Tim Peeler: Reflecting on former NC State catcher, assistant Jim Toman’s career amid brain tumor diagnosis

The first time head coach Ray Tanner was ever ejected from a baseball game at South Carolina, he slinked off to an upstairs office at USC’s Sarge Frye Field, unable to see what was going on down on the field. The Gamecocks were playing against The Citadel, a smaller but still heated in-state rival on April 5, 2000.

Just a few minutes later his top assistant, recruiting coordinator and third base coach Jim Toman showed up in the same office.

“Storm, what the hell are you doing up here? The game is still going on,” Tanner said. “Who’s coaching the team?”

“Ah, hell, coach, I got run too,” Toman told him.

It was a classic story about Toman, a former NC State catcher who spent 18 seasons as one of Tanner’s top assistants.

Toman, who went on to become the head coach at Liberty (2008-16) and Middle Tennessee State (2019-22), announced on social media recently that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain tumor. After an initial prognosis in Lynchburg, Va., where he lives, Toman traveled to Duke University Hospital and was slated to have surgery Wednesday afternoon.

“It all happened so fast, in the last 10 days,” said Tanner, who is now a special assistant to USC’s president after a long career as a Wolfpack assistant and successor to head coach Sam Esposito and the Gamecocks’ baseball coach and athletics director. “We were just talking about a trip he had planned. He went to the doctor because he wasn’t feeling great, and that’s when he found out.”

Many friends from his baseball career immediately reached out to offer prayers and good wishes.

“Unfortunately, the doctors believe my father has a terminal, cancerous glioma,” his daughter Caroline Toman Lammon posted on Facebook. “He wanted me to make sure you all know how grateful he is for everyone reaching out. He loves you all very much and is appreciative for your continued thoughts and prayers. He may not be able to respond to every message now as he isn’t feeling the best, but he feels very lucky to have so many wonderful friends.”

A GoFundMe campaign was established to benefit Toman’s family to help cover impending medical costs. As of Wednesday morning, more than 100 donors, including some well-known figures from his days at NC State, had helped raise nearly $30,000 of the $300,000 goal.

Most of his former players and friends know Toman as “Storm,” a well-earned nickname from his antics in the dugout, on the field and in the third base coach’s box. He was ejected multiple times as an assistant coach and even more as a head coach. His meltdown in a 2007 Southeastern Conference game against Georgia is YouTube gold.

Toman, a native of Monroeville, Pa., played for the Wolfpack and Esposito from 1981-84, when Tanner was an assistant coach. He was on Tanner’s Wolfpack staff from 1990-96 and moved with the former NC State third baseman to South Carolina as top assistant and recruiting coordinator from 2000-07.

The Gamecocks went to three consecutive College World Series from 2002-04, later winning back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011 after Toman had left to become the head coach at Liberty in 2008.

Toman often called his mentor “the brother I never had.”

Tanner always corrected that to be “the brother he never listened to.”

Everyone affiliated with his programs as a teammate, player or fellow staffer has deeply personal stories to share about Toman’s dynamic personality — almost all of which were requested to be off the record.

Suffice it to say he loves pizza, beer and a good time.

“He could recruit and get players to State without ever showing them Doak Field,” said former student equipment manager Kevin Creech. “Tanner was strict and serious during the game, but Storm would bring some levity to the dugout even while being fiery.

“If they had gone a couple of innings without some hits, he would knock over all the bats and call it ‘waking up the bats,’ or he would put on a full set of catcher’s equipment and call it ‘rally gear,’ trying to get guys motivated at the plate.”

What many failed to mention, but Tanner remembers distinctly, was that Toman was great academically with almost total and instant recall, whether it was in his studies or the long roster of players he recruited and coached. Toman was named the NC State School of Education’s Student of the Year as a senior and sent his daughter to Harvard Law School.

“I came from the school of discipline, accountability, responsibility, commitment and dedication,” Tanner said. “But I’ve always thought that you needed another version of those things on a coaching staff. Storm was always that for us.

“He believes in all the things that I did, but he’s definitely more of a players’ coach.”

Toman was a catcher, first baseman and designated hitter during his college days, never an all-star, but always the glue that kept the team together, according to current Wolfpack coach Elliott Avent. Catchers often have that responsibility.

While his stats did not jump off the page during a time when first baseman Tracy Woodson was blasting school records in home runs and RBIs, Toman had some pop, hitting 6 home runs in his career during the ACC Championships. As a senior, he hit 4 homers, including a grand slam, and set the record with 25 total bases in the tournament.

After he left NC State, he coached for a couple of high schools before joining Tanner’s NC State staff in 1990. When Tanner left NC State in the spring of 1996, Toman went with him and was responsible for holding the South Carolina squad together and started recruiting while Tanner was part of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team coaching staff.

His hard work on the recruiting trail is what made South Carolina successful. Toman was famous for his long days at ball parks throughout the country watching high school players in showcases and tournaments, arriving earlier and staying later than his coaching counterparts to look for a diamond in the rough.

“He’s the best evaluator of talent that I have ever been around,” Tanner said. “It’s one thing to be a good recruiter, but it is another level completely to be a talent evaluator. That’s what he brought to our program.”

Avent, a longtime friend of Toman’s, concurs.

“Jimmy has always just been a hardworking coach who had an eye for talent,” Avent said. “It’s a gift.”

It’s why Toman was named the 2002 assistant coach of the year and why the Gamecocks were ranked in the top 25 in recruiting classes in each of his 11 seasons at USC.

As a head coach, Toman owned a 406–308–2 record at Liberty and Middle Tennessee. He was named the 2014 Big South Conference Coach of the Year and took the Flames to two NCAA regionals, as well as winning the 2013 Big South championship.

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at [email protected].