DECATUR, Ga. — A group of high school girls basketball coaches in metro Atlanta were honored with the distinction of being named to lead a team in the upcoming McDonald's All-America Game.
Kathy Richey-Walton is the head coach at Southwest DeKalb High School in Decatur. Come March, her and her entire staff will have the distinguished opportunity to coach the East team in the most premiere high school showcase basketball game in the nation.
Although she was formally recognized on Friday, multiple members of the McDonald's Coaching Committee attended a coaching clinic that Walton put on at southwest DeKalb last year. At the clinic, they mentioned to Walton that she would be nominated to coach in the game.
However, by the time the official honor came around, she nearly forgot about the visit and was pleasantly surprised to hear the news.
“Some of the committee members were at our coaching clinic and noticed the state and region championships banners and my name on the court,” Walton said. “They said they were going to nominate me, but I never really thought about it afterwards. It was one of those things you never think will come to fruition.”
Walton called the opportunity "prestigious" when describing what it's going to be like to coach some of the best players in the country.
Luckily for Walton, she will already be familiar with one of the players she'll have the chance to teach. Westminster's Courtney Ogden, a Stanford commit, has played Walton's Panthers twice this season in Region 6-4A play. Ogden has gotten the better of Southwest DeKalb each time.
“I really look forward to moving from coaching against her to coaching with her,” Walton said.
Panthers' assistant coaches Michael Holloway and Terrie Montgomery will fly out to Houston on March 24, where the game is played at the Toyota Center -- home of the NBA's Houston Rockets. They will get three days to practice before playing the nationally televised game on March 28.
“It is a little overwhelming to get to coach in that building where so many amazing NBA players have played,” Walton said. “But at the end of the day, it is a basketball court with two goals, and we have to go out there and coach and play.”
When it comes to her legacy in Georgia high school basketball, Walton is the second-winningest girls' basketball coach in DeKalb County history and has compiled a 480-157 record in 23 seasons at the helm of the Panthers.
Since taking over in 2003, she won three straight Class 4A state championships from 2008 to 2010 and won titles once again in 2013 and 2016, when the team moved up to 5A classification.
