career at Louisa County High School, where he played his freshman and sophomore years. Four games into his junior year, Poindexter suffered a season-ending knee injury, which ended up scaring off a number of college programs that were following him.

He decided to enroll at St. Anne’s, which caused him to reclassify and repeat his junior season, helping him bounce back strong physically while leading to an even stronger finish to his senior campaign.

Poindexter worked with former UVA star guard Sean Singletary before Singletary returned to Philadelphia.

“I was in the gym constantly with him,” Poindexter said.

From there, he linked up with Ross Williams, who runs “Let’s Get Better Basketball” in Culpeper.

“Ross is a motivational story,” Poindexter said. “He had a brain tumor when he played and was paralyzed for a while. But now he can actually dunk the basketball. He’s an inspiration and if I had a chance to work with someone like that, I was going to take it. He really helped me with my handles and things of that nature.”

Poindexter’s goal was to be the best he could be and he actually perhaps pushed himself too hard, with three sessions of work per day which eventually wore down his body and caused him to experience some small injuries. After working with a strength and conditioning coach, his body recovered and he’s perfectly fine.

He actually had an offer from Manhattan College, but as time went on, its interest faded and so Poindexter turned his attention to Division-III basketball. Christopher Newport University in Newport News wanted his services, but the offer from UVA was too tempting.

“It was really hard to say no to Christopher Newport, because they were really good to me,” Poindexter said.

His love for UVA grew once he moved to STAB. Growing up, he was a North Carolina fan because his dad had always been a big fan of Michael Jordan. Once he enrolled at STAB, things changed — not because of the national championship year for UVA, but because everyone at his school were huge Wahoos fans.

“I couldn’t be the oddball,” Poindexter laughed.

His coach at STAB, Damin Altizer, has worked in the past with several UVA players, including Ty Jerome and Devon Hall, and has helped Poindexter grow his game as well.

“[Altizer] is another inspirational guy,” Poindexter said. “Every single game, he has a speech for us at halftime, keeping us motivated. Playing under him is almost like playing for a second father. He’s always there for us and gets the best out of us by pushing you to your limits.”

Poindexter said the strength of his game is shooting, but that passing isn’t far behind.

“I actually think I’ve been overlooked because I pass the ball so much … I like the feeling of getting an assist. That’s probably my best ability right now.”

Naturally, he couldn’t play for Bennett unless he loved defense, and Poindexter truly does.

“My dad always talked about the Virginia defense and said if he wanted schools to come after me, then I needed to play defense,” Poindexter said. “I picked up on that in my first 11th-grade year before I got hurt. My second junior season, things went to a whole new level. I liked guarding people as much as I liked seeing the ball go into the basket.”

As a varsity member at STAB, he caught the eye of UVA associate head coach Jason Williford, who has a son on the Saints’ junior-varsity squad.

“Sometimes [Williford] would stay and watch us play after his son’s game, and after one game he shook my hand and told me I was a really good player,” Poindexter said. “At that point, we weren’t talking about being a preferred walk-on, but things began to take off shortly after.”

Soon he met with Bennett, who explained the important role of walk-ons in Virginia’s program, and how hard he is going to have to work.

Like Poindexter said, “nothing but smiles.”