TAMPA, Fla. — Wharton High School may have a new boys' basketball coach, but it's the same Wildcats.
“Me and (Tommy) Tonelli are like-minded when it comes to basketball things,” Shawn Vanzant said.
Vanzant replaces Tonelli, who hung up his whistle at the end of last season as Hillsborough County’s all-time winningest coach.
“I learned a lot from him,” Vanzant said. “His foundation has been laid since the ’90s. I was part of that, and these guys played for Tonelli. They know what the expectations are. For me, I fit right in because my expectations are no different than Tonelli’s.”
Vanzant is the greatest player to come through Wharton — Class of 2007. The current players knew that Vanzant was a big deal even before he walked through the doors.
“Coach Tonelli praises him a lot,” Wharton guard Jayson Montgomery said. “He’s kind of a big figure around Wharton High School. He’s talked about a lot here.”
Vanzant is the first four-year letterman in Wharton basketball history. He’s also the first place to score 1,000 career points and the only player to have his jersey number retired.
“I just remember coming here in practice, hanging out, shooting around; definitely miss that,” Vanzant said.
In college, he helped Butler University to consecutive national title berths in 2010 and 2011. He spent the last four seasons as head coach at Bloomingdale High School.
“Once my career was over, I knew that I wanted to coach,” he said.
Now he’s back home, in the same gym where he became a star.
“It’s surreal to me. It still doesn’t feel real to me at all,” Vanzant said. “I’m taking charge of a team that Tonelli built since the ’90s. To be able to come back home and pick up where he left off is a blessing.”
Wharton is off to a 14-4 start to the season.
