A good leader shows you how your puzzle piece fits

Recently, I contributed a post for my high school's alumni blog. I wrote the post on the day my former basketball coach, Mark Amatucci, announced his retirement as a guidance counselor at the school.

When Amatucci retired as a coach a few years ago, he had registered over 400 wins and had won 80% of his games. His 1981-1982 high school national championship team was recently selected as the Baltimore Sun's greatest team in the history of the Baltimore Catholic League's 50 year history.

The Baltimore Catholic League (not mentioning the Baltimore area at large) has had dozens of players go on to the NBA including Carmelo Anthony, Rudy Gay, Rodney Monroe, with Calvert Hall contributing a fair share of names including Duane Farrell, Damion Lee, Gary Neal, and Juan Dixon (who I'm proud to count as a former teammate).

In 1981, Amatucci's team went undefeated (34-0), including beating the powerhouse Dunbar Poets team in triple overtime. The next year Dunbar went on to win the 1982-1983 national championship and were featured in a long overdue story by ESPN in 2017 during a viral 30 for 30 episode Baltimore Boys. I was happy to contribute a blog about the leadership and life lessons I learned from "Tooch" on, and more importantly, off the court.

When I was asked to write a blog post for Calvert Hall's alumni blog, I found it difficult to summarize into a single story, the almost 30 years of life and work experience that have come after walking in and then out the doors of Calvert Hall. When I read that Mark Amatucci announced his retirement at the end of this academic year, it was crystal clear what I’d write about. Tooch. 

Along life’s journey there are many influences, people, and choices that shape your path, so to put it at the feet of one person seems a bit extreme. But life is full of extreme, defining moments and thankfully Mark Amatucci, like he was for so many people, was part of one of my key defining moments.

When I walked through the doors of Calvert Hall, I was like many freshman, a puzzle of a person not yet fit together. I had an idea of the shape I wanted to take, but didn’t know how it would all come together.

Over the first couple years I bumped around the halls, looking for direction, outmatched on the field and many times in the classroom. I had my eyes set on baseball and academics, but both eluded me in my first year.

As a sophomore I found my home at the end of the bench of Coach Rick Lander’s JV basketball team. Legend had it among my classmates that he found a 13th jersey deep in a locker somewhere and that’s why I made the team. While only legend, it was basically a miracle that Landers stuck with me - I was a 6’1 project, not a prospect. 

At the end of my sophomore year, then Varsity Coach and former Assistant to Tooch, Coach Joe Baker, stepped aside to make way for Amatucci’s return to the sidelines. That spring when I walked into the first meeting with the new coach to talk about tryouts, I was in a grove of rising seniors and other varsity players ready to claim their spot. After playing a total of 20 minutes (at best) as a sophomore, in my mind I didn’t stand a chance making it to the end of the bench for one of Baltimore and Calvert Hall’s most heralded coaches. And, I was pretty sure Amatucci wasn’t going to be going looking for an extra jersey for me. 

What I quickly came to learn in Tooch’s summer workouts and summer league games at Madison Square Recreation Center (aka "The Dome"), was that it was anyone’s moment for the taking. There were no favorites, no anointed heirs to the varsity throne. If you didn’t show up, if you couldn't drink your own sweat, dive for loose balls, set a hard screen on a blue chip prospect, or pick up your teammate off the ground, you didn’t belong in the gym. Scoring points was only part of the equation. The questions on the table were; Could you be a teammate? Could you contribute either from the bench or on the court? Could you go beyond what everyone else defined you as and not give up? That’s when I realized, I had a puzzle piece that fit. 

 "There are people who are deprived of equal opportunity and those who are not. I've always lent my support to the have nots. Was I a crusader or just a guy who liked to push the limits? Funny, I never knew a crusader who didn't push limits."

- Mark Amatucci, No Limits

I’ll never forget the shocked looks on my classmates' faces on the opening night of the 1994-1995 season, when as a senior I walked on to the floor as part of the starting five.

In the year and a half that had transpired since that first meeting, to when I walked on the court that night, Tooch offered his players more than hard practices under the roof of Alumni Memorial Gymnasium. I remember when he put a book of colleges in front of me and showed me how to cross reference leadership activities and academic criteria. He talked with me about how I was prioritizing my leadership activities, school work, and balancing it with practice and time with friends. He encouraged me to start Calvert Hall’s first television broadcast and launch recycling in every homeroom. I even found myself helping to roof his house for a couple days over that summer. Oh, the stories I heard during those hot summer days! Most importantly, he always kept us focused on our family at home, no matter the shape or size of it. 

Since leaving Calvert Hall I’ve accomplished much that I’m proud of but nobody could ever have charted. I graduated from Dickinson College. Having played one year of varsity basketball, I spent my remaining three years focused on academics and campus leadership in media and sustainability. After Dickinson, I’ve gone on to a 20 year career in non-profit communications and entrepreneurship that has taken me across the United States and around the world. I’ve met people from all walks of life and backgrounds.

I now find myself in my eighth year living in Nairobi, Kenya. In a city of nearly 5 million people and a country of over 50 million, Kenya is a key part of East Africa’s growth. Prior to Covid’s devastating economic toll, the region represented one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Even with Covid’s strain, everywhere you look, hardwork and determination abounds. Kenya’s story is one that is being written right now and plays an important part of the global economy. 

During my time in Kenya, I’ve worked for President Obama’s Power Africa programme, supported African leaders to advance agriculture policy across the continent, and am now the Director of Marketing and Communications for one of the continent’s leading business learning companies, the African Management Institute. When I first arrived here, I was even fortunate enough to play three years in Kenya’s National Basketball Federation basketball league at the ripe age of 35. In my spare time, I’m now working with a local university to build Nairobi’s first baseball field and the second field in the entire country. 

In all of those years since walking out of the Hall, there has been one lesson that I’ve taken with me. It’s not something that is inherent to Calvert Hall or Mark Amatucci. I believe it’s a unique story or meme of Baltimore and of Maryland, but isn’t reserved only for it. No one is heir to the throne of anything. Hard work and teamwork, determination, and compassion are winning strategies, even the face of seemingly impossible odds.  

The 1982 national champion basketball team knew a whole lot about this. When Juan Dixon lifted that National Championship trophy for University of Maryland, he embodied it. Those of us from Calvert Hall - whether athletes, scholars or artists - who have gone on to heralded or unheralded careers and accomplishments, know it too. 

In all of my life and experiences since walking out of Calvert Hall, I’ve met very few who understand this like Mark Amatucci does. In my mind, I believe it’s because he’s a son of Baltimore, who believes everyone deserves a role and a fair shot, but you have to earn it.

In the metaphor of life, whether you’re the person at the end of the bench or the player starting the game, you have a role to play. Great leaders build and coach their teams to understand this. They get them ready to use their puzzle piece when their moment comes. 

So, let me be one of the first (of many in the days ahead) to say thank you to Tooch for his leadership as part of the Calvert Hall and Baltimore community. Thanks for showing us all how our puzzle pieces fit into the world. We’re all better for it. Thanks Tooch. 

Thom Wallace is the Director of Marketing and Communications for the African Management Institute (AMI) and can be found on LinkedIn.