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St. Marys, Ohio February 9, 2002 Free
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Feature Story

February 9 Feature Story

St. Marys Basketball: Back to the Future

by Thomas S. Poetter, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Educational Leadership
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

(email poettets@muohio.edu)


I've been thinking of writing a piece about St. Marys basketball for a number of years now. I figured now would be a good a time to do so, considering that this is the 20th anniversary of the last Western Buckeye League Title in boys' basketball won by the 1980-81 team, a team that Steve Schmitmeyer and I co-captained, and that Damon Goodwin led in nearly every statistical category. I want to use my recollections about that championship season as a springboard to say some deeper things about high school athletics and school experiences, in general, and to celebrate the rich, but sometimes hidden, legacy of basketball in St. Marys. My ultimate hope is that an aspiring player or two will read this piece and decide to play more basketball.

That 1980-81 team broke a drought of 17 seasons without a WBL title in boys' basketball since the 1963 team's title and remains the last boys' team to win the Western Buckeye League. I know that other St. Marys basketball teams have had success since the 1980-81 team. The 1993 boys team quickly comes to mind - they reached the state’s final four, an amazing acheivement that no other boys’ basketball team in St. Marys has ever equaled (though several others have come close.) The girls program with players like Mary Jo Hudson, Linda Lauth, Nikki Miars and Nan Kogge, to name just a few, also has been very successful and respected over the years.


A Winning Record

But that 1980-81 team has a special place in my heart, of course; its accomplishment of winning a WBL title remains one of the things I'm most proud of as a participant in interscholastic athletics as a player or coach. I’ve played on numerous other teams, including WBL championship baseball teams in 1978 and 1980. I had a playing career at Heidelberg College in baseball and basketball in the early 80s. My coaching experiences at the high school level in the late 80s led to the head boys’ basketball coaching position at Culver Academies in Indiana and ultimately to the opportunity to coach the Ohio Valley AAU 16 and under boys team out of southern Indiana to a National Championship in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1992, and to the final eight with the same group as 17 year olds in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1993. The fact remains that those experiences do not compare in any way to the thrill of playing basketball in St. Marys that year. In fact, on visits back to St. Marys, people still mention that team and their memories of watching us play on Friday and Saturday nights in McBroom Gym.

Many people don't remember that we had a final record of only 11 wins and 10 losses that championship year, maybe because we won almost all of our home games. We were 7-3 at home that year, with five straight wins in midseason, and with one of the losses coming in our last home game against undefeated and #1 state ranked team in Class "A" Marion Local (back then the state had three divisions for schools based on size, "A" for small schools, "AA" for bigger ones -- St. Marys was "AA" --, and "AAA" for the biggest), a game that was extremely well-played and ended controversially 67-64 on a “charge” call, and perhaps may have drawn the largest McBroom Gym crowd ever. I’ll never forget the standing room only crowd that night with fans packed in and standing at the baselines literally inches from the action.

We won six league games that year, sharing the league title with Van Wert, Elida, and Delphos St. John. We entered the last two games with a 6-1 record in the league, losing the last two in hard-fought, pressure-packed games on the road to Ottawa-Glandorf and Wapak. While we backed into the title with two chances to win it outright, and actually benefited from Delphos' final game loss to Defiance or Delphos would have won it outright themselves, it doesn't diminish the accomplishment for us, then or after all these years. That 1980-81 team really had no business winning a WBL title anyway, which made it ever the more remarkable and telling about what we really had done as a team that year.


The Players

We believed that we could compete with teams in the league that year, at least as strongly as the 1979-1980 team had competed in the WBL a year before, winning five and losing four, (That 79-80 team had All-League senior Dave Graves (827 career points) and excellent senior leadership and play from Jeff Cisco, Mike Weber, and Paul Severt.) But Steve Schmitmeyer broke his thumb just before the start of the 1980-81 season, and had to adjust to playing with a soft cast on his hand, playing courageously and well that whole season with the injury. Steve played an important role as a substitute for the 79-80 team and became an outstanding All-Area player as a senior.

Matt Kinkley and Jeff Knatz started on that 1980-81 team with no previous varsity experience. While we were all close friends and played basketball together all of the time, no one really knew for sure that Matt and Jeff would prove to be the extremely capable players that they became that season. They deserve most of the credit for making our team complete and competitive. Coach Paul Hershberger deserves credit for recognizing that Kinkley and Knatz had more than basketball skill and athletic ability to contribute through their JV years; they also had heart, desire, and commitment. These are the intangibles that great coaches look for in players and sometimes past talent in order to secure. Matt and Jeff were ready to contribute once their bodies caught up with their heads and hearts. Each offered special skills to the team: Matt was a fine defensive player because of his determination; Jeff worked hard at boxing out, and coupled with his good leaping ability developed into a solid rebounder. And Damon Goodwin practically came out of nowhere to become the WBL player of the year and first team All-State in Class "AA" as a junior, which really put us over the top as a team.

I knew that Damon would be a great basketball player someday. His entire game developed rapidly after playing with the varsity as a sixth man his sophomore year in 79-80. As we played over the summer before his junior season, he developed the shooting and ball handling skills that made him such an outstanding player in high school and later in college at the University of Dayton. But Damon played football, and it took him several games to show how terrific a basketball player he had truly become. I remember losing early games to New Bremen and Van Wert at home and thinking that it would be a long season. We couldn't seem to get anything clicking offensively and we were porous on defense.

But in a road game against Sidney, a non-league team loaded with talent including Claudie Johnson -- whom I later played with at Heidelberg College -- and two other future Division I college athletes (Grier and Daniels), I threw a long pass up the wing on a fast break that Damon caught and in one beautiful, fluid motion stopped and shot an 18' jumper that ripped through the net. That shot began a furious comeback that almost resulted in an upset for us that night against Sidney, perhaps the best team we played and didn't beat that year. I have never thought that losses were ever very positive for a team for any reason, but in this case, I believe that game, and maybe more specifically the moment of Damon's first long jumper in a game off the fast break, marked a time when I knew that we could play with and beat anybody we played. That's the feeling every coach wants every team to have. It's even better if the team can back that confidence up with some outstanding play.


Coach

I haven't mentioned our coach, Paul Hershberger Sr., much up until now because he never believed that the game was about the coach in the first place; it's about the players. However, he became the most important factor in any success we had as individuals or as a team. He was an expert at motivating players to believe that they could win, even if they had less talent than the opponent. His coaching about basketball was at least as much about life, and to his credit, he motivated us as individuals and as a team to care for each other as human beings and to play our hearts out for the school each night. That 1980-81 team always played hard. We never saved any energy in practice or during a game. We were young, and strong, and played at full-speed. We grew in confidence during and after every game.

Hershberger instilled in us a belief in his basketball system, that if we played hard and followed the game plan we could have a great game, each game and win. He thought that basketball should be an exciting game, played from baseline to baseline. So we played a full-court press and a trapping half-court zone and took every open shot and every opportunity to run that we could. No shot was a bad shot if we were on balance and we could see the basket. We took many, many shots way beyond where the three-point arc is today; we played without it back then. I can't imagine how many points we would have scored with a three-point line. Our offensive average without it was nearly 74 points per game.

After becoming a coach myself I lost perspective on the joy I had as a player and scorer, thinking that most of the shots I used to take as a player were "bad" shots when my own future players took them. The fact is that the St. Marys team made about half of them and we had fun taking them and sharing them, which every good team has to learn to do. One of our greatest accomplishments came as a team at home against Bath when they played a triangle and two and left Matt Kinkley and Jeff Knatz essentially unguarded. All Matt did was make the first three long jumpers from the wing to take them out of their game plan and to put the game away for us.

When I was an eighth grader, my goal was to play basketball even though the program was at a low point. I also wanted to play for Steve Moor, the coach Paul Hershberger followed. I liked and respected Coach Moor as a person, teacher, and as a head coach. Subsequently, he gave the bulk of his career to supporting the students in St. Marys as teacher, assistant baseball coach, and athletic director. In the end, he made a remarkable contribution as a person and professional educator to St. Marys students and the community.

But the program suffered through two major losing streaks at this point in time. And with losing comes a large dose of apathy. I was a freshman in 77-78, and played on the JV team under Brice Brenneman. We won several JV games that year, but the atmosphere was dismal. Losing isn't fun. I vividly recall playing in a nearly empty McBroom Gym during the blizzard of '78. No one could get to the game because of the weather and they weren't missing much by not braving the ice, snow, and cold. We were not a very good team.

Those two teams had 37 losses over two seasons. Hershberger's first season, 1978-79, started with eight consecutive losses, making the streak 26 losses in a row before two back-to-back wins in midseason at home against Elida and Bath. Fans rushed the court after that streak-breaking win over Elida on Friday and then again the next night after beating Bath, and I remember feeling like we'd won the state title two nights in a row as a sophomore starter. However, those two wins were followed by nine more consecutive losses. St. Marys basketball found itself mired in a three-year run from 1977-1979 of 3 wins, 54 losses. Not good at all.

But hope abounded in Hershberger and those of us who loved to play basketball in St. Marys. We believed that Hershberger would help us get better and eventually win. He did. Despite the losing seasons in the late 70s, there was a strong subculture made up of people in town who loved to play basketball, and followed basketball, and I ran with that crowd.


Hoops All Year

The beginning of my interest in basketball started at home. My brother and Dad and neighbors constituted the beginning core of my basketball "crowd." My Dad, Rev. Howard H. Poetter, played basketball in high school and at Heidelberg College, and my brother Karl was a basketball fanatic all through school, though he never tried out for the high school team. Karl taught me to shoot a jumper in the driveway (Dad was still shooting a two-handed set shot which didn't promise to do me much good, though he himself was pretty accurate with it) and Dad and Karl took me along for church league games Karl played in and Dad refereed during Karl's high school days.

I played all of the time in the neighborhood, as a young boy with mostly older boys on well-kept, often lighted driveway courts, like the court insurance man and neighbor Bob Burke built for his family behind the family business on Wayne Street (they have since torn down the pole to make room for their growing business) or on the court in the old Folk Funeral Home back driveway on High Street. The Burke boys, Dan and Joe, played with me and other neighbors constantly at all hours behind their house. I played non-stop on the hoop that Mayor, church member, builder, and neighbor Howard Schultz built for us in the St. Paul's parsonage driveway when we lived on High Street across from the church.

Mike Lhamon lived just across Perry Street from us and played for St. Marys' varsity in the late 60s. He shot baskets in our driveway and in St. Paul's Church parking lot. So did Tim Fortney, who lived just across the alley from Burke's and starred for St. Marys in three sports and who would ultimately star in football at Miami University. Dad took me to see them and the rest of the Roughriders play at McBroom Gym their senior year. They were my earliest sports heroes. I was four or five years old when I saw my first games at McBroom Gym.

Older kids played a lot of half court games on lighted driveway hoops all over town. I used to ride my bike to these courts and watch my brother play with the older boys until twilight came and I had to get home. When the city built lighted basketball courts at the pool, you could find a game there day or night. I played hundreds of games on hoops outside at Bunker Hill School and behind McBroom Gym (both of those courts are gone now).

As kids and as young adults, we played day and night in the rain, sleet, snow, sweltering heat, and on glorious clear days. Sometimes we shoveled the snowy driveways just to get a few shots or a pick-up game in, hardly ever just to help get the car out. I know this sounds like the old saw "I walked 16 miles to school in driving snow" that kids get so tired of hearing from parents and teachers. But it's all true; I loved playing basketball, and I wasn't the only one.

There probably isn't just one reason why we played basketball like we did as kids all over town back then, in terms of the quantity of play, which was a lot, or how we played, which was full-bore, competitively. Maybe it's because we didn't have that much else to do. Maybe it was because our parents expected us to be out of the house in the neighborhood playing when we were "home." Maybe it was because we didn't have adults programming our activities constantly like many of us do as parents today (we are guilty of this ourselves and are working at programming less activities for our kids instead of more). We simply didn't have as many things competing for our time as children do today and our parents didn’t worry so much about negative outside influences.

We did school work at school and played ball at recess, we did homework in the evening, and we played outdoors after school at home in the neighborhood until supper at 6pm or so. Some of us used that time after school at home for sports if we chose to do so. I did many things with my time; I simply spent a lot of it playing some sort of ball.


Home Sweet Home

In addition to watching high school heroes play in McBroom Gym, we could get at least four different college games regularly on our TV set, even before cable. We watched a lot of basketball on TV as a family. We saw the University of Dayton Flyers on Channel 7, the Ohio State Buckeyes out of Columbus on Channel 10, and the Purdue Boilermakers and Indiana Hoosiers on Fort Wayne Channel 55. These were great basketball programs and great televised games. I remember watching Rick Mount, Mike Sylvester, Donnie May, Donald Smith, Luke Witte, Allan Hornyak, Scott May, Quinn Buckner, and Kent Benson, among others on TV. They were all great, and nearly right in our backyard.

I begged Dad to take me to the St. Marys home basketball game on my 10th birthday in 1972. I was still too young to just go by myself or with friends. The boys' team had a home game on my birthday, December 28, a Saturday night over Christmas break. I hadn't been to a game that year, and I had checked the game off on one of those little yellow cardboard schedules with blue print that the schools and businesses handed out all over town. It was just Dad and me together side-by-side in the lower section of the permanent bleachers watching the game. He relented to taking me, graciously, and we had a great time. I remember the play of several players that night -- Mark Stienecker, Doug Goens, and “B” Anderson -- all smaller players, hustling all over the court. I knew that night, if I didn't know it before, that I wanted to play in that gym for St. Marys.

The atmosphere for a game in McBroom always felt electric to me; the place had a certain attractive aesthetic to it. This may sound strange, but I have always gotten a sort of rush just from approaching the gym in a car, bike, or on foot, whether I was going there to watch or play because visually from the outside, enroute, you can see the skylights on the facility beckoning from a distance. The lights in the night or twilight always meant there would be a game inside. The lighting inside on the court surface always made the players rather shine in their home white or gold uniforms. The players almost glowed even before the game started, especially in those old, shiny golden warm-up tops the varsity wore.

The pep band always played "Sweet Georgia Brown," and on the wall hung a huge placard naming all of the teams in the WBL next to their painted, wooden mascot logos. The students packed the roll-away bleachers and cheered loudly; and there was popcorn to eat and pop to drink. The rim at the south end basket with the bleachers where St. Marys shot the second half rattled with every ball that touched the rim. That rim was really loose, and it was "friendly" to St. Marys shooters, as Brice Brenneman always reminded us later as players. Really long nets sometimes let a swishing shot "hang the net" and delay play just long enough for the home team to set up its full-court press.

I remember the gym and the fans being especially loud as both a fan and a player. I loved the noise in the gym as a player. My fondest memories of playing in McBroom Gym, which are now less distinct and particular and rather collective, came in the moments that followed a St. Marys run just after a defensive steal, or a defensive stop and a rebound, and the beginning of a fast break to our offensive goal. These moments often came in the second or third quarter, and perhaps while mounting a comeback or beginning to put a team away for the night.

If a teammate got the ball to me on an outlet pass off a rebound or steal, the crowd would rise and roar in a sort of wave as we raced past. The people of St. Marys gave us the thrill of running with purpose toward the goal. Many of those fastbreaks led to a basket and an opponent timeout. I believe the St. Marys’ crowd learned to sense the advantage with us, and sometimes even pushed us when we got tired, which we did by playing at that pace. The reward for us was the thrill just of having the opportunity to race past while the crowd roared. I knew even then that few people ever get that opportunity, at any level, in any sport, at any time in their lives. I thank the people of St. Marys for that gift.


History

I'm sure I wasn't the first one to feel this way about playing in McBroom Gym. Doug Maze scored 572 career points from 68-71 and went on to play at Wittenberg University. Ray Graves coached competitive St. Marys teams as well as some great players in my childhood years of the early 70s. He himself had starred at St. Marys and played at The Citadel (734 career points). Dave Hausfeld won WBL player of the year in 1974 (725 career points) and played football at Toledo. He was an outstanding all-around athlete who could do anything he pleased as a ballplayer -- score, handle the ball, pass, rebound. Ken Smith played around the same time (710 career points) and he was outstanding. I saw Louie Dietz score 36 points in one game during the 74-75 season (544 career points). He was a tremendous outside shooter and scorer.

But the team that made all the difference was the 1975-76 team, the first team I really followed all the way through an entire season as a 7th grader, and not just by a game here or there that I attended with my family. I didn't miss a home game that year and listened to games on the radio with Dad.

The starters in 75-76 were Chip Cisco, Willie Gillis (576 career points), Scott Fannon, Steve Deitz (600 career points), and Bill Blumhorst. Jeff Heisten came off the bench as a junior that year. Cisco and Gillis made up a formidable backcourt. They were terrific athletes. Cisco played college baseball at Ohio State and later professional baseball. Gillis received a Division I scholarship to play golf. Cisco handled the ball, shot well from the outside, made his foul shots, and had an excellent "floor" game. Gillis was the shooting guard and very fiesty, a scorer’s scorer. Fannon played the wing, tough defense, and had a deadly jumper from the low corner. Dietz did just about everything, he was extremely athletic, tough on defense, and a good leaper and rebounder like Fannon. Blumhorst held down the middle and had a tough little jump hook. Heistan played a seasoned, strong sixth man role. They had a great team.

That team didn't win every game, though, barely eking out a winning record (12-10), but they beat Celina in the dreaded Fieldhouse when Gillis had 40 points. I listened to that whole game on the radio with Dad. I also attended the sectional game against undefeated and No. 1 in the state, Delphos St. John at Ohio Northern University. For some reason, a friend who really didn't follow St. Marys basketball much invited me to go to the game with his family at the last minute and I jumped at the chance. That's the best high school game I've ever seen played. The mere 500 or so fans from St. Marys who went to Ada that night would say the same thing. I saved the ticket stub from that game for years after. Many people from around the state called it a great upset, but basketball officianados in St. Marys will note that though Delphos beat us on their home court just a few weeks before that sectional game, St. Marys actually won 7 of the 8 quarters the two teams played that year.

After that year I began playing mostly in gyms around town and at the city pool courts with older players. Jeff Heistan shot and played pickup games with all comers and he became a role-model and friend. Jeff had the good fortune of playing for that 75-76 team that went all the way to the district final after beating Delphos before losing to Van Wert, and also the misfortune of playing for that 76-77 team didn't win a game, but he went on to have a good college career at Heidelberg College, and of course, an outstanding high school coaching career himself at Lima Shawnee.

Greg Dieringer and I played a great deal together the summer before his senior year in 77-78, my freshman year; I credit him for making it possible for me to play with a lot of the older players, even as I started to get closer in age and skill to threatening them or their friends for playing time. He helped build my confidence as a player and taught me a lot about the game.

What happened the next few years really proved to be the difference in my development as a player as well as the development of the players on the 80-81 team. We began playing together as a group in summer pickup games at open-gym nights in McBroom Gym as well as travelling to open-gym nights in Coldwater, New Knoxville, Wapak, and Maria Stein. Playing against the best high school players in the area gave us a benchmark against which to compare our own play and show us first-hand the things we needed to work on.

But the main thing that happened in terms of playing was Hershberger's commitment to keeping the gym open often for us at home, especially to play against the best local players in St. Marys, at least the ones who wanted to play with us, many of them older. We played competitively against adults consistently for two years. They accrued the benefit of staying in shape, and they gave us the gift of making us stronger, more competitive, and more confident that we could compete with area teams.

Gene Goodwin, Brice Brenneman, Fred Hullinger, Vern Raymond, Greg Dieringer, Steve Moor, Scott Fannon, Buzz Howard, Mark Henschen, Tommy Katterheirich, and Paul Hershberger played countless hours of pickup basketball with and against us (I apologize to those whose names I left out, there are too many to name though these remain the ones I remember having the greatest impact). The key to playing good basketball as a youth is to play all the time against stronger competition. One of the best resources a town has to offer future basketball players is simply playing them in pickup games on a regular basis. These men did this year round, inside the gym and outside at the city pool courts, and our work together paid off with that championship season.


Looking Back

Twenty years ago I went off to Heidelberg College myself feeling as though that 1980-81 team may have sparked some renewed interest in basketball in St. Marys. I think it did in certain particular ways -- I remember, for instance, that "little" Greg Yingling (I think he topped out at a sizeable 6'3") was one of that team's biggest fans. His dad Tom Yingling, a former St. Marys player himself and one of our high school teachers and coaches, guarded the lower east doorway during every home game I played in St. Marys. He was one of our biggest fans and supporters, and made sure that Greg spoke with the players before or after nearly every game.

Greg became an outstanding player in his own right, helping that 1993 team to the state tournament. Maybe those early experiences at games in McBroom Gym with his dad and the team had something to do with Greg's development as a player. I'd like to think so. I know that watching and getting to know the St. Marys players had a great deal to do with my interest in playing basketball in St. Marys.

It was never lost on me, however, at the time or now, that the legacy of St. Marys basketball goes much deeper than these teams I grew up watching in the late 60s-70s, the team I played on in 80-81, and the 92-93 state semifinalist team. It goes at least back to the 50s and early 60s, when Dean Cook (who later played basketball for Ohio State), Jon Kuenzel (who later led Air Force to the Cotton Bowl as a football quarterback, 951 career points), Ray Graves (who played at The Citadel and would later coach at St. Marys, 734 career points), Don Martin (local broadcaster, 551 career points), Buz Howard (who later coached at St. Marys, 706 career points), and Dave Williams (who still holds the single game scoring mark of 43, 625 career points) among many others graced the St. Marys hardwood as "cagers."

I think the bottom line with all of these individuals and teams is that they played a lot of basketball, built a community around the sport, and enjoyed doing it. Playing led to so many opportunities for making friends and having one-of-a-kind experiences like playing against the area's best ballplayers for St. Marys in McBroom Gym (or as in Dean Cook's case, on the old floor in the high school auditorium before McBroom was built). It may only take three-five young men or women who really want to play for St. Marys to make their mark together as a team. What they'll have to do, however, is play, all the time, especially outside in the summer and winter. Personally, the results, the memories, and the lessons are worth it. I speak from experience.


Lessons For Life

Having said all this so far, and I know we've come a great distance if you've made it this far, I want the reader to know that I never intended to write something that turned into a sort of sad "glory days" piece. I have moved on in my life and accomplished other things beyond the basketball court. However, as a former college player and high school coach and teacher, and now as a professor at Miami University where I work with educators preparing to provide leadership in schools and colleges, I know how important and powerful school experiences can be for children.

All of these experiences, inside and outside of class in co-curricular activities, have a hand in shaping us as people and us as a society. Sometimes these experiences become high points against which the rest of one's life never quite measures up, and that is sad. But for me, going to school in St. Marys and playing basketball in McBroom Gym provided one early testing ground for things I might like to do and become. And I learned so much there.

I learned how my best efforts alone could not lead to victory. I learned how to handle public defeat and even humiliation. I learned to play hard until the game was over, regardless of the score. I learned to correct mistakes and work on weaknesses. I also learned how to be generous in victory, and gracious to opponents (and even to referees, though I do recall being somewhat edgy and competitive, maybe too much so at times). I learned to recognize, value, and attempt to accelerate the accomplishments of my teammates. I also learned that there were a lot of people who didn't care anything about basketball or sports and were interested in other things that they valued much more. I learned from them that my world wasn't the center of the universe. I apply all of these lessons in everything I do.

Of course, on certain days I have varying levels of success as a person, but I know that the school, the classroom, and sports gave me opportunities, stretched me, challenged me, primarily through people who cared about me as friends and mentors and through the opportunities to think, learn, play, and compete. The community cheered relentlessly for us, even in defeat. This is what communities that want to have successful programs in the classroom and on the playing fields do. They support, encourage. I'm a product of that excellent practice. I hope that some future Roughrider, male or female ages 6-17, will read this and make a commitment to playing more basketball, not during the season, but outside of the season. Not at the expense of studying, of course, or at the expense of the time it takes to take up another worthy athletic undertaking, but in the hopes of tapping the talent, spirit, and possibility that exists there, just waiting to be let go again. And I hope that when the community sees it, or even until it does, that it will cheer.


Acknowledgments

Special thanks go to friends and colleagues Dave Helmstetter and Burton Andrews who provided feedback on early drafts of this piece as well as historical background on some players and events. The piece is dedicated to one of the great Rider fans, teachers, and friends: James Young (1929-2000). My apologies to anyone who got left out of this chronicle and should have been included. There is so much left to tell.

Tom Poetter, MHS '81


About the Author

Tom Poetter is a 1981 graduate of Memorial High School. He took a B.A. with a double major in English Literature/Composition and Business Administration from Heidelberg College, Tiffin, Ohio, in 1985 where he also played basketball and baseball for the Fighting Student Princes.

After studying for an M.Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary (1988), he taught English and coached basketball at Culver Academies in Indiana. A 1994 graduate of Indiana University's doctoral program in Curriculum and Instruction, Tom has served as a professor of education at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas (1994-1997) and currently teaches courses in Curriculum Studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1997-present).

Life is full with family, including wife Chris (Cook) and sons Mitchell (7) and Samuel (5), and work, which includes teaching and writing articles and books for publication. Tom's books include Voices of Inquiry in Teacher Education (1997) by Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers and Teacher Leader (2001) by Eye on Education Publishers. Both books are available at the St. Marys Community Public Library.




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