Meet Undrae Walker

Undrae Walker is a giver which means Turlock and the surrounding areas are his beneficiaries.

Currently a special education instructor with the Turlock School District as well as one of the co-founders of the Stanco Stampede youth basketball organization, Walker is a native southern Californian who came to the area to attend Cal State University Stanislaus in 1991.

Besides his time in the college classroom, Walker participated in basketball and track. In his first year, he established the Warriors school record in the high jump and was honored both as conference champion and a national All-American.

In 1992, he was a fourth-place finisher at the NCAA Championships and then claimed the third spot in 1993 while also running his conference championship string and All-American streak to three.

1994 was the breakthrough year as Walker became the NCAA Division II high jump national champion while also earning his fourth consecutive conference championship and All-American honor.

He is a member of the Cal State Stanislaus Hall of Fame as well as the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division II Track & Field Athlete Hall of Fame.

"My track career was a blessing," Walker offered.

While a youngster in Long Beach, he played basketball at Lakewood High which was nationally ranked at the time and also participated in the spring and summer with club team entities, specifically Izzy Washington's Slam-N-Jam and the LA Rockfish.

"That was influential in my development," Walker recalled.

He also remembered the element of culture shock -- going from the city to the country -- when he arrived in Turlock. Things were different.

"But the people were genuine and welcomed me with open arms."

Walker never left and Stanislaus County is all the better for it..

An epiphany

"One day, it occurred to us that we needed to develop a program so the kids here could perform at a high level." Us being his friends Mike Tubbs and Donovan Frank.

Together with basketball luminaries in the area such as Riverbank High Coach Jeff Jennings, Turlock High Coach Doug Cornfoot, Modesto High Coach Pete Peterson, Pitman High School's Harvey Marabel as well as other figures in Stanislaus County, a forum was convened.

The result was the formation of the Stanco Stampede.

"Our [high school] teams would get into the first round of the playoffs and be done going up against teams from Sacramento and the Bay Area. Our kids can play but we wanted to bring better skills sets to the valley, to help build varsity programs so we collaborate with the high school coaches and work around schedules."

Walker added, "We wanted good kids with good grades to have a chance to go on. Our program wasn't designed because of having a lot of DI players. We don't have the kind of athletes where we can just roll out the ball. Our kids have to work together, learning how to figure things out."

He calls the Stanco Stampede program "relatively under the radar. We're just getting a name as a competitive program."

Witness Riverbank High guard Rolaun Dunham recently signing with Whitman College (Washington) and Kenny Fraser getting a full ride at UC San Diego. Lexi Tubbs is headed to Northwest Nazarene University.

Atwater High's Ben Peterson will be next player to sign but helping players move to the next level is not something new. Others in college also include Alec Carlson (CSU Stanislaus), Ashton Richardson and Juan De La Cruz (Holy Names University), Skylar Sexton (William Jessup), Kenny Veliz (UC Merced) as well as countless junior college players.

Also the Stampede youth program is moving forward as well. At the Adidas Junior All American Camp, Cameron Walker and Dylan Peterson were ranked the top twenty. Angel Serena out of Le Grange is a player to watch for years to come. Each has benefited from 1% Club Training that is implemented throughout the entire program.

Here's 1% Club Trainer Jeremy Russotti on the Stanco Stampede crew: "Undrae, Mike and Donovan are phenomenal role models and mentors to the players in the Central Valley region. They have spent countless hours committing to professional development and parlaying that knowledge down to their players. They are hardworking, tireless, and always creating a positive atmosphere. We have partnered our Skill Training U Curriculum with a few AAU programs in NorCal and Stanco Stampede was one of the originals. It is great to see them continue to grow and seeing the results of players getting scholarships. All their hard work is being recognized which is great!"

Sure, ESPN doesn't broadcast signing events emanating out of Turlock and nobody is getting rich via Stanco basketball but that was never the intent.

According to Walker, "seeing kids like Rolaun being successful -- that's what makes it worthwhile."