Editors Note: The Mirror invited Head Coach Tim O’Toole to write a column on the upcoming basketball season.
I’d like to talk a little bit about our team. I use the word OUR because it was my premise, upon returning to Fairfield in 1998, and when I arrived here as a freshman in 1982 that the basketball team, has always been and will always be, our team. It is a shared responsibility. We are an extension of the university and we need to put forth an effort, night in and night out, that will embody who we are. We are Fairfield!
We say this all the time to our team and I will share it with all of you: the name on the front of your jersey is a heck of lot more important than the one on the back of it. Please know that every day, this is the primary lesson I’m here to teach, aside from trying to win basketball games. To all of you who are students here, that lesson will stand with you for the rest of your lives.
Back in the mid-1980s when I arrived, Fairfield University enjoyed the proud reputation for being one of the hardest teams to play in the Northeast because of its tremendous fan base, known as the Red Sea. My fondest memory of the Sea was when we played Boston College in the 2002-03 NIT and before we left the locker room, you could hear the throngs of students already proud and chanting, “We are Fairfield.”
I remember telling our players that night 20 minutes before the tip off, as we hung up a red flag in our locker room with a sold white ”F,” that this game was to be played for all those fellow classmates who hold BC as a rival. This game was for all those people in admissions who have to compete against the Eagles from Chestnut Hill. This was for all the fellow alums who were rooting for us that night; this was not about us, this was about Fairfield University, the community at large.
As we embark on a new campaign, I would like to thank all of you for your past support, and I ask you again for more support. I am very excited about our team and I think you will be very proud of them as the year concludes. We start off with a brutally hard schedule, playing 11 of the first 15 on the road. In addition to that, we open up with Mississippi State in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, where they are ranked by some pundits in the top 10. I have purposely set out each year to make our schedule very difficult and challenging, for I believe this is a life lesson for all of us.
When you leave here after your four years, you need to walk away with the confidence that you’ve just received the best education in the country and we are second fiddle to no one. We might not have the reputation of an Ivy League school yet, but we will be the best qualified, the hungriest and the most intelligent group of young people around. This university served us proud. I say that to you for I received the same education by many of the same professors you have now. Fairfield is a special place and this year we have a special team. YOUR Team.
We are very excited about this year and its challenges and hopefully seeing you along the way. We have another saying that I feel is very important: “Finish it properly.” We tell our team that you have Thanksgiving break and then finals are upon you. Don’t wait to the last moment to do all your papers and studying. Finish this semester off on the right note.
My last point is a call for help. Rudyard Kipling stated a long time ago, “This is the law of the Jungle; As true and as clear as the sky; The wolf that shall adhere will prosper, the wolf that shall break it must die; As the Creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack. ”
There is strength in numbers: We would love your support. This is OUR TEAM.
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