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Tony Toplyn ready to contribute at Chestnut Hill College

05/15/2015, 11:00am EDT

By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Tony Toplyn was frustrated.

The former Neumann-Goretti forward spent his entire freshman season of college basketball redshirting at Campbell University, watching from the sidelines as the Camels struggled to a 10-22 record, feeling like he could make an impact but struggling to convince the coaching staff to feel the same way.

And it didn’t help that he was at school in Buies Creek, N.C., a beautiful little town of 2,500 an hour south of Raleigh--certainly a far cry from his hometown Philadelphia. So a few weeks before the semester ended in late April, he informed the Campbell coaching staff that he wouldn't be returning for his sophomore year.

“I didn’t think about transferring until...I want to say maybe about a month before the season ended, so around February, I just got really frustrated with the whole thing,” he told CoBL over the phone on Thursday. “I thought I want to transfer because I miss home and I want to be able to close to home where my family can see and I want to go where the coaches are actually going to be more interested in me.”

Toplyn found his new home this week, as he committed to head coach Jesse Balcer and Division II Chestnut Hill College late Wednesday night.

After returning home from school on April 29, Toplyn heard from a number of D-II and D-III institutions--Wilmington, Holy Family, West Chester, Ursinus and more--but after visiting Chestnut Hill’s 45-acre campus, located where Germantown Avenue meats Northwestern Avenue, he knew where he belonged.

“When I found Chestnut Hill, those coaches, when I first visited there, they opened my eyes to everything,” he said. “The way they stayed in contact with me when I wasn’t there, they texted and called me every day, and I really felt wanted, so I wanted to be a part of that whole ‘family’ thing.”

A native of Sicklerville, N.J., the 6-foot-6, 200-pound forward made his mark as a defensive presence for the Saints, who won four Catholic League titles and three state titles during his years at the South Philadelphia powerhouse.

As a senior, Toplyn averaged 7.2 ppg, 6.5 rpg and 4.5 bpg to help the Saints to a 27-4 record, including a perfect 9-0 record in the postseason that included both a Catholic League and PIAA Class AAA championship.

Coming out of Neumann-Goretti, which was recently named one of the top 15 high school programs of the last five years by MaxPreps, Toplyn certainly felt pressure to go to a Division I school. His classmates on the Saints included two other D-I basketball players in Ja’Quan Newton (Miami) and fellow Campbell commit Troy Harper, plus Jamal Custis, who just finished his freshman year on Syracuse’s football team.

In addition, junior point guard Lamarr Kimble--now an incoming freshman at Saint Joseph’s University--had been receiving Division I offers.

“My teammates were going to Division I football, basketball, so I wanted to feel like I was a part of that,” Toplyn said. “I didn’t want to be cut short or anything like that.”

Like many student-athletes, it seemed like it was either go Division I or be a disappointment, but now he’s certainly come around.

“Kids have to go somewhere where they’re going to be happy 100 percent,” he said, “because that’s what’s important.”

Thanks to his redshirt year, Toplyn will have four years of eligibility to use at Chestnut Hill, he's hoping that adding a Division I player to the roster will make the program more attractive to recruits.

It's been a struggle for the Griffins in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC), with fellow city schools Philadelphia University, Holy Family and University of the Sciences all in the same division.

This past year, while both USciences (25-6, 17-2) and Philly U (24-8, 15-4) both made the NCAA Tournament and Holy Family (22-8, 15-4) wasn't far behind, Chestnut Hill went 6-20, with a 5-14 record in league play.

"I feel like I can contribute a lot and me being there, the only person coming from a Division I program, it’ll make more people come. And anything that the coach asks for help, I’ll be more than helpful because I just want to make the team better, anything I can do," he said. "I think it’s a rising program, and in a couple of years we’re going to be a monster.”

Toplyn's future is never going to be one where he leads the Griffins in scoring--in all likelihood, that's going to be the job of his new teammate, incoming freshman guard Ray Leon, among others. Instead, his goal is to make the all-defensive team, and one day become Defensive Player of the Year, both in the CACC and nationwide.

“It’s not all about scoring, you know,” he said. “People get hyped up in the scoring aspect.

“My senior year, coach Carl told me ‘go after every single block that you can,’ and...Campbell wanted me to be the best defensive player I can be. And with that mindset I think I can be the best defender in the state--if not top in the country--and help my team win.”