A Life-Long Basketball Enthusiast Brings "March Madness" To Rye YMCA

Rye's Tim O'Toole is a self-described hoops junkie who has been there, done that—basketball-wise.

He's a Hall of Fame prep school and college basketball player, has coached hoops at six different colleges, coached in the National Invitational Tournament at Madison Square Garden and been to the collegiate "Big Dance" as both a player and a coach, as the annual "March Madness" National Collegiate Athletic Association championships are called.

He has prowled the sidelines as an assistant coach to the legendary likes of Duke's "Coach K" (Mike Krzyzewski) and Syracuse's Jim Boehim, works as a basketball analyst for ESPN, and will be glued to his TV set this weekend as "The Final Four" winds down to the national championship game, his fingers crossed that Duke will make it out of the Final Four against West Virginia into the title game.

So it is fitting that O'Toole is one of the guiding spirits behind the Rye YMCA's first March Madness "3 on 3" basketball tournament, a new tradition that kicks off the Y's Strong Kids Campaign, the annual fund-raiser that bankrolls the YMCA's financial assistance and scholarship program, a program that has already dished out $170,000 in assistance to local families and individuals in the first two months of 2010.

O'Toole, who also serves as a YMCA youth league basketball coach and is a board member, was one of the originators of the YMCA "March Madness" hoops program for youths in grades K-6. He served as tournament commissioner and as a referee for games, gave coaching tips and generally did his best to make the more than 150 participants in tournament enjoy the game of basketball.

"I'm a basketball junkie, and my participation in the Y March Madness games gave me my basketball fix, just as coaching Y youth basketball gives me my regular Saturday basketball fix ," O'Toole told Patch.

Tim also has a day job as a financial analyst with a Rye firm, teaches business at Fordham University, is a father of three kids, a husband, and someone who has a deep commitment to youth, a commitment recognized by the state of Connecticut for his helping implement a reading program that reached more than 65,000 kids during his coaching days at Fairfield University, his alma mater.

"A major reason why all of us help out with the Y's Strong Kids campaign is because when we were young there were many people who devoted time and resources to help us grow up to be stronger kids," O'Toole said. "I guess I'm hoping we can keep passing the torch, or in this case, the ball, so our kids and many other kids will benefit just as we did."

Tim practically grew up with a basketball in his hand instead of a rattle. His father, Tom, was a Hall of Fame basketball player at Boston College.

"I was the youngest of six children," Tim recalled. "So my father really had to work hard to support his family, and really didn't have the time or money to coach on a professional level until I was pretty much grown up, but he taught me a lot and always had time for me."

Tim learned so well that he made just about All Everything at Archbishop Stepinac High School, where he averaged 21 points and seven rebounds per game, making the school's basketball Hall of Fame and winning a hoops scholarship to Fairfield, where he became only the fourth player in school history to be named captain twice (1985-86 and '86-87).  He was a member of the Fairfield teams that won two straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) titles and reached the NCAA tournament in 1986 and 1987, losing in the first round to Illinois and Indiana.

He was named co-MVP following his junior season after averaging 11.6 points per game. Tim won various athletic and academic awards ranging from Fairfield's "Male Athlete of the Year" as a senior to accolades for showing the most hustle and determination as well as outstanding academic success. He also received his bachelor's degree in economics and political science and was inducted into the school's basketball Hall of Fame.

"But one of the big things about my college career was that I was a point guard, a shooting guard, and, when the team was hurt by injuries, I also went from swing to forward to center, and I was all of 6-3, but the important thing was that I had to learn all the positions, and that really helped me as a coach," he recalled.

After graduation, he began pursuing his college coaching career as, among other things, a graduate assistant at Fordham University from1988-89 (he also earned his M.B.A. in finance at Fordham), followed by assistant coaching positions at Army/West Point ('89-90), Iona ('90-91), Syracuse ('92-95), Duke ('95-97), Seton Hall ('97-98) and, finally, as head coach at Fairfield University ('98-06).

He was named the MAAC Coach of the Year in 2002-03, when the Stags lost the MAAC championship game to Manhattan but earned a berth in the National Invitational Tournament. He ended his coaching career with a 112-120 record (.482), but with a lot of treasured memories that he now brings to the Rye YMCA courts during pick up games and coaching sessions.

He especially loves to give back to the kids by coaching, as he did in the recent debuting Y March Madness Tournament that was moved up from the fall to the spring because of the increased financial need for scholarship aid and assistance in the community.

"Tim is just is an outstanding asset to the Rye community and he's the main reason why the Rye Y March Madness Tournament event was such an outstanding success," said Melissa Lewis, Rye YMCA Athletic Director, who worked closely with O'Toole to make the event happen, pulling the whole thing together in about three weeks.

"Tim is just so dedicated to the kids, he makes coaching seem so easy yet he gets his points across so clearly that the kids love to work with him," she added. "He's really involved, whether it's refereeing, or demonstrating shooting techniques, or coaching the Xs and Os in a way that personalizes everything and makes it understandable and achievable."

"I just think the Rye Y is so fortunate to have someone on the Y team who is so knowledgeable, talented and sharing because Tim is selflessly all about helping the kids and helping the Y," added Edward Philipp, the Rye YMCA's Director of Operations.

"He personifies the best of the Rye Y traditions about building strong kids, strong families and strong communities."