Radio station. Food truck. Dance studio? Jamal Woodson’s energy earns him Baldwin basketball job

By: Chris Harlan
Wednesday, June 24, 2020 | 9:07 PM

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Jamal Woodson isn’t wrong when he says he’s got an energetic personality.

How else could he create an AAU basketball program, work as general manager of a radio station, operate a food truck, manage an up-and-coming singing star and run the Abby Lee Dance Company studio?

Now, add head coach for Baldwin girls basketball to his list.

“I’m a very energetic person,” said Woodson, who’ll turn 41 on Thursday. “I’m just blessed to be able to do it all.”

In part, it was Baldwin’s energy that drew him to the job. He compared Wednesday night’s phone call telling him he was hired to the call professional sports teams make on draft day.

“They called me and told me I got the job, I’m like: ‘Yeah, I’m game! I love it!’” Woodson said. “You know what felt good? It wasn’t that old school ‘Congratulations, you got the job.’ I said, ‘I’m excited,’ and they said, ‘Yo! We’re excited too.’

“The AD, human resources, the superintendent, they were all energetic,” he said. “They made me feel good about even coming there and interviewing.”

Woodson worked the past seven seasons as a top assistant at Oakland Catholic after stops at North Hills and Wilkinsburg, where he was head coach before that school closed. At Baldwin, he replaces Kyle DeGregorio, who went 22-24 in two seasons.

Baldwin went 13-11 overall and 7-7 in Section 2-6A last season with a starting lineup of all underclassmen. The Highlanders upset the state’s top-ranked team in the PIAA playoffs, but the school board decided last month to open DeGregorio’s job to applicants.

More than a dozen candidates applied for the position and Baldwin initially narrowed that field to eight for interviews, athletic coordinator John Saras said. The school board voted to hire Woodson at Wednesday’s meeting.

“I know Baldwin has such a great program all the way around,” Woodson said. “I’ve been following every team in the WPIAL, but they have a really nice middle school program coming up. I’ve been in so many different programs that were good and not good. I’d never want to join a program that didn’t have a strong foundation.

“Baldwin has a very strong foundation.”

The Washington D.C. native moved to Pennsylvania to attend Pitt-Greensburg in the late 1990s and never left. He now runs Slaam Basketball, an AAU program based in Pittsburgh that recently expanded to Alabama. He founded the organization in 2012, and saw the program grow from 50 kids to 400, he said.

Woodson and Slaam earned national attention in 2017, including an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” for his work with a then-9-year-old dribbling phenom.

“What really set him apart is his energy and his excitement about the game of basketball,” Saras said.

Among Woodson’s non-basketball jobs, he’s the general manager of the Pittsburgh radio station WAMO and owns ATU Food Truck, which is used at special events.

He said he also manages some young artists including Ashley Marina, a 12-year-old singer from Kennedy Township who’s appearing on this season of “America’s Got Talent.”

If that wasn’t enough, he also owns and operates the Penn Hills studio that became famous in the “Dance Moms” television show.

“I don’t know anything about dance, but I know how to market,” Woodson said. “Abby Lee sort of handed the keys over to me and I run the studio now.”

Woodson is the fourth new head coach hired by Baldwin in the last year, after baseball coach Steve Bucci in October, football coach Tim Sweeney in April and boys basketball coach Jeff Ackermann in May. Baldwin’s administration liked that Woodson’s focus was on building up all levels of the school’s basketball teams.

“He really stressed ‘program,’ from the youth level to the middle school level to the high school level,” Saras said.

Woodson steps into a program primed to win. The Highlanders return seven seniors in the fall.

He said his team’s approach will match his style, with an in-your-face, man-to-man, full-court defense.

“I’m a really in-your-face type of person,” he said. “I’m very loud, very energetic, very positive. We’re going to the playoffs and WPIAL finals this year, without a doubt.”

Excited to announce Jamal Woodson as our new Head Girls Basketball Coach. A GREAT day for BHS Girls Basketball #HailToTheFightingHighlanders pic.twitter.com/KjayP8wRd5

— BHS Athletics (@BHS1Athletics1) June 25, 2020

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Baldwin