Rob Lawrence at his number retirement ceremony. (Photo via Warwick Warriors Boys Basketball Facebook.)
Rob Lawrence during his Warwick playing days. (Photo via Warwick Warriors Boys Basketball Facebook.)
Rob Lawrence receiving his diploma from UND with his family in December 2024. (Photo via Robert Lawrence Facebook.)
After the Ramsey County Boys’ Basketball Tournament in December, Warwick coach Ryan Brown went up to longtime broadcaster Mark Beighley.
He let Beighley in on a little secret: The Warriors were planning to retire Rob Lawrence’s number.
“And, quote-unquote, he said, ‘If I had to choose one person throughout my time here in the area — if I was specifically choosing somebody from the Spirit Lake Reservation area’ — his No. 1 pick would be Rob,” Brown said. “He got to see him play in and out. He got to see his style.”
Last week, before Jan. 24’s win over Benson County, Brown’s plans came to fruition. The 43-year-old Lawrence, who now works at United Tribes Technical College, was honored in a pregame ceremony while officially seeing his No. 22 retired.
“When I got the news from Coach Brown that they were moving forward with the process of retiring my number, it kind of was a shock at first,” Lawrence said. “It didn’t really register in my head right away. And then when I actually got to the ceremony, it was a great honor to be a part of that and be recognized with the achievement. It was really something special.”
By his own recollection, Lawrence scored 1,785 points in his Warwick basketball career. And he did it in just three years, from 1998 through 2000. At the time, his mark was the Warwick school record. It was surpassed in 2012 by Melvin Langstaff — the only Mr. Basketball winner in Warwick history. Lawrence himself was a Mr. Basketball nominee in 2000.
And now he’s a permanent part of Spirit Lake Reservation basketball history. Still today, decades after Lawrence’s school career came to an end, people in the area recall stories and memories from Lawrence’s dominance on the court.
He knew might be honored like this someday. But it still caught him off guard when he got the news.
“It’s just kind of the community talking. I made a pretty good name for myself with the community and surrounding areas as a basketball player,” Lawrence said. “That’s just kind of the dream. Everybody would love to see their number retired at some point. But I didn’t think of it too much.”
Lawrence, like Brown, grew up in St. Michael, North Dakota. The two of them are actually first cousins: Lawrence’s father and Brown’s mother are brother and sister.
Lawrence credited his support system for allowing him to reach his heights as a player.
“It always starts with family,” he said. “It sets the tone for everything.”
Lawrence went to school in Warwick — about 16 miles from St. Michael — all the way from kindergarten through his high school graduation. Resources were limited compared to what kids have today. The lack of facilities made working on his game in the offseason a challenge.
Most of his skills, he recalled, were developed outside on gravel with the hoop his uncle gave him.
“I had a family that really cared for each other. Everybody was hard-working,” Lawrence said. “We weren’t blessed with money or having things that we always wanted or needed. And so everything was earned. That’s kind of where my hard work ethic came in, too. You weren’t just handed anything. If you wanted something, you had to work hard for it. That trickled down to the basketball court.”
Brown, who’s now in his ninth year as Warwick’s head coach, was just a young kid during Lawrence’s glory days. Brown was born in 1993, making him seven years old during Lawrence’s senior year.
“I remember going to one game,” Brown said. “I do remember being in the gym one time, and it was the old barn at that time. So it was a lot smaller atmosphere, a lot closer to the floor. I do remember that atmosphere. I might not have understood what it meant at that time, but being able to understand that people show up to watch greatness, like Rob Lawrence did back in his day — he was a big factor on and off the floor back then, too.”
Lawrence’s high school coach, Keith Snortland, was instrumental in helping him develop into what fans saw at the high school and college level.
Snortland coached him long before he was putting on a show for the Warwick locals.
“Until I started getting a little older, he was pushing me,” Lawrence said. “I think he saw potential in me, too. At a young age, he used to tell me that. In high school, he knew that I was gonna be something special… It meant a lot to be able to have him have that belief in me to become not just a good basketball player, but person overall.”
Lawrence continued his career at Lake Region State College in Devils Lake. The Royals’ statistical records only go back to 2014, but by all indications, Lawrence’s success continued. Beighley, more than 20 years later, still recalls a game where LRSC trailed by 17 in the second half and Lawrence powered the Royals to a comeback victory.
“Dominant,” Beighley stressed. “Just dominant.”
Lawrence finished his college playing career with a year at Mayville State University. The team struggled, but Lawrence found some personal success on an otherwise lowly team.
“It was definitely an adjustment. Even at the junior college level, it’s a whole different ballgame,” Lawrence said. “I always tell the kids nowadays that move to the next level, ‘You might be this player at the high school level, but when you get to college, it’s a different level. You might not be that same player. You might not get the same playing time.’
“In my case, I was able to adjust to that level quickly and still be very successful at that level.”
In the resulting years, Lawrence has shifted his focus to the education field. He’s worked at various jobs at schools around North Dakota.
It’s been a newfound life passion for Lawrence, especially when he gets to work with kids in similar living situations that he grew up in.
“I’ve grown pretty fond of helping students and showing them — especially in the native community; I’ve worked at a lot of native schools — showing them that we can be successful,” Lawrence said. “You’ve just gotta try. If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish it. I just wanted to be that role model that they could look up to. That male figure.”
But he still plays. Even in his 40s, he still breaks out his old moves in amateur tournaments.
“I can still play with the best of them, honestly,” Lawrence said. “I’m blessed to be able to play this long.”
The tournaments are put on by families and they’ve taken Lawrence around the United States. Lawrence explained that these tournaments are a common tradition in the native community.
And his family, including his wife of four years and his four kids, get to watch him on the court.
“They hear all the stories, too,” Lawrence said. “But actually being able to show them that I can still play — that means a lot to me, too.”
One of Lawrence’s post-playing endeavors was coaching at Warwick alongside Brown. Brown has two older siblings, one of whom is closer to Lawrence’s age.
“Watching them two grow up and play basketball together helped motivate me — what I wanted to be as a player, but more importantly, how I want to be able to perceive myself as a coach,” Brown said. “And when I had Rob on my staff for one or two years there, it was learning a lot about the game. The in and outs. How do you teach younger ones? How do you kind of go about handling adversity with the older ones? There’s a lot of factors that come in and off the floor.
“And being able to take his experience, going on and playing three years of college, and just being able to pull back some of the things to practice on, he was a really good help for that.”
Lawrence also serves as inspiration for current Warwick players. Just look at Elijah Feather Jr., who recently reached the 1,000-point threshold.
Lawrence set the gold standard for what kids like Feather Jr. can aspire to.
“He worked here at the school, and we’ve been in touch with each other since then,” Feather Jr. said. “And we played together once at a wellness center. And we had a competition with each other at the three-point line… It felt pretty good. He inspired a lot of people to be playing basketball.”
Warwick, with its tiny population and limited resources, has managed to keep its boys’ basketball program alive for decades now. And it keeps producing star players — kids like Lawrence, Langstaff and, more recently, Mark Fassett and Feather Jr. Fassett was on the 2023 team that went to the state tournament.
“Those players don’t come along very often in a school of our size,” Lawrence said. “But that plays a big factor in the success of the school. When you get players like that, you can build the rest of the team around players like that. You can have a lot of success. But you have to have players that really put forth the effort to want to be successful — not just on the basketball court, but off of it.”
Lawrence gave a lot of credit to the coaches, like Brown, who keep leading their kids in the positive direction. They work tirelessly to support the kids’ opportunities and keep basketball alive and well in the eastern region of the reservation.
“You have coaches that put in years,” Lawrence said. “A lot of people don’t really see how much time goes into coaching… They’re taking away from their family time, and they get home late. There’s always something extra that they’re doing for the team.”
And Brown takes a lot of pride in the traditions he’s been able to continue for the small Warwick community. He explained that they don’t have the luxury of benefitting from population. Everything is earned — and it’s all earned by the boys.
“When you have a population of 10 kids per class here at Warwick, I think that’s when you really recognize the fact of when someone had been so successful, you really enjoy that part of it,” Brown said. “You enjoy that: ‘Wow, we had somebody come through our system who was that great.’”
Even working in Bismarck now, Lawrence still serves a part in the Warwick family.
It allowed him to come full circle, in a sense, when he got his number retired in the Warriors’ home gym just the other day.
“Rob has been a big factor in our community,” Brown said. “He’s advocated to our youth. He used to coach with me in my early years, so I loved having him on the staff. He was a really good motivator for people like Elijah when they were in grade school, growing up to know they have somebody to look up to, someone to help build their game off of. Someone that we know has come from our roots, has come from our school.”
This past December, Lawrence completed a long-standing goal: He earned his Master of Education from UND. He’d always had the idea in the back of his mind, he said, but it was his wife — who he married in 2021 — who helped convince him to follow through on it.
Not only was it a significant personal accomplishment for him, but it made him better equipped to continue pursuing higher roles in the education space.
“She was a big factor in finally pushing me over that help, to get that ball rolling to get things finished. So I give her a lot of credit,” Lawrence said of his wife. “But at the same time, being in the education field for as many years as I have, and working with the kids that I’ve worked with, just seeing them grow and trying to help them — I figured I need to be in a more important role for them to really see. Because I always talked about being successful, to them. So I wanted to put my words into actions.”
With his master’s secured, Lawrence said he wants to continue his education. His next goal is to get his doctorate.
And, of course, to keep playing basketball for as long as he physically can.
“Just to be healthy. To live a healthy lifestyle,” he said of his long-term goals. “Basketball’s not gonna be there forever for me. I’m getting towards the end of my career, for myself.”
But as basketball fades away for him personally, it’s still an integral part of his and his family’s life. His oldest child, Alionna Lawrence, played basketball for Four Winds/Minnewaukan and is now a sophomore on the United Tribes Technical College women’s team. Lawrence, who’s the college relations director at UTTC, naturally helps out with his kid’s team.
Alionna leads the Thunderbirds with 17.2 points per game.
“For my kids’ future, I’m gonna keep pushing them. That’s who is gonna carry on my name,” Lawrence said. “So I’m gonna push them to be the best they can, to be respectful people to everybody. And to be educated. Education is a huge factor in this world today. I just want to keep building that foundation that I started.”
