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RCSD Student-Athletes and Coaches Receive Top Honors from Section V and the Rochester City Athletic Conference

(February 27, 2024) The Rochester City School District congratulates two student-athletes and three coaches who have been honored with Coach of the Year and Player of the Year awards from Section V and the Rochester City Athletic Conference (RCAC). 

Terence Thompson, a 6’8” senior, has been named Player of the Year by the RCAC for boys basketball.  Teammates with his twin brother Clarence, the two transferred to Franklin for the 2021 – 22 season.  Thompson has helped the team with an 11-win improvement from the 2021 – 22 to the 2022 – 23 seasons, and this year finished 13 and 6, having played one of toughest schedules in New York State.  This season, Franklin also defeated the previously unbeaten Aquinas, East, and Monroe teams, who were all ranked among the top teams in the State.  On Monday, February 26, in a semi-final sectional game against Fairport, Thompson scored the 1,000 point of his career.

Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez, has been named Player of the Year by the RCAC for girls basketball as a member of the Edison/World of Inquiry/School Without Walls team.  A Democrat and Chronicle girls basketball player to watch for in 2023 – 24, she was one of three players to record a double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds in a game this season against Wilson Magnet/Early College.  Also, a volleyball player, she scored her 1,000 point in basketball for her high school career on Tuesday, February 27, in a sectional semi-final game against Fairport. 

Brenda Tapper, the Girls Varsity Basketball Coach for the Edison/World of Inquiry/School Without Walls team, and Joe Jackson, the Boys Varsity Basketball Coach at Franklin Upper School, have been named Section V Class AAA Coaches of the Year.

Ms. Tapper, a 2009 graduate of Edison, currently works as a health education teacher at Wilson Foundation Academy.  Prior to that, she worked as a physical education teacher at a local charter school and has worked at Roberto Clemente School No. 8 and Anna Murray-Douglass Academy School No. 12.  She has been coaching in the District for five seasons as a modified and varsity girls volleyball coach, as well as the varsity girls basketball coach at School of the Arts.   

Mr. Jackson, also named Coach of the Year for the RCAC, started working in the District in 2000 as a substitute school safety officer.  He has worked at the Jefferson and Charlotte campuses as well as Franklin, Wilson, and several other schools for summer assignments.  In 2002, he became a permanent school safety officer at Edison, where he remains today.  His coaching experience began in 1988 when he coached his alma mater at Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School Commencement Academy.  Since then, he has coached boys and girls basketball at Wilson, Edison, and Franklin.  On Monday, February 26, Jackson led the Bulldogs to a 72- 68 overtime win against Fairport in the sectional semi-finals.  Franklin plays UPREP on Friday, March 1, for the sectional championship in Class AAA. 

Ms. Rita Binion, the Girls Varsity Basketball Coach at Franklin, has been named Coach of the Year by the RCAC.  A former basketball player and graduate of Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School Commencement Academy, she is currently a fourth-grade teacher at Enrico Fermi School No. 17.  Ms. Binion hails from a large basketball family.  Her uncle Joe Binion was drafted by the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs and played for the Portland Trailblazers before playing overseas. 

Additional RCAC accolades include:

Boys Basketball

1st Team All-League:

  • Shawn Goins, Franklin Upper School
  • Micah Johnson-Breedlove, East Upper School
  • Davijon Lipscomb, Edison Career and Technology High School
  • DeSiah White, Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School Commencement Academy

Sportsmanship Team Award – Edison Career and Technology High School

Girls Basketball

1st Team All-League:

  • Gabriela Brown-Sturdivant, East Upper School
  • Tamia Dunham, Monroe Upper School
  • Nevaeh Grisham, East Upper School
  • Semaj Jackson, East Upper School
  • Kaysia Jones, Edison Career and Technology High School/World of Inquiry/School Without Walls

Sportsmanship Team Award – Wilson/Early College

Please join us in congratulating these student-athletes and coaches on these well-deserved honors.