Newtown, Pa- Brian Tumpowsky has been around basketball all his life. As a 3-sport athlete at Staples High School in Connecticut, he was recognized as a captain and starting point guard for the varsity squad that made the State playoffs. While he had a few overtones at the D3 level upon graduation, he ended up continuing to play the game he loves at the Club level after deciding to go to Northwestern University.
After graduating Northwestern, Brian decided to leverage his engineering degree and work as a technology consultant and eventual executive at various organizations, including the US Golf Association and UNICEF. During that time, he started a girls-only AAU team out of Central New Jersey and is in his 8th year as the Program Director and Head Coach. Last Winter, he was asked to join the Men's Basketball staff at Bucks, and he determined it was time to increase his passionate pursuit in basketball coaching another notch.
"The Bucks opening came at a point when I was at a crossroads with my work. Although being a business professional was my job for most of my post-collegiate career, my love for teaching, mentoring, empowering, and supporting student-athletes made it easy for me to take another step as a coach."
As the Assistant Coach of the Men's program in 2022-2023, Tumpowsky worked with Head Coach Farrad McLaughlin to finish a highly successful season at 11-5, win the ECAC Championship, and be considered for the National USCAA Tournament. When the Women's Head Coach position became vacant, Tumpowsky jumped at the chance to lead the program, despite the challenges of a shortened season last Winter.
"The student-athletes here are dedicated and several of them play multiple sports. It will take some time, but they are laying the foundation for us to recruit basketball talent in the Bucks and Montgomery counties, as well as in other parts of PA, NJ, and DE. That will continue to be where our recruiting starts and stops. Bucks as a 2-year school is a great fit for many. The suburban campuses are beautiful and not far from Philadelphia. It provides us from an academic and living standpoint many advantages, but the student athletes that we take have to fit a certain mold that we think will help them meet their goals and be successful on and off the court."
Tumpowsky will officially have his coaching debut this October, but in the meantime, he knows he has a lot of work to do to get his team ready for play in the ECAC. "We were not competitive last year, and the focus will first be to build a collaborative culture that is supportive, family-like, and equitable, and be a player development program first in order to prepare our current and new talent. We need to demonstrate progress in our game play, and only time will tell whether that's incremental or more significant. Either way, I look forward to the challenge and continuing to do what I love...build and maintain successful basketball programs."
Coach Tumpowsky can be reached at brian.tumpowsky@bucks.edu
