St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball Head Coach Tobin Anderson has been named Coach of the Year by his peers in the East Coach Conference. His father, Steve, a major influence in his basketball pedigree, will be in attendance for this weekend's conference tournament.

Anderson came to St. Thomas Aquinas to start the 2013-14 season and carried with him an impressive coaching resume that included experience at Divisions I, II and III. Highlighting that list is a seven-year head coaching stint at Hamilton College, during which he amassed an impressive 118-63 record, winning three conference championships and earning an NCAA Tournament bid.

He has also previously been head coach at Clarkson University, and enjoyed assistant coaching experiences at Clarkson and LeMoyne College, as well as Division I Siena.

But the STAC skipper's road to coaching excellence has largely been paved by his father. Steve Anderson spent nearly three decades at the helm of Interstate 35 High School in Truro, Iowa, and Tobin acknowledges that he "practically grew up on the basketball court."

That process continued when the elder Anderson coached his son during his high school playing career from 1987-90. Eventually, Steve took his coaching whiteboard to South Dakota, where he spent seven years at Douglas High School in Box Elder. That stint included a state championship, and the coach was eventually inducted into the school's Hall of Fame.

Though he "retired" from head coaching duties, Steve joined Tobin as an assistant at Hamilton, where the two worked together for seven seasons. Now, the father, who currently resides in Rapid City, South Dakota, will be in the stands watching his Coach of the Year son pilot a program that has staged a miraculous turnaround, moving from non-playoffs to top seed in just two short seasons.

"We've come a long way in a short period of time," acknowledged the younger Anderson, "who would have fathomed this two years ago?" Still, as nice as the individual recognition is, for Tobin Anderson it is about his team's continued progress, and he is thankful his dad will be there to witness it first hand.

"He'll be in the stands yelling at the referees," laughed the STAC coach when asked if his father would occupy a spot on the team's bench for Saturday's semi-final game against LIU Post. "He'll have his own thoughts after the game and he'll definitely share them with me, he's always somewhat critical. We've always been able to argue and debate and it's great, we have a great relationship."

Whether wife Jodi, children Bryce and Alexa, or any other member of the Anderson family is in attendance live or watching at home, basketball remains part of the clan's fabric. "We're a basketball family," Tobin noted. "Pretty much my whole life has revolved around basketball, all of my relatives know what's going on. Everyone follows the games and is very supportive, but it's the nature of the game, you also don't get to enjoy things for very long, you just move right on to the next thing."

For now, the next thing for Tobin Anderson is not about individual awards, accolades, or expectations. This weekend, his Spartans take the floor as the East Coast Conference's top seed, two wins from a conference crown and a trip to the NCAA's.

And if the Spartans should prevail, one can be certain that their coach will quickly be on to the next thing.