Basketball bond: Son's mission to carry dad's legacy as local hoop mentor

By Brooks Sutherland / The Blade
Sun, 24 May 2020 00:43:25 GMT

It wasn’t enough for Melvin Thomas, a longtime basketball coach, camp director, and trainer in Toledo, to see basketball players he trained and mentored have success playing ball at the next level.

More important to Thomas, a former Toledo basketball player himself who graduated from Macomber High School in 1978, was preparing young boys and girls for a fulfilling life after basketball. He wanted inner-city kids to stay out of trouble and utilize the game he loved so dearly as a tool to inspire a new wave of leadership within the community.

It was a reputation he carried with him proudly throughout his lengthy career guiding youth basketball players in many different roles. It was a career that included mentorship to prominent athletes such as Jim Jackson, William Buford, Marc Loving, DeShone Kizer, and Natasha Howard, to name a few.

But despite his ties to some of the city’s elite hoopsters, Thomas was known to treat every single kid as if they were the next professional athlete to come out of Toledo. It was a trait of his that earned him praise from members of the local basketball community and solidified himself a spot as a proverbial torch-bearer of Toledo youth basketball.

“He just lended his time and the gift that God gave him to spread love to inter-city kids,” said Fred Coogler, a former boys coach at Scott High School who hired Thomas to lead his junior high school program in 2016. “He cared about everyone he came in contact with.”

Ask around, and that sentiment is widespread.

“He always wanted to make sure they were reaching their full potential when it came to life,” Bowsher girls coach Darrell Dorn said.

Thomas’s never-ending pursuit to reach out to the city’s youth came to an end recently. After spending a few days in the hospital while ill back in March, he died at his house surrounded by family on March 30. He was 59.

The city had lost one of its ultimate basketball ambassadors. A leader that bled basketball. Someone that bled Toledo. A mentor to promising youth.

But where one Melvin Thomas left off, another has emerged. That being his son, Melvin, Jr.

The next generation

Thomas, Jr., graduated from Toledo Christian in 2013 and had a short stint playing at Lourdes University before dedicating all of his time to training aspiring players. Thomas hopes to be the man his father was for many Toledo basketball players, a mentor for generations to come.

“Our relationship was very deep,” the 25-year-old said of his father. “He was very impactful to me and taught me so many things. That’s why I became a coach. I saw him reach out to so many kids. I want to continue his name by doing the same thing. Be an inspiration to the next generation.”

The younger Thomas has been training basketball players for six years now. He grew up going to local camps, and his dad trained and coached him when he started playing basketball at age four all the way until he was in seventh grade. He currently trains girls basketball players through Bates Fundamentals, a skills development training organization started by Elgin Bates, a former professional basketball player who played overseas in Germany and Switzerland.

Bates is also the father of Emoni Bates, the nation’s top-rated high school player from Ypsilanti, Mich., who in April became the first sophomore to ever win the Gatorade Boys National Player of the Year honor.

Thomas has worked with players like Howard, a Waite graduate and current power forward for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, and Loving, a St. John’s graduate who played at Ohio State and most recently played for the Agua Caliente Clippers of the NBA G League in 2018-2019.

He’s now working with rising star Kendall Braden, a 14-year-old Northwood resident who has caught the attention of the area’s girls basketball brass and is poised to be the next phenom in an area that has produced talent like Howard and Zia Cooke.

But basketball tutelage isn’t the only thing Thomas hopes to pass along to youngsters. He saw firsthand the value his father had on people’s lives, something he says he can’t help but feel inspired to mimic.

“If there was a kid in need, he would go pick them up and treat them as if they were one of his own,” he said. “He just wanted to bring happiness and joy to a lot of people’s life.”

Life coach

Melvin Thomas, Sr,. ran basketball camps at Woodward High School for more than 20 years. He also helped organized the Todd Mitchell-Jim Jackson camp since its inception alongside Coogler, who directed the camp.

It was there where his leadership shined.

“I always gave Melvin a segment for life skills,” Coogler recalled. “It’s just not about basketball with Melvin. It’s about life. He was just a great guy.”

One former camp attendee, Howard, remembered him reaching his hand out to kids and pointing out their potential.

“He absolutely tried to take care of a lot of people,” she said. “Especially kids that were in and out of trouble, he wanted to guide them in the right direction.

“His impact wasn’t just basketball, he was a really good mentor for a lot of young people, especially myself.”

Dorn said Thomas would go as far as gathering community leaders such as successful business owners, faith-based leaders, government officials, and organization leaders to come to his camps and talk with kids about how to find success.

“You never knew who was coming in to talk to the kids and what the message was for that day,” Dorn said.

Those acts were never forgotten. When news of Thomas’s death was spread on social media, hundreds of people reached out recalling memories from Thomas, whether he had coached them or been affected by his mentorship in any way. His family hosted a small, family-only funeral service, but live-streamed his service online. More than 4,000 people tuned in.

“Just imagine how many people would have been at his service,” Thomas, Jr., said. “This has been really hard on my family, but the support of others has helped us through this situation.”

Most of Thomas’s days are spent in a gym. Admittedly, he has set it up that way to get his mind off of losing his father.

“Even on the day of my dad’s funeral, I had three practices that day,” he said. “Just because seeing them and helping them become better, and to see them working toward their dreams, it allows me to cope knowing that I’m doing what my dad wanted me to do.”

Although the man who raised Thomas, gave him his namesake, and groomed to him to lead on and off the court is no longer present, his spirit remains well within the Toledo basketball community.

“My dad’s close friends always say, ‘whatever your dad didn’t like about you, is because he found it in himself first,” Thomas said. “He’s with me wherever I go.”

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