Joe and Tracey Robbins stand by a memorial to their son, Quinton, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, at Heritage Park in Henderson. Quinton, 20, a city of Henderson employee and basketball coach at Basic High School, was one of the 58 people killed in the mass shooting Oct. 1, 2017, in Las Vegas.
Friday, Oct. 1, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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Joe Robbins begins most days with a walk around Heritage Park in Henderson. Even in the heat of the Southern Nevada summer, Robbins is up at the crack of dawn and on the trail near his home.
He always stops at “Q’s Court,” a memorial at the edge of the park constructed by the city of Henderson in honor of his son, Quinton.
Quinton Robbins, then 20, was the second-youngest fatal victim of the Route 91 mass shooting Oct. 1, 2017, on the Strip. Today marks four years since Robbins, and 57 others, were killed. Hundreds of others were wounded, two of whom later died from their injuries.
Robbins’ daily walks — where the route is partially on Quinton Robbins Way — have become therapeutic.
He prays, cries and often runs into one of his son’s friends or former Basic High School teammates who are also there for a moment of peace. He strikes up conversations with complete strangers from the neighborhood, who speak about what a great person Quinton was and how his memory lives on.
In tragedy, “you have a choice to make,” Robbins said. “We chose the direction of going closer to each other and closer to our faith.”
Quinton played basketball and golfed at Basic and later returned to coach the Wolves’ freshman hoops team — yes, the school entrusted the ninth-grade Wolves to a 20-year-old. But this young adult was mature beyond his years, also working for the Henderson Parks and Recreation Department, where he was in charge of setting up recreational leagues for children.
Quinton was determined that every Henderson child should have a chance to compete, frequently going above and beyond to coordinate with volunteers to coach a city team. He’d keep score or officiate the game, and also served as his younger brother Quade’s flag football coach.
That spirit is behind Playitforward in Honor of Quinton Robbins, a nonprofit the family established in his honor. The foundation provides funds for youth sports, everything from registration fees to making sure a child has the proper equipment. It has paid for cleats, footballs, BMX bikes, you name it.
The lone requirement, Tracey Robbins said, is that the coach, like her son, has to always be positive.
“Play it forward. That is what we love to do,” she said. “But it can’t be someone who treats the kids bad.”
The foundation also awards college scholarships to students at Basic and Brown Junior High School, Quinton’s alma maters and whose basketball teams retired his jersey No. 3 — after Quade, a Basic sophomore, wears it. They’ve given out 12 scholarships of $1,000 each over three years.
The foundation is so popular that its annual fundraising golf tournament at Lake Las Vegas is capped at 144 participants, each of whom pays $125 to participate. There’s a waiting list to join — including the family dentist — as the event becomes the annual celebration of Quinton’s life.
Quinton is remembered as a determined athlete who never let juvenile diabetes interfere with his drive to compete.
There would be times when his rising blood sugar levels would lead to fatigue and weakness during Basic basketball games. Coaches would insist he take a break, but the point guard never wanted to let his teammates down by subbing out of the game.
“He was way too competitive to stay on the bench,” Joe Robbins said.
Quinton loved sports from childhood and always had a ball in his hands. Family members are longtime fans of the Los Angeles Lakers, and while the Henderson city league was far from the NBA, Quinton realized those games had similar value to children in his community. He believed every person needs a team to be part of and an opponent to compete against.
Officials with the city of Henderson approached the family in the months after the shooting, initially with the idea to name a city basketball court inside a recreation center in his honor. That started the drive toward the outdoor "Q’s Court," which has a gigantic Q painted in Basic blue in front of a painted basketball. There’s also a memorial plaque, bench and trees, all of which are found when driving onto Quinton Robbins Way from Racetrack Road.
Joe Robbins’ walk this morning will naturally feel different. The pain and suffering of losing a son, after all, just doesn’t go away.
The family has previously participated in communitywide Oct. 1 memorial events but prefers to spend the day together in Henderson and will attend Basic’s homecoming football game. Joe, Tracey and their daughter, Skylar, are each graduates.
“It’s a horrible day for us. You are marking the death of my son,” Joe Robbins said. “There is nothing more terrible.”
But even worse would be not continuing his legacy, “because you truly do lose them,” Tracey said.
That’s why every donation to a sports team or Henderson child brings a smile to the family members’ faces, because they are doing what Quinton was always passionate about — giving a child the gift of playing a sport.
