Bonner-Prendergast’s Tom Stewart coaches his Pandas during a game last month flanked by assistants Sarah Monaghan, Amber Ballinger and Alyssa Monaghan. (Pete Bannan – MediaNews Group)
By Matt Smith
In a 50-year span as a high school basketball head coach, Tom Stewart has never lost his passion for teaching and guiding young athletes, a perfect reflection of his lifelong career in education.
Stewart, Bonner & Prendergast’s assistant principal for student services, is in his 31st season leading the Pandas after spending 18 seasons at the helm of St. James High School in Chester, which closed in 1993. He was in as Prendie’s coach the next year.
Last year, he was finally inducted into the Delco Athletes Hall of Fame, a long-overdue recognition.
This season, Stewart has guided the Pandas back to respectability after some rebuilding years. He has talented freshmen who are starting and producing. While the Pandas aren’t quite ready to compete against perennial powerhouses Archbishop Carroll and Cardinal O’Hara, they are making progress under the tutelage of “Coach Stew.”
Even during the Pandas’ lean years, when the talent pool wasn’t as deep, Stewart, a 1964 Monsignor Bonner graduate, returned each winter. He has grown increasingly disillusioned with the recruiting battles, which he believes have intensified in recent years. That side of high school sports, he admits, is something he could do without.
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