She Is More Than the Sport: The Taneka Rubin Story
Inside Montverde Academy, PGC Basketball, and Winners Win Inc., Taneka Rubin is Advancing the Blueprint for Developing the Whole Athlete
Taneka Rubin • At a Glance
Current Roles:
Student-Athlete Development Coordinator & Assistant Girls Basketball Coach, Montverde Academy (2022–present)
PGC Basketball Director leading 800+ athletes during these national summer camps
Founder & CEO, Winners Win Inc., developing student-athletes to win in life
Author:
Winners Win: Unlocking the Potential to Live Your God-Given Dreams (2020)
Winners Win: A Study Guide for Women (co-authored with Yvette Ward, 2022)
Curriculum:
Creator, CHAMP For Life (Winners Win, Inc)
Developer, Soar to Success Initiative (Montverde Academy)
Director/Facilitator, Point Guard College Curriculum (PGC Basketball Camps)
Education:
B.S., Business Administration, Florida A&M University
M.S., International Business, University of East London
Pro Career:
5 seasons | England, Portugal, Spain, Romania | 2016–2022
Editor’s Note
I have had a front-row seat to what Taneka Rubin is building—as her business partner and President, co-author, and editor. She also happens to be my daughter.
I say that not to establish bias, but to establish proximity.
I have watched her carry a God-sized vision for student athletes from the inside out…
Pushing Up Women · Yvette Ward · Executive Editor
…through the years she played professionally, through the book she wrote, through every gym and campus where she has poured herself into young people who did not yet know their worth.
What you are about to read is not partiality. It is simply what I know to be true.
Live Inspired,
Executive Editor, Pushing Up Women
Founder, Inspired Eagle Enterprise
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
— Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
Who is Taneka Rubin?
There is a moment that changes everything. For Taneka Rubin, that moment did not come on a court. It came in a quiet place of reflection, somewhere between a professional career that had taken her across four countries and a calling she could no longer outrun. God told her to build in a way that would reach young athletes where the sport alone never could: in their identity, their voice, and their sense of purpose.
The word “win” had been woven into her life long before Winners Win became an organization. “It started off as a hashtag,” Taneka explains. “First of all, Winners Win is a mindset and a belief that I had about myself while I was pursuing my own goals.” That mindset became a book, released during her third season playing overseas. The book took her deeper into the world of sports. And what she found there shook her.
“I started to see that I did have an impact on athletes,” she says. “And knowing that God told me to build something—the pieces started to line up. I knew I wanted to help. That has always been a passion of mine.”
From the Court to the Classroom
Taneka’s path to this work is as international as it is intentional. Born in Bamberg, Germany, and raised in a military community in Sierra Vista, Arizona, she earned a full scholarship to play basketball, first at Glendale Community College, then at Florida A&M University, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. She then studied abroad in England, earning a master’s degree in international business from the University of East London.
What followed was five professional seasons across four countries—England, Portugal, Spain, and Romania. Every stop sharpened her understanding of what it takes to perform at the highest level. And in every off-season, she chose to invest in youth: coaching, speaking, mentoring. That is where the pull became impossible to ignore.
Today, she brings that career full circle. As Student-Athlete Development Coordinator at Montverde Academy—one of the most elite prep sports programs in the country—Taneka works across every sport on campus, coordinating workshops, seminars, and speakers that address the full person, not just the player. She also developed and leads the school’s Soar to Success initiative: regular sessions with each athletic team built around values, habits, and the kind of self-awareness that no stat line can measure.
“Soar Sessions give our athletes the tools to respond in big moments. We use this time to develop the person behind the player—because when they know who they are, they lead differently, communicate differently, and perform with consistency.”
Advancing the Blueprint
Ask Taneka what she is building, and she will tell you quickly: a movement. The vehicle is the CHAMP For Life curriculum, a framework she developed around Consistency, Habits, Attitude, Mindset, and Purpose. But the vision behind it reaches further than any single course.
What sets Taneka’s approach apart is how she designs for the way people actually learn. Instead of putting athletes in a room and talking at them, she builds experiences that engage different learning styles, such as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Her programs draw on experiential learning principles: athletes don’t just hear the concept, they work through it, reflect on it, and practice it in real contexts. The goal is not information transfer. It’s transformation.
Her larger ambition is for Winners Win to become the standard, not just a resource programs can access. Winners Win will be the mindset and principles by which coaches and organizations measure their development philosophy. Taneka is building a blueprint she intends for the whole field to follow.
Beyond Montverde, she serves as a PGC Basketball Director, leading about 130 athletes through each national summer camp, about 800 students each summer. This summer includes an invitation to lead a camp in Alaska. PGC is among the most respected point guard and leadership development programs in the country. It is not a coincidence that a program at that level sought her out as a Director.
Taneka’s work also reaches parents directly. “I educate athletes and parents,” she says plainly. Because a student-athlete who goes home to a family that does not understand what development actually looks like can lose ground even when the program is strong. Taneka closes that gap by communicating how to use summers wisely and what coaches at the next level are truly looking for in their programs.
Taneka PGC Director in Action
The Power of the Voice
Perhaps the most defining moment of Taneka’s journey involves a young woman she once coached—a top-one-hundred player in the country by any measurable standard. She could do everything on the floor. Everything except speaking.
“She was one of the best point guards in the country, actually,” Taneka recalls. “But she wasn’t vocal. I really accepted it more as ‘she’s good enough.’ We have vocal players already.” That assumption followed the young woman to college. When her former coach visited her there, he came back with news that stopped Taneka cold: “She’s not doing well. She just won’t talk.”
That was the moment everything shifted. “I made a vow that I would never let another kid come through my program and not teach them that their voice is valuable,” she says. She is specific about what that means: coaches need players who step up as vocal leaders, who call the standard for their teammates, and who are not afraid to speak in hostile environments. “You need to say what’s going on, that’s just how the game is played.”
And Taneka helps them see that the lesson extends well beyond basketball.
“I made a vow that I would never let another kid come through my program and not teach them that their voice is valuable.”
Faith in the Field
Taneka’s faith is not a footnote to her work—it is the foundation. Yet she has learned to carry it wisely in spaces where not everyone shares her belief.
“Sometimes I’ll just mention my faith in God and how that’s helped me,” she explains. “But when it’s not the right time or place, what happens is I will start to feel the empathy I have for them, and that empathy is showing them God’s love.” She shares a moment when she sent struggling student athletes back to the dorm rather than disciplining them harshly. She told them she’d see them later. Then she sat with them and extended grace.
“I just felt a heart full of: show them what grace looks like,” she says. “I corrected them, told them they need to learn from this…but gave them another chance. God has shown His grace and mercy and love to us over and over again. So it’s a powerful thing when you recognize His voice and you can return that same thing to somebody else.”
What Keeps Her Up at Night & What Gives Her Hope
At the highest levels of the sport, Taneka watches coaches recruit only athletes who already have the intangibles of leadership, communication, and character. Players who haven’t yet developed those skills get left behind. “Can you sacrifice pouring into a person because it takes too much time?” she asks. Those left behind lose opportunities. Sometimes they lose their way.
But the flip side gives her real hope. She points to coaches like UCLA’s Cori Close, with fifteen years in the program, competing for national championships, and known throughout the sport for investing in the person behind the jersey. “She cares so much about the person behind the jersey that it goes out to everything she does. But she also wins at the highest level,” Taneka says. “She shows us that you can do both. And I have not always seen that. But you can be both.” That is exactly what Winners Win is building toward.
Taneka Rubin, supporting an athlete in a Montverde Basketball Game.
Taneka Rubin Facilitating CHAMP For Life Curriculum to Student Athletes
A Message that Drives the Mission
During our conversation, Taneka shared story after story of situations she’s encountered with students, parents, and coaches.
These stories underscore the reason the Winners Win Movement exists. Not every talented young woman has a voice loud enough to be heard in a crowded room. Not every family knows how to navigate the system. Winners Win exists to change those odds…one athlete, one parent, and one coach at a time.
“Don’t just celebrate their sports performance or their achievements—really celebrate who they are as a person. Pour into young people holistically. See them as a whole person.” -Taneka Rubin
How We Can Support Taneka Rubin
Whether you are a mother, an aunt, a coach, a mentor, or an administrator, there are concrete ways to support the Winners Win mission.
Books
The book Winners Win: Unlocking the Potential to Live Your God-Given Dreams is the first touchpoint. “It speaks to anybody really,” Taneka says. “It speaks from the standpoint of: who are you, who God created you to be. And you can shine your light in the world.” A signed copy is an option. The companion volume, Winners Win: A Study Guide for Women, co-authored with Yvette Ward, takes that exploration deeper.
Curriculum
The CHAMP For Life curriculum gives teams and individuals a structured framework for developing the mindset and character that determine performance and legacy. The full system includes the CHAMP curriculum, the Next Play Challenge, and the Next Play Game. The CHAMP Foundations course with the Next Play Challenge is particularly valuable during the summer months—bridging the gap when athletes are away from their school programs and families are often navigating development alone.
Cohort
The Winners Win Cohort, currently focused on girls’ basketball players, is a four-week virtual program led by Taneka where athletes develop their voice, identity, and connections in a small, safe group setting. You can sponsor one athlete or fund an entire cohort. When you become a sponsor, you allow athletes to level up for free.
A Final Word From Taneka
Just after I wrote the book and started to work in sports, I saw that I did have an impact on athletes. And knowing that God told me to build something, the pieces started to line up. I remember thinking that I wanted to help student athletes.
She is helping. One athlete at a time. One voice found. She’s helping when even one young woman realizes that she is more than what she can do on the court.
And with every curriculum she builds, every cohort she facilitates, every camp she leads, and every campus she walks into, Taneka Rubin is proving that when you develop the whole person, winning takes care of itself.
Taneka Rubin: Developing the Whole Athlete-On the Court and Beyond | Pushing Up Women
The Open Door Resources
Whole-Athlete Development That Works
Taneka Rubin develops student-athletes from the inside out, through the CHAMP For Life curriculum, the Next Play Challenge and Game, and the Winners Win cohort program. Whether you are a parent, coach, or administrator, there are resources here for you and the young people you serve. Winners Win Inc.
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