Volleyball
Favorite athlete: Kevin Durant
Favorite team: 76ers
Favorite memory competing in sports: Being able to play my senior year after a rough injury.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Late night bus rides with the team.
Music on iPod: Kendrick Lamar, Big Sean, Kanye West
Future plans: Computing and Security Technology major at college
Words to live by: “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you will be successful.”
One goal before turning 30: Work for a great company or business
One thing people don’t know about me: I am ambidextrous
By Craig Ostroff
Tommy Edwards knows how to make an entrance … without even saying a word.
The Neshaminy boys’ volleyball team’s senior tri-captain showed up an hour late to a recent 8 a.m. Saturday practice. He could have come loaded up with excuses.
My phone died. My alarm didn’t go off. My car wouldn’t start.
But when Edwards finally arrived to practice, he didn’t offer up reasons for his tardiness. He didn’t say anything at all. He just started running.
“When Tommy got there, he just came in, put his stuff down and started to run 25 suicide sprints,” said Neshaminy coach Pat Klingerman.
Normally, arriving late to practice results in the entire team running extra sprints, or doing extra sit-ups or pull-ups. Edwards was not willing to let the team suffer for his mistake. So he ran sprints for everyone else on the team.
“I didn’t want the rest of the guys running for something that was my fault,” Edwards said. “I’m supposed to be a leader, and being late sets a bad example. I showed up and I ran dead sprints the whole time. I wanted to show everyone, I don’t want everyone else to suffer for my mistake. So when I showed up, I just started running dead sprints back and forth.”
And in the process, Edwards made an unmistakable statement to the rest of the team.
Take responsibility for your mistakes, make no excuses, and if you do something detrimental to the team, do whatever you can to make things right.
His message has certainly been received.
“The younger guys definitely look up to him and see what he does and try to follow suit,” Klingerman said. “He brings up that level of accountability. Especially with the underclassmen, they see him as a senior captain, they see what he does, and they know, you try not to make mistakes, but if they do, you better own up to it.”
Setting the right example is important for Edwards and his fellow tri-captains as they look to guide a team with a lot of young players, but with high hopes to be able to compete with the best teams in the Suburban One National Conference.
“I feel like my role on the team this year as a senior is to develop the mindset that we need to be the most competitive team out there if we want to make a playoff run,” Edwards said. “We need to put in 150 percent effort to achieve our goals to beat the top teams, keep that mindset.
“I think we’re going to have one of the best offenses in the league. And we’re seeing development in areas like passing and serving. As practice goes on, we’re improving, passing the ball well, getting it to our setter, doing the little things we need to do to be successful. But I think if we keep a competitive mindset and keep up the energy on the court, I think we can be a contender.”
Going out on a positive note is important for Edwards, because he’s well aware of how easily a season can be taken away. As a junior, Edwards could do no more than cheer on his teammates from the bench as he recovered from surgery to a shoulder that he had dislocated twice.
Edwards opted for physical therapy as opposed to surgery the first time – when he landed wrong after a dive in a recreational volleyball game after his sophomore season.
“They rushed me to the ER, knocked me out, and two doctors had to pop it back in while I was unconscious,” Edwards said with a laugh. “They told me, ‘Once you dislocate a shoulder, there’s a high probability this is going to pop back out again.’ I did three or four months of physical therapy so I could play club season my junior year. I took the risk, because it was my junior season and I was hoping to really step up my performance and also because junior year is important when colleges are looking at you.”
But during a national tournament in Chicago with his club team – Infinity Volleyball – Edwards leapt to block a spike at the net and felt his shoulder slide out of the socket.
“As soon as I went up and reached, a sharp pain rushed down into my arm,” he said. “I ended up leaving the arena, and I had to take taxi from the marina area to the hospital. It’s the middle of winter in Chicago, it’s probably −15 degrees out, and I’m walking around outside in my volleyball shorts and T-shirt. I went to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and they popped it back in and recommended surgery.”
Edwards underwent arthroscopic surgery in February 2016 to repair the damage to the socket and the cartilage. For the next eight weeks, Edwards needed to keep his arm immobilized. He had to stay home from school for the first two weeks after the surgery, and he estimated that he lost about 10 pounds during that time. Three to four months of physical therapy then awaited Edwards before getting his shoulder re-evaluated. And it meant he would not be able to step onto the court for Neshaminy during his junior season. Instead, he was relegated to cheering on his team from the bench, his arm in a sling.
“As much as he hated to go to the games because he couldn’t play, it shows a lot about his character that he was always there helping out and cheering the team on,” Klingerman said.
Seven months after the surgery – in September 2016 – Edwards was cleared to return to his normal physical routine.
“One positive of the situation was that it happened to my right arm and I swing left,” said Edwards, who lines up at Opposite Hitter for Neshaminy. “If I had dislocated my left shoulder, I probably couldn’t swing as hard as I can.”
Stepping back onto the court for Infinity Volleyball over the winter, Edwards admits it took a bit of time to get back into game shape and into his normally aggressive mindset.
“At first when you’re coming back, you worry that you’ve got to be more conservative with your playing style,” he said. “Especially on blocks, I was nervous about extending over the net on blocks.
“It felt a little funky at first, but by January it started to kick in, ‘It’s all sewn up, it’s all healed, there’s no reason I can’t go all-out.’”
Club season also helped Edwards shake off the rust and get back into game shape. And as March approached, the senior tri-captain was ready to make his final campaign at Neshaminy a special one.
“It’s been a rough road, but I’m looking forward to this season,” he said. “I hope I can really be a key player on this team, both on the court and as a captain.
“This is my senior year, and that puts a fire in my heart to play as hard as I can every game and every point, because I’ve missed so many games. I know what it’s like to have to watch your friends and your team giving their all and you can’t help them. This year, I’m going to be trying to get every single point, I want us to be working our tails off, because we’re considered an underdog, and I want us to be able to show everyone else who we are.”
Edwards, who also played ice hockey for 11 years and played defense as a sophomore for Neshaminy’s varsity hockey team, is also working hard in the classroom. He’s got three AP classes on his schedule this year, and he’s got his eye on heading into the heart of Philadelphia (he’s been accepted to three colleges and is waiting to hear from a fourth) for the next four years while he pursues a degree in computing and security technology.
Edwards said he’s likely not going to pursue playing college volleyball, though. So that makes his final season at Neshaminy all the more special. And he’s going to do everything in his power to make it as special as he can.
“I just want to be a guy the team can count on whether it’s on the court or in practice,” he said. “But I really just want my team to go out there and have fun no matter the outcome, and still work as hard as we can no matter what. If we all stay healthy, if we enjoy the game, create chemistry in practice, and play with integrity, we’re going to have a successful season and I’m looking forward to seeing where it takes us.”
