Tom Collier and Tim Foote have built a friendship founded on the fundamentals of volunteering for the community and helping youths succeed.
Tim and Tom have shared a 34-year friendship. They have watched each other grow into adulthood and become professionals and parents along the way. When it came time for Tim’s son to be coached, Tim explains he was already coaching the basketball team but needed someone else to help out. The men began to coach the team together, and that is when Tim and Tom found their niche.
“We share the same vision for the game, but we couldn’t really teach our own kids. When my son needed a coach, I turned to Tom, and when his son was old enough, Tom turned to me,” said Foote.
Foote and Collier began to coach for the Sayre tournament in Pennsylvania and only five years later found another opportunity to share their experience and expertise with local youths.
Sixteen years ago, Tim and Tom teamed up and formed Chenango Vipers, the first Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team at the YMCA for local youths. Since then, these two men have coached, taught and gave hundreds of children the opportunity to strive for success. The pair teach kids how to play a great game, try hard and learn not only about the game, but about themselves.
The local AAU has grown from just a small local boy’s team of approximately 12 members to both girls and boys teams drawing over 100 youths county-wide and beyond. The league travels all over the upper northeast and has increased immensely over the years. Tim and Tom remember when they first started. They paid expenses out of their own pockets for uniforms and for the first tournament.
Both men say they are on the same wavelength when it comes to coaching. They use positive reinforcement and provide discipline, as well as a good time. They agree that they think alike, and when they are coaching, they get as much out of it as they put into it.
The men say as they sit on the sidelines, they throw ideas back and forth but keep their eyes on the game and their players informed. They say some might look at them during a game like watching an episode of Abbott and Costello.
Tim and Tom say the kids teach them too, and when they are on the court, they are there for the children, for guidance and teaching.
“We are available to the kids if they ever have a problem, whether it is basketball related or not,” Collier said.
They also say their goal is to ensure that the kids always succeed. Many times they say children come back and tell them that from their time on the Vipers, they had the right training to go onto bigger teams and carry their training through high school and beyond. The men say their success rate is great, and they have kids in the double digits playing college ball.
Without the continuous support of their wives, Kathy and Mary, and the community, both men agree the tournaments wouldn’t be a possibility year after year. Foote and Collier say they love that they are able to continue their volunteer efforts and like to be there for the children.
“The best part is when we see kids that we coached who have grown up, and we see them succeeding,” Foote said. “It keeps you young,” he says.