Thomas Folino spent 27 years coaching Warwick Boys Basketball and 37 years total coaching and teaching in the district. When he retired from the sideline, he did not step away from the program. He created a new role for himself, one that has now lasted longer than most coaching careers: director of the Warwick Boys Basketball Hall of Fame, a job he has held for 17 years.

A Committee of Mostly One

Tom runs the Hall of Fame largely on his own, with two longtime colleagues, including fellow agent and former coach Joe Mackey, helping evaluate nominations. Every year, he collects nominations, reviews candidates against the program’s criteria, orders the plaques, and writes a personal career synopsis for each inductee, digging through archives and gathering information himself rather than handing it off. He produces the printed program distributed at the ceremony, writes the press releases for local papers, updates the school website, and sends biannual emails to a running directory of every past inductee. The induction ceremony itself happens once a year, typically in January or February, at a home varsity basketball game.

A History of Turning a Tournament Into Real Help

Long before the Hall of Fame, Tom was already finding ways to give back through the game. As head coach, he ran an annual holiday tournament called Coaches Versus Cancer, raising two to three thousand dollars a year for the American Cancer Society. In his final four seasons, he reshaped it into Coaches for Community, redirecting the funds closer to home. One of those years, a Warwick family who lost their house to a fire received a $2,000 check from the tournament to help cover costs while their home was rebuilt.

Making Sure the Effort Mattered

For Tom, the Hall of Fame is not about nostalgia. It is about making sure former players know their years on the team meant something, and that current players watching the ceremony see what hard work and integrity actually look like over time. In 2017, the roles reversed for a night: Tom himself was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a coach, a recognition he did not find out about until the night it happened.

Nearly two decades after stepping onto the Warwick sideline for the first time, Tom is still finding new ways to give back to the community that shaped his career, now from behind a folder of nomination forms instead of a clipboard.

We nominate someone who gives back. BHGRE Green Team is proud to recognize agents like Thomas Folino whose commitment to community reaches far beyond real estate. Know an agent making a difference? Reach out to talent@greenteamrealty.com