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Wood point guard Funk commits to West Point

08/10/2015, 7:30pm EDT
By Josh Verlin

Tommy Funk (above) committed to play at the United States Military Academy on Monday afternoon. (Photo: Tom Reifsnyder)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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It took Tommy Funk a few months to come around to the idea.

When United States Military Academy at West Point head coach Zach Spiker offered the Archbishop Wood point guard a scholarship back in April, Funk was thrilled to receive his first Division I offer but knew that it was one that came with a lot more than just four years of college.

Committing to play at Army means military dress and inspections, living by military standards and courtesies, learning how to use weapons and military tactics--and, of course, the commitment to serving in the United States’ armed forces after graduation.

Eventually, though, Funk decided that he could in fact see himself not just at Army but in the army, and so after making one final visit to the school on Friday he decided to commit to Spiker and become a “plebe” (first-year student) next year.

“I just realized that it’s an opportunity that’s going to affect the rest of my life and it’s going to affect it in a very good way,” Funk told CoBL on Monday afternoon. “It’s a challenge, definitely, but it’s something I’m ready to embrace.”

A 5-foot-11, 165-pound point guard, Funk is a smart left-handed floor general who will fit well into Spiker’s system at West Point, which emphasises ball movement and sharp perimeter shooting in an uptempo attack.

As a junior at Wood, he averaged 14.6 ppg, 5.5 apg, 4.5 rpg and 3.0 spg to lead the Vikings to a 18-6 record, including 8-5 in the Catholic League. They lost to Roman Catholic in the league quarterfinals, just a few weeks after toppling the eventual PIAA Class AAAA state champions on their home court in one of the bigger upsets of the regular season.

“I think it’s a tremendous accomplishment for him, he worked so hard since sophomore year,” Wood head coach John Mosco said. “People telling him he was too small or not good enough or didn’t shoot it well enough, he didn’t listen to anybody, just followed his dream for a Division I scholarship.”

Mosco has helped develop plenty of Division I talent thanks to his 20 years as an assistant at Catholic League powerhouse Neumann-Goretti, but Funk is the first one he can really take credit for as a head coach.

Funk knows that having Mosco guide him during his entire time on the varsity roster has played a big role in his getting to where he is now as a player and a person.

“I think the amount that I’ve grown over the past two years is very substantial,” he said. “I was just talking to him earlier and he said ‘as a head coach, you’re my first Division I player,’ and that really meant a lot to me.”

Funk is technically the second Division I commit that Mosco has coached at Wood, though Cornell’s Pat Smith made his college decision just a few days after Mosco got the job two years ago this month.

He becomes the fourth member of the Jersey Shore Warriors’ 17U squad to commit, joining Ryan Daly (Hartford), Chuck Champion (Loyola) and Kyle Stout (Lafayette); he’ll go up against Champion and Stout twice each season as Patriot League conference foes.

Though Army was his only current Division I offer, it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that Funk would have gotten quite a few more scholarships if he’d waited through his senior season.

A great student who got a perfect score on the math section of his SATs, Funk was hearing from a number of other Ivy/Patriot schools, including Brown, Dartmouth, Lafayette and Cornell.

Army, a member of the Patriot League since 1990, had long been an afterthought in the high-academic conference before Spiker’s arrival for the 2009-10 season. Though the 46-46 record he’s accumulated over the last three years might not sound too impressive, it’s actually the best overall stretch for the program since some coach named Mike Krzyzewski led the Black Knights to 53 wins between 1976-79.

Last year, Army was actually picked behind only defending league champions American in the league’s preseason poll, though a six-game losing streak in the middle of league play helped them finish dead last in the most parity-filled league in the country.

With all five starters back as part of a senior class that goes seven deep, it’s certainly possible that Army goes worst-to-first this season.

“I thought the coaches were great, they’ve been great throughout the whole recruiting process and the program’s headed in the right direction,” Funk said. “After the visit, it kind of showed me that I could see myself there and they had something special going on there that I really liked.”


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