A casual bystander watching the varsity boys basketball team practice might think the blond guy wearing a pink polo is Auburn High School’s head basketball coach. He walks between the groups of players, offering suggestions and critiquing players.
That observer might not even notice the older African-American man folded into a wheelchair. He is quietly watching from the corners of the gym.
His name is Frank Tolbert, and he is the head basketball coach at Auburn High School. He has coached since 1969 — his first year out of college. Back then, he coached at Drake High School, but moved to Auburn High when the schools integrated.
“The first year I walked in the class, all the kids were white,” Tolbert said. “I about fainted.”
He only coached football the first couple of years, then coached girls basketball before returning to boys basketball. He has led the boys teams every year since then, except for 1994–95, when he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, an immune disorder that attacks the nerves, eventually causing paralysis.
That’s why he’s confined to the wheelchair.
“Before I got sick, we went all over the country playing basketball in tournaments,” Tolbert said. “We went to Las Vegas twice, we went to Bristol, Tennessee, we went to Pensacola, all those places.”
Chris Brandt, the assistant coach in the pink polo, ran the team in those years and still serves as Tolbert’s second-in-command as Tolbert’s “feet.”
“I didn’t think twice about [coaching] because he’s done so much for me growing up,” Brandt said.
Tolbert has led many teams to success from his chair, including the 2005 state championship team. Photos of old teams line the walls, displaying impressive records. But it just isn’t the same, according to Brandt.
“He was a go-getter,” Brandt said. “He was the type that mopped the floor. He did the laundry. He did everything. … It was hard for him to give up a lot of responsibilities.”
Brandt said he has taken up the slack, doing all the little chores Tolbert used to do.
Over the years, Tolbert has coached community icons such as Ward 2 City Councilman Ron Anders, as well as Auburn University players, including Brandt.
“He’s taught kids’ grandparents and parents,” Brandt said. “Anybody that came through Auburn High School has had Coach Tolbert. So he knows a lot of people in the community, and they respect him and love him.”
Tolbert said coaching has changed from a discipline standpoint.
“Now you have all these other things kids can do now,” Tolbert said. “These cell phones, Google and all that stuff. … They don’t put into basketball what they should.”
Russell Leonard is a newcomer to Tolbert’s staff. This is his first year coaching at Auburn High, and he said it’s a fun learning experience.
“You really get (Tolbert’s) passion for the kids and passion for basketball,” Leonard said. “Because he’s been working here for almost 50 years, and if he wanted to, he could retire. But he keeps coming to work every single day because he loves it. And that passion’s just contagious with the kids.”
Leonard said Tolbert is funny and cares about building each player’s character.
“It’s about building these boys into young men and building their character on and off the court,” Leonard said.
Brandt said Tolbert serves as a bridge between the teachers, parents and school.
“He wants them to succeed not just in basketball, but in life,” Brandt said. “The beauty about Coach is it doesn’t even have to be a basketball player. He’s helped other athletes or people who aren’t athletes who just need someone to look up to.”
Brandt said Tolbert is a father figure to him and other players, sometimes helping players find jobs after graduation.
“A lot of these kids don’t have fathers,” Brandt said. “For these kids that don’t, he’s there for them, and he helps them out in any kind of way.”
Brandt has helped Tolbert and the team adapt to their unusual situation.
When he first started being Tolbert’s feet, he carried a letter from the state so the referees would allow him to stand up and make calls like a head coach. He knows Tolbert’s system well because he played for him in the ‘80s.
“He knows what I know,” Tolbert said. “We just think alike.”
Tolbert said all the coaches teach similar tactics, such as a man-to-man defense, from seventh grade all the way up to varsity.
Brandt said Tolbert tells him what to work on, and Brandt implements the practice and game plans.
“It’s just like your hand fitting into a glove — I just fit right into the system, and I never left,” Brandt said.
Tolbert cares about more than just success on the court.
He said he stresses academics first.
“If a player acts up in class, whatever, [the teachers] are going to let me know,” Tolbert said.
He said players used to have to run when they earned bad grades.
“They can see me coming down the hall in the wheelchair, they’ll take off and go the other way if they’re skipping or something like that,” Tolbert said.
Tolbert still coaches, even though his wife has retired from teaching at Auburn High and his daughter is grown with a family of her own. He is a Hall of Fame coach with more than 40 years under his belt, but he said the numbers aren’t important.
“I don’t keep up with [records],” Tolbert said. “I couldn’t care less about that. As long as I can help a young man succeed in life.”
Tolbert said one of his favorite parts about coaching is when players return after graduating.
“We have a lot of alumni who will come back on Friday nights, and they’ll come talk to him again and be reunited with him and talk about the impact he’s had in his life and how great he is,” Leonard said. “That’s been really cool to see.”
Tolbert said he simply can’t leave coaching, even though he is 68 years old.
“I probably would have retired, but I can’t sit at home all the time, just sit there and not do anything,” Tolbert said. “I keep my mind fresh. I teach driver’s education, then I come back here and coach.”
Tolbert said he isn’t going to renew his teaching certificate, but hopes to continue coaching for a while.
“It’s something I love, and it’s hard to get out of,” Tolbert said.
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