Social studies teacher Thomas Fox was growing restless.
“My daughters were pretty much out of the house,” Fox said. “I was getting tired of watching Netflix series. It was time to go back. I had the time. Coach [Christopher] Fleegle had been asking me for a couple years. I love the game of basketball and wanted to get back into it.”
After helping at summer basketball leagues and obtaining school board approval in August, Fox rekindled his love for the sport by accepting a girls’ basketball assistant coaching position.
“I’ve coached in a lot of different places,” Fox said. “When I first started teaching, I taught in New Jersey for two years, and I coached out there. I coached basketball here with Coach Paul Hasson for five years. I coached my daughter’s junior high for a year. I’ve coached track, I’ve coached girls’ golf—I still coach girls’ golf.”
“Tom’s a great addition to our staff,” girls’ basketball head coach Christopher Fleegle said. “He’s a big ‘Skill and Drill’ guy. He brings a lot of energy to the coaching staff, to our practices and games. He’s very knowledgeable, and he also helps me with stuff that goes on in school where he has accessibility to the kids and keeps track of grades, attendance and things of that nature. He’s been a huge help.”
Fox focuses on skill development, including dribbling, shooting and passing. A tall athlete when he was in high school, he relates to the taller players and aims to help improve their performance.
“We’re a very close knit team. We have some really great senior leadership, particularly Zaelinh Nguyen-Moore, who has been phenomenal. We’ve got some really talented ball players. We’re a team that, if we’re clicking on all cylinders, we can make a deep run in the state playoffs,” Fox said.
Fox’s coaching advice has changed sophomore forward Brionna Hudson’s attitude about basketball and has left its mark on the other players.
“He’s really motivational,” junior shooting guard Raylin Eyer said. “If you’re struggling, he’s always there.”
“Coach Fox is awesome. He’s something new for our team, and he’s not like the other coaches we have,” senior point guard Zaelinh Nguyen-Moore said. “It’s nice sometimes for a balance, to get different personalities out of our coaching staff, and I think he’s a very refreshing coach, as he’s always very positive, very cheerful and just honestly a good guy.”
With an 18-4 record, the girls’ basketball team qualified for the district game against State College on Thursday, Feb. 19. The Altoona team won 51-35. Every week, the team practices daily Sunday through Friday.
“I think it’s been extremely successful, watching the freshmen grow, watching the upperclassmen taking the lead as leaders and maintaining what is expected as a Lady Lion,” Fleegle said. “We hope to continue the results on the court.”
For both Nguyen-Moore and Fleegle, Fox has joined a coaching staff—and a family.
“I take a lot of pride in our team, because we’ve come a long way,” Nguyen-Moore said. “The girls on our team work really hard to accomplish what we’ve accomplished.”
“The team means a lot to me,” Fleegle said. “I consider them family. We spend a lot of time together through a 12 month period. I think we spend probably nine months together if you look at all the time we spend in the gym and other activities. I value them.”
