It’s Official: Vanzant Will Replace Tonelli

Long-time Wharton High boys basketball coach Tommy Tonelli (left) is stepping down and former Wharton star Shawn Vanzant (pictured here with daughter Lena) is taking over.  

Shawn Vanzant is coming home.

It took a little cajoling, but the former Wharton star and 2007 graduate has officially been named as the Wildcats next boys basketball coach.

“I’m very excited,” Vanzant told the Neighborhood News. “I can’t wait to get to Wharton and get a full head of steam going. I’m excited to get back home.“

Vanzant, 33, who has coached the boys team at Bloomingdale the past four seasons, will replace Tommy Tonelli, who announced that he was retiring from coaching after Wharton advanced to the Class 6A final four this past season for just the second time in school history.

Tonelli has always praised Vanzant’s coaching acumen, long predicting that his former player would someday become one of the top high school coaches in the area if a college job didn’t come along first.

“I couldn’t be more excited and proud that he will be the basketball coach at Wharton,” said Tonelli, who will continue in his role as a guidance counselor at the school.

It was a recent dinner with Tonelli, and a phone call with a former college teammate, that eventually persuaded Vanzant to take the job after he had declined previous overtures.

“Anybody who knows me knows I don’t like anything being given to me,” Vanzant says. “I felt like I’ve been building something great here at Bloomingdale, and Wharton was really what coach Tonelli had built. I wanted to do that same thing at Bloomingdale.”

But Matt Howard, a teammate at Butler where the duo helped lead the Bulldogs to consecutive NCAA championship games in 2010 and 2011, helped Vanzant look at it differently.

“He said, ‘I get what you are saying, but at the same time sustaining something that great is a big challenge,’” Vanzant said. “He helped me see the other side of it. Wharton’s never had a losing season. I’ve been a part of building that, and I know I can keep that going.”

Vanzant, who has known Tonelli since he was nine-years-old and would show up on weeknights and weekends at Wharton for pick-up games, coached Bloomingdale to a 3-21 record his first season as a head coach in 2018-19, but the team has averaged 14 wins over the last three seasons and went 17-12 — and won a District championship for the first time since 2016 — this past season.

Having played for two ultra-successful coaches in Tonelli and Butler’s Brad Stevens, Vanzant, who is married with two young daughters, says he has incorporated both men’s styles into his own.

“My coaching style is very similar,” he says. “Offense is easy, you compete and win on defense, and I expect you to compete at a very very high level. And you play for one another. It’s we over me, that’s something we always said at Butler.”

Vanzant acknowledges he has big shoes to fill.

Although no official records are kept, Tonelli is leaving the coaching ranks as the all-time wins leader for Hillsborough County public schools. Since building the program from scratch when Wharton opened in 1997, Tonelli never had a losing season and finished with 528 victories and just 137 losses in 23 seasons — for a sparkling .794 career winning percentage. 

Tonelli picked up his 500th win on Dec. 7 against Chamberlain. On Jan. 28, he won his 517th game against Vanzant’s Bloomingdale team, passing former Chamberlain legend Doug Aplin to take the “unofficial” No. 1  spot.

William Bethel, who coached at Middleton in the segregation era, was 551-88 in the Florida Interscholastic Athletic Association (at the time, the FHSAA of all-black schools). The Tampa Bay Basketball Coaches Association annually awards the William Bethel Award to the county coach who has gotten the most out of his team, an award Tonelli has won more than once.

Tonelli, 57, says the demands of coaching have made balancing two jobs too cumbersome and overwhelming. He had been contemplating retirement since last season, worn down by the demands and difficulties during the pandemic, but wanted to let the dust settle before deciding to actually retire. 

“I didn’t want the frustration caused by Covid to be something that chased me out of coaching,” Tonelli said. 

As it turns out, it wasn’t Covid.

It was just time.

When the dust did settle, it revealed one of Tonelli’s most successful seasons ever. The Wildcats were 28-3 and won the school’s 12th District title, its second Regional title and advanced to the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 6A finals, where it lost to eventual champion Stuart Martin County.

In typical Wharton fashion, the Wildcats overachieved this year and rode an opportunistic offense and gritty defense to a better finish than most expected. Tonelli called it a “dream season.” 

In perhaps Tonelli’s most impressive accomplishment, it marked the 17th straight season that the Wildcats won at least 20 games, a testament to his practice regimen and game preparation.

“Coach always had us prepared,” says forward Trevor Dyson. “We worked harder than almost everybody. We were always ready. Coach always made sure of that.”

Tonelli, a former Chicago high school star and University of South Florida point guard, says he still feels he has something to give as a coach, and said he would “never say never” to a return to the sidelines one day, if the right situation comes along.

“But right now, I’m done,” he says.


Wharton Falls Short At State

Carlos Nesbitt converts an alley-oop pass from Trent Lincoln in the second quarter of the Class 6A state semifinals in Lakeland Thursday night. Wharton fell 52-47 to Martin County. (Photos: Charmaine George)

For three quarters of Thursday’s Class 6A State semifinal clash with Martin County, Wharton High looked like the better basketball team. The Wildcats’ defense was just a little bit better, the offense was more accurate shooting the ball and Wharton always seemed on the verge of a putting the Tigers in a hole so deep they wouldn’t be able to climb out of it.

Then, in less than a minute, everything changed, and Wharton saw its hopes of advancing to the first State championship game in school history evaporate.

Led by a trio of seniors and a stifling press, Martin County (26-4) turned the game in their favor to start the fourth quarter and the Wildcats never recovered, falling 52-47 at the RP Lending Center in Lakeland.

Martin County’s Jayden Pressey, who was 0-for-6 from three-point range, buried a wide-open triple from the corner to start the fourth quarter, and the Tigers began pressing, and a slew of Wildcat turnovers and mistakes followed. The Tigers made free throws and another bucket inside, and in 57 seconds had spun off an 8-2 run to give Martin County a 39-36 advantage with 7:03 remaining in the game. 

Wharton’s Trent Lincoln drives to the hoop in the first half.

The Wildcats, who finished 28-3, never led again.

“We weren’t in our press attack alignment,” Wharton coach Tommy Tonelli said. “and we had some guys out of position in the process. That’s it. It’s that simple. We had a plan, we knew what we wanted to do, we knew what they were running, we just didn’t get guys in the right spot. It just made it that much more difficult to execute what we needed to do.”

The press overwhelmed Wharton, which already had 13 turnovers heading into the last quarter but committed seven more with the heat turned up.

“When we were able to get the ball out of (Wharton point guard Trent Lincoln’s) hands, they got a little helter-skelter,” said Martin County coach John Leon. “We had to take a chance with the press. If we hadn’t, I’d be kicking myself.”

Pressey had all nine of his points in the fourth quarter, including a bullish drive to the basket to give Martin County a 45-39 lead with four minutes left. Another Pressey basket off a turnover stretched the Tigers’ lead to 49-41.

Ryan Davis, a thorn in the Wildcats’ side all night, led Martin County with 18 points and seven assists.

After shooting just 24 percent in the first half, the Tigers shot 67 percent in the second half, and were scorching hot in the fourth quarter, making 8 of 10 shots.

Wharton guard Lucean Milligan is fouled in the second quarter, and made both his free throws to give the Wildcats a 16-13 lead.

For three quarters, however, it looked like it might be Wharton’s night. They held the Tigers to one basket in the first quarter and led 8-3, and behind strong play from seniors Trevor Dyson and Carlos Nesbitt, forged a 16-15 lead at the half.

The third quarter was back and forth, and midway through, Chandler Davis canned a three-pointer and gave Wharton its biggest lead, 29-22, of the night.

However, despite eight points in the quarter from Dyson, Martin County was able to rally and keep it close heading to the fateful fourth.

Dyson, who was 4 of 6 from three-point range, and Davis, a junior, each scored 16 points to lead Wharton. 

Dyson added 11 rebounds, while Nesbitt chipped in seven points and eight rebounds. Both seniors played all 32 minutes.

“I told the guys afterwards they exceeded my wildest expectations,” Tonelli said. “Not that I didn’t think they were capable. We were Conference champs, District champs and Region champs. The only goal we fell short of was being State champs. But there’s a lot of guys that play basketball and can’t say they are any of those things.”

Tonelli Looks Back On 500 (And Counting) Basketball Wins At Wharton

Wharton basketball coach Tommy Tonelli celebrates win No. 500 with his team on Dec. 7
(photo courtesy of Karl Greeson)

On Dec. 7, Wharton High’s Tommy Tonelli joined rarified air when his Wildcats beat Chamberlain 75-46 to give him his 500th career win. He’s now at 514 wins, and the Wildcats are off to one of the best starts in program historyat 19-1. Among current public school coaches in Hillsborough County, Tonelli has no peers.

We caught up with Tonelli before Christmas to talk about milestones, both current and past.

NN: What does 500 wins mean to you?

TT: No doubt it’s an accomplishment, but I’m very in tune with the fact that I’ve been very very fortunate to have had some great players from Day 1 when the school opened.

NN: Did you ever imagine something like 500 wins when you got into coaching?

TT: No matter what age, what level, I’ve always been very competitive. I want to win no matter what I’m doing. I didn’t get into coaching to win 500 games, I just wanted to win every game. That’s the approach I took.

NN: So you’re 10-1 (now 19-1) this season, looks like you’re on your way to the next 500?

TT: (Laughs) I doubt it. This is my 23rd year. I can’t imagine coaching 23 more years, no chance…. I’m just proud I’ve done it at one school. At a public school, you’re at the mercy of who shows up and I’ve been really lucky over the years to have some outstanding players.

NN: Do you remember any of the other milestone wins?

TT: I do remember No. 400. The only reason I didn’t talk about it is because it was a District semifinal game and we were playing at Sickles against Wiregrass. The winner of that advanced to the District final and State playoffs, and I didn’t want to put any additional pressure on so I didn’t mention it to anybody.

NN: What about the first win ever?

TT: Of course. It was the school’s first-ever game, a home game vs Leto. They had Mike Jenkins (Ohio State football, Atlanta Falcons WR) and Ricky McConnell (6-foot-8 All-County forward). We didn’t even have padding on the walls at the end of the court yet. We beat them 70-63. The guys played great. We had a good team from Day 1, with no seniors, but great players like Terrell Farris, Joe Colangelo, Cliff Russ, Chris Christie.

NN: Was that the most memorable win?

TT: The first game was special, but I really think when we beat University High 41-39 to get to the State final four in 2013, that was the most memorable. It was a great game, and we had a special team with CJ McGill, Chase Litton, Sir Patrick Reynolds, Jaken Grier…my son Thomas was on that team, too.

CJ made a free throw with 4.5 seconds left and their point guard drove the length of court and got all the way to the basket, but Chase Litton came over and had the kid shot it, I’m sure Chase would have blocked it. The kid had the presence of mind to know he wasn’t going to get the shot off, and he double clutched and whipped this bullet pass to the corner…and (his teammate) wasn’t expecting it. It hit him in the stomach and caused him to bobble it, and by time he gathered it and shot, the buzzer had gone off. He made the shot, it was close. The refs gathered to talk about it. If it was a three-pointer, we lose. 

It seemed like forever. They broke from the huddle and waved off the basket. I’ll never forget that game.

NN: Is there a loss you’ll never forget?

TT: Yes. The two Regional playoff games back-to-back at Windermere Prep (2019 and 2020). I don’t think I’ve ever had two more devastating, sickening, crushing losses than those. And both (59-57 loss in 2019, 54-53 loss in 2020) were games I could have done more to help the team and help determine the outcome of the game. I don’t feel like I made good decisions down the stretch to help us, and I think I’ve prided myself on that over the years.

NN: What’s your best-ever Wharton team?

TT: I know for sure the all-time Wharton team is 2007. That team had Shawn Vanzant, Adam Noble, Anthony Gomez, Leonard Simmons. Our only losses were to (national prep powerhouse) Mount Verde and Lake Howell in the Regional championship. That Lake Howell team was incredible. We lost by 11, the closest anyone came to beating them. They won the 5A State championship game by 43. Any other classification, with no Lake Howell, our team wins the state title.

NN: If you had to put together an all-star team of all the guys you’ve coached, who’s on the All-Time All-Wharton team?

TT: That’s a tough question. I think you start with Shawn Vanzant and Darin Green. Xavier Owens, A.J. Astroth, Damian Dixon, Anthony Gomez. Oh man. Who am I missing? Danny Green, Terrell Farris, Joe Colangelo. Man oh man, this one caught me off guard. Sir Patrick Reynolds, CJ McGill, Chase Litton. There’s others, but those guys are all in that top group.

NN: Are you going to be around for win No. 600?

TT: I’m just looking forward to this afternoon (which turned out to be a 63-49 win over Hillsborough High). I’m not in my 30 and 40s any more. The demands have gotten harder. 

We’re just finishing four games in 5 days, 7 games in 12 games. Plus my responsibilities as guidance counselor are greater. I take a lot of pride in that as well.

NN: Other than a State title, there’s probably not much left to accomplish. You have to be proud of what you’ve done at Wharton though.

TT: We haven’t won a State championship, but those are so hard to come by. There’s so many variables, so many things you can’t control. I think Sickles is the last Hillsborough County public school to win one, and that hadn’t been done prior to them doing it since 1982. It’s just really hard. But I feel like, sure, we haven’t won a State championship, but in many regards we have a State championship program. We’ve never had a losing season, that’s one thing I’m really proud of. I’d venture to say there’s not many schools that have been around the last 25 years that can say they haven’t had a losing season. Would I rather have some losing seasons mixed in there and be able to say we won a State championship, sure. But, we’ve sustained excellence. The winning tradition is a credit to all the kids. We’ve built a program (with the kids from Benito, Turner-Bartels and around the area) and I think we built something the community can be proud of.