St. Thomas Aquinas (New Jersey) hires Tom Weiler as head boys basketball coach

In a quest to recapture its past glory, the once dominant St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Edison, NJ is dipping into its storied past by hiring former Trojans’ standout Tom Weiler as its next head boys basketball coach.

After dominating the Greater Middlesex Conference boys basketball landscape for the first half of this decade, the Trojans have experienced a period of instability as they’ve had four coaches over the past 12 months. Seeking consistency and stability in hopes of rejuvenating the program, St. Thomas Aquinas is turning to its leading scorer from the 2014-15 season to take over the reins of the program.

“First and foremost, it’s being back at the school that I know and that I love, that I wholeheartedly believe in as a greater place for student-athletes,” Weiler told MyCentralJersey.com as the primary reason for accepting the position. “What was more convincing for me to go to the high school level after being at the college level for a few years and just seeing the landscape of what basketball is at both the college and high school level.”

Weiler will bring to his new post an extensive background in playing and coaching at the collegiate level. Following his 2015 graduation from Bishop Ahr, Weiler spent five years at Centenary University in Hackettstown, N.J. During Weiler’s time with the Cyclones, he appeared in 97 games with 72 starts. He was a three-year team captain and a two-time All-Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) selection.

Weiler was also a standout in the classroom and was selected to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court following his senior season. He graduated from Centenary with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education with TOSD and Mathematics Education in 2020.

Following his 2020 graduation from Centenary, Weiler spent the 2020-21 school year as the assistant varsity/head freshman coach at St. Thomas Aquinas. He then spent the next two seasons as head coach at Sussex County College in Newton, N.J. In 2023, Weiler accepted a position at Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania where he served as an assistant basketball coach the past two seasons.

Despite his success at the collegiate level, Weiler is excited to be back in high school coaching.

“I just felt the high school spot is a good place to affect change, especially in this day and age where it’s really a competitive field to get in to college basketball and the next level,” he said continued during his interview with MyCentralJersey.com. “Those were the main things that drew me to it, having that opportunity to affect that change with the younger level I found is really important moving forward.”

St. Thomas Aquinas Athletic Director Jerry Smith is enthused to have Weiler back coaching at his alma mater.

“Tom graduated from the school, which is not a requisite, but it helps,” Smith said. “He was a college recruiter and that checks another box for me because he knows that process.”

Weiler indicated that he has watched every Trojan game from last season since he began pursuing the position and is well aware of the promising nucleus the team has returning in juniors Albion Ahmetaj and Daniel Jennings, sophomore Aidan Carter, and freshmen Zymere Weaver and Tristan Harvey.

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