Northwood basketball team honors Coach Tim O’Brien at North-South Challenge

Members of Northwood’s boys basketball team, including Coach Christian Manalo (top) attended Tuesday’s North-South Challenge. (Photo: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Sixteen boys basketball teams took to the floor Tuesday at Tesoro High School for the 22nd annual North-South Challenge, which was dedicated to former Orange County coaching legend Tim O’Brien, who died in October 2020 after a battle with cancer.

It was the kind of event that O’Brien would love to coach in and watch other teams compete as well.

O’Brien coached many times in the challenge. He was Northwood’s long-time coach and although the Timberwolves were not in the tournament, the players and coaches honored their former coach by attending one of the games Tuesday.

“He taught his players more than just basketball,” said Northwood senior guard Devon Huang who knew O’Brien for three years and played on the varsity for him. “He taught them a lot of life skills and the value of confidence and perseverance and never giving up, hard work and effort.

“We came to show our support for him and for everything he did for the program. ‘It’s a good day to play basketball,’ he would say. He was always just a very selfless guy, he always cared about his team and I really value him and everything he did for me.”

Christian Manalo, the Timberwolves first year coach, did not know O’Brien but was well aware of the impact he had.

“I’ve been lucky enough to hear the stories of what he’s left and keep that tradition going with Northwood,” Manalo said. “I don’t take it lightly being at Northwood because I know how he treated Northwood and the players and the program and how seriously he took it so I take this opportunity to be able to coach these kids not lightly, I don’t take it for granted at all.

“One of the things I’ve been hearing is that he’s a friend for everybody and one of the things I’ve heard from other coaches is that when you met him he’s your friend forever and he’s always willing to give a helping hand. A lot of coaches have done that for me in my young coaching career so my goal is to be able to do it as well, just how Coach O’Brien did it.”

Manolo, who has led his team to a 9-4 start, said it was a great experience for the players to attend Tuesday’s game.

“We have a lot of guys who have never played for him and for them to understand what it means to wear Northwood Timberwolves and to see the legacy he has with all these teams playing across the county is really special to grasp and feel,” he said.

The idea of dedicating the event to O’Brien was the brainchild of Tesoro Coach Steve Garrett, a long-time friend and coaching colleague. Before each game, an announcement was read honoring Coach O’Brien.

“It’s kind of been cool because I didn’t realize how many coaches were connected to him,” Garrett said. “There are a lot of connections, so a lot of people are appreciative which is cool. Everybody has their own little link to Tim, whether it was at Estancia or Tustin or Northwood.

“He was in it (the challenge), he loved this gym and we played a lot of games here. He was a basketball junkie, sitting in the gym was one of his favorite things to do.”

O’Brien’s wife Susan and the couple’s daughter Devyn and son Chris were on hand and were moved by the dedication.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com