Inductees
Tom O’Brien
You don’t coach for over 50 years without loving what you do. And it’s pretty clear that Tom O’Brien has loved being a coach.
The Barstow School boys and girls tennis coach since 2006, O’Brien has been a coach in the Kansas City area for more than five decades. He began at Bishop Hogan High School, moved to Hickman Mills where he coached girls basketball while also teaching and coaching boys golf, before ending up with Barstow. Everywhere he’s gone, success has followed.
At Barstow, his teams have combined for eight top-four finishes since his arrival. That includes two girls state championships in 2013 and 2021, and a boys state title in 2021. He oversaw nine doubles titles combined, including six doubles state championships in girls tennis. O’Brien has been a Coach of the Year by the Missouri and Midwest Sections (2013, 2021), the Missouri Valley Heart of America and the National Federation of High School Associations.
Based on those accomplishments alone, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted O’Brien as a member of its Class of 2023.
What’s kept him going all these years?
“It’s the relationships,” O’Brien said. “I’ve always had them in the classroom, but the bonds and memories are even stronger when you watch young people work and train in a sport they love and put it on the line.”
In basketball, O’Brien’s Hickman Mills teams won 10 conference championships, with the 1986 team finishing as the Class 4 state runner-up. He holds the second-highest winning percentage (.785) in the 60-year history of the Suburban Conference. In 1992, he was selected as Kansas City Metro Girls Basketball Coach of the Year by the Kansas City Star.
“I was so lucky to be around such talent and work ethic, particularly with our girls program,” O’Brien said. “I might be biased about basketball, but the work and preparation in that sport is special.”
After having so much success in basketball, did he find the transition to coaching tennis challenging?
“Well, it helps to have talent to begin with,” O’Brien said. “But with both sports, using the practice time efficiently to get as much muscle memory skill work in matters in both sports. Also, in both sports there are points of emphasis that make a difference but aren’t naturally comfortable. In both sports a coach can either encourage those things or insist on them. And in both, I’ve felt they are the things that make a difference.”
It’s hard for O’Brien to pick a favorite moment from each sport. But he does have a few which stand out.
“In basketball, in my last season (1992) we played St. Joseph Central in the State Sectionals at Municipal Auditorium. We only had six girls all year record a varsity minute. With six players we were forced to play zone. We were down 21 points with 5:30 to go and called our second to last time out. The girls were gassed and four of them were in foul trouble. But it was time to play man and press. We cut it to three points with 20 seconds left and used our last time out. We hit a 3-pointer to tie the game. Our post Carrie Barker hit the winning free throw with no time left in double overtime. I still shake my head.
“As for tennis, it has to be in 2013 when Alena Frye and Maddie Tadros helped make Barstow history with the school’s first ever tennis team state championship. We were up 4-3 with two doubles matches going when I heard the roar come from court 8 with our number two doubles team (Emily Reed, Kathryn Lundgren) wrapping it up.”
In 50 years, it’s easy to imagine O’Brien having numerous influences, fellow coaches, administrators, others who positively impacted his career. At the top of that list? His family.
“I have to start personally with my family,” O’Brien said. “My mother and father and three brothers, Kevin, Kerry and Jack; my kids, Kyle and Laura; and especially these last 17 years, my wife, Gina, who has been our team’s and my biggest fan, and supported me in this last coaching chapter.”
But there are others.
“I have to give a nod to people like Norb Schmidt, one of my old coaches. More recently, Tom Benyo and Jim Kirke, who went through so many of those long basketball seasons with me. Even more recently, I have been so lucky to have such quality assistant coaches, like Brian Michael, Chris Williams, Brendan Kenny, Steve Hirtzel and now Terry Downs.”