Tom Garriott hired as Mahomet-Seymour’s girls’ basketball coach
By FRED KRONER
Tom Garriott had a mixture of feelings after his job interview for the girls’ basketball coaching position at Mahomet-Seymour.
“I walked out of the interview thinking, ‘I don’t think I sold them (on me), but they sold me on the position,’” Garriott said. “I was hoping I would get it.”
He did.
In May, Garriott was chosen to replace Garret Risley as the Bulldogs’ girls’ basketball head coach. Risley guided M-S to back-to-back regional titles in girls’ basketball for the first time in school history, winning postseason crowns in 2022 and 2023.
Garriott brings to the job more than a quarter of a century of coaching experience in basketball, ranging from high school to college to boys’ teams to girls’ teams.
Mahomet-Seymour will be the eighth school where Garriott has coached, including a two-year stint as an assistant at Illinois Wesleyan University, in Bloomington (2007-09).
“I never moved to get away from a school,” Garriott said. “Things just opened up. I am hoping this will be my last coaching stop.”
After coaching high school boys’ basketball the past four years (one at Pontiac followed by three at Stanford Olympia), he expected to continue working with boys.
“When I resigned from Oympia (following a 6-25 season in 2022-23), I applied for some boys’ jobs and told someone the only girls’ position I would be interested in was Mahomet-Seymour,” Garriott said. “Three days later, I heard that Mahomet-Seymour was open.”
He didn’t hesitate to express interest in the job and said his coaching approach is similar whether he is working with girls or boys.
“The only difference is the size of the basketball,” Garriott said.
With more than 175 varsity wins under his belt, Garriott said M-S is an ideal position.
“The culture is amazing,” Garriott said. “Garret (Risley) left the bar high.
“When I take over, I emphasize working hard and having a great attitude. That is already there. After the first open workout, I said, ‘Wow.’”
When he conducted his second open gym, he put the players through a shell drill to see how they would respond.
“They knew everything,” Garriott said. “There was nothing to pick apart.”
Besides understanding the principles of a man-to-man defense, Garriott said the young Bulldogs made an impression by working without complaints.
“I never heard anything bad from their mouths,” he said.
Garriott will be working with a group that lost the nucleus from a 24-10 squad.
Not only were seven of the 12 varsity members on last year’s team seniors, there were no juniors.
“They’re young, and not very tall, but they’re quick and hard-nosed,” Garriott said. “They can shoot and handle the ball.”
Five of last year’s top six scorers have graduated as have four of the top five rebounders.
The top returnee is upcoming junior Kylie Waldinger. The 5-foot-8 guard was third on the team in scoring (6.9 per-game average), third in rebounds (with 116) and third in three-pointers (with 20).
Of last year’s varsity members, the tallest returnee is Reese Gallier, a 5-10 incoming junior.
Though varsity experience will be limited, there will not be a void of athletes who have enjoyed success in the sport. The M-S junior varsity team was 22-4 last year.
The last two varsity seasons have produced the most wins in girls’ basketball in any two-year period (54) since girls’ basketball was implemented in the district 46 years ago.
When he was interviewed by M-S athletic director Matt Hensley and high school principal Chad Benedict, Garriott was confident in making one prediction.
“I told them I can’t promise a number of wins, but I can guarantee they will be the best-conditioned of any team and they will play hard,” Garriott said. “I ask that they be a good teammate.”
The new Bulldogs’ coach will emphasize a man-to-man defense, but added, “we can switch if there’s a need,” and applying full-court defensive pressure.
“Offensively, I like to give the girls freedom,” Garriott said.
Garriott worked full-time at Country Financial for 34 years followed by a seven-year stint at State Farm. The former Hoopeston-East Lynn athlete (class of 1978) retired in August, 2022, from State Farm.
“I’m glad I retired,” he said. “Now I can spend all my time coaching. I love basketball.”
Garriott traced his interest in coaching to 1996, when his son Aaron was in kindergarten. He took him and his sister to the YMCA and developed an interest in coaching.
“I went to ISU and worked camps (for former head coach Jill Hutchison) and she was helpful (connecting him with schools),” Garriott said.
His first job was as an assistant at Bloomington Central Catholic for a year and was followed by eight years on staff at Normal University High School.
“Then doors started opening,” Garriott said.
He joined Mia Smith’s staff at Illinois Wesleyan University for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons. He took a year off to watch Aaron play at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, but when his career was curtailed by an injury, Tom Garriott went to Stanford Olympia in 2009-10 as a boys’ assistant coach.
The following year, he received his first head coaching opportunity at Prairie Central. In six years at the helm, he led the girls’ teams to a cumulative 122-51 record and regional championships in 2013 and 2016.
From there, Garriott was the St. Thomas More girls’ coach for two seasons before heading to Pontiac, where he coached the girls in 2018-19 and the boys in 2019-20 as the head coach.
His last three years were back at Olympia as the boys’ head coach.
Garriott was one of three applicants who were interviewed for the M-S job.
“We played against his teams many times when he was at Prairie Central (and M-S was in the Corn Belt Conference),” Hensley said. “His teams were always competitive and played up-tempo.
“We called around and people talked about how much the kids loved playing for Tom. When people tell you that the coaches were invited to weddings or sent baby pictures, that shows how the relationship extends beyond the sport.”
When Garriott was coaching AAU basketball, one of his players was former M-S standout Maggie Schmidt, who is now Maggie Franklin and serving as the seventh-grade girls’ basketball coach in her hometown. She works at the junior high with eighth-grade coach Jimmy Lanphear.
Part of the appeal of the M-S job is the staff that is in place.
“The coaches from the bottom (grade levels) up are amazing,” Garriott said.
The M-S high school varsity assistants will remain unchanged from the 2022-23 season. Billie Dallas is the freshmen coach. Clayton Lehman works with the sophomores. Jen (Rayburn) Soderlind and Jess (Beachey) Hurless are the varsity aides.
“I have four great assistant coaches,” Garriott said. “I’ve always tried to hire assistants that are smarter than me.
“I didn’t hire these, but I know they’re smarter than me.”
The M-S girls’ basketball team will open its season in a familiar location for the new coach. The team will again participate in the week-long Prairie Central Tournament, which starts on Monday (Nov. 13). Games will be played in both Fairbury and in Pontiac.
The Bulldogs are set to open the home portion of their season on Tuesday (Nov. 21) against Metamora.
With the hiring of Garriott and boys’ basketball coach Adam Schonauer earlier this week, Hensley has just one vacant head coaching position to fill for the 2023-24 school year.
He is still looking for a girls’ golf coach.
