Second chances
for Holy Family boys

By Joe Mason
For the Times

Tom McKeown didn’t take a direct route to accomplish his goals. But he’s more than on his way to completing a remarkable journey.
McKeown is a 6-foot-10 center on the Holy Family University basketball team. During his senior year at Mercy Vocational High School, in 2002, he had the attention of scouts from Division 1, Division 2 and Division 3 schools. Problem was, colleges didn’t get much attention from McKeown.
"I liked basketball, but it was more for fun than anything else," he said. "So I went to work at a law firm in Center City. Two years later, I decided I wanted to go to school. After high school, I guess that basketball-wise, I was ready for college, but maturity-wise, I wasn’t. Everyone thinks because you’re tall, you should play basketball. But I wasn’t ready for all that.
"I was always looking forward to summer instead of looking forward to the present. I was a kid."
Then he decided to give it the old college try.
"I started sending out e-mails, calling schools . . . I really wanted to give it a chance," McKeown said. "I had a big advantage. If I were a point guard or something, I might not have been so lucky, but I was 6-10. Sometimes that helps, and I was lucky to find a school like Holy Family. It was close, it’s a good school, and it was a great basketball program. It was everything I was looking for."
Now McKeown is 24, with an attention span as large as his wing span. And right now, his focus is on Friday, when McKeown and the rest of the Tigers make a little history.
The Port Richmond native will start at center when seventh-seeded Holy Family plays second-seed Assumption College in the first round of the NCAA Division 2 Championship tournament on March 15 at Bentley College in Massachusetts. It’s the first time in school history that the men’s team is advancing to the NCAA tournament.
"It’s great," McKeown said minutes after his teammates learned they had clinched a spot in the tournament. "We were kind of certain we were in because we have a good record, but you still aren’t sure until you heard your name called.
"It was fun, we went into a conference room at the school. It was just the coaches, a few friends and the team. Now that we know we’re going, we can’t wait."
McKeown’s squad earned an at-large bid but had come extremely close to getting an automatic bid on Saturday night, when the Tigers fell to Philadelphia University in double-overtime, 73-67, in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference men’s championship game.
Holy Family fell to 21-9 with the defeat, but none of that is important now.
The new season begins on Friday.
"It’s awesome to still be alive," McKeown said. "We have a really good team, some great chemistry and a very diverse team. We have guys from Louisiana, guys from Texas. But other than the accents, everyone is pretty much the same. It’s a really great group of guys . . . I think they’re all pretty much Philly guys at heart."
While McKeown might be the tallest member of the Tigers, his greatest strength is his ability to do the little things. A capable scorer, McKeown averages just over four points per game for the Tigers.
However, he shoots over 60 percent from the floor, grabs an average of four rebounds per game and averages better than a block per game, including five rejections in the loss on Saturday.
McKeown is a jack-of-all-trades and a master of defense.
"I love doing the little things," he said. "We have guys who are better scorers, better shooters. They do their thing, I do mine. I think I’m a pretty good defender, a pretty good passer and a pretty good rebounder. I do that stuff and try to get the ball to the other guys. If I have a shot, I take it. That’s how we do it."
Next year, McKeown will continue his basketball career at Holy Family and earn a degree in art therapy. In the future, he’d love to play overseas and possibly pursue a master’s degree.
"Obviously a professional contract would be amazing," McKeown said. "But I love art. Art therapy is something new, it’s where you deal with your problems through art. I love drawing. If I didn’t have paper I’d draw on myself, that’s the kind of person I am, and if I could help someone through art, that would be great.
"To be an art therapist, you have to have a master’s. If basketball doesn’t work out, going back to school is definitely an option," he explained.
So, going from a guy who wasn’t ready for school to a guy who is talking about a master’s program is quite a transformation, huh?
"I’m still surprised sometimes," he said. "People say it, but if I can do it, anyone can do it. I’m really happy and kind of amazed how things worked out. Things are going great. Hopefully they can continue." ••