TOMMY THOTHONGKUM
Clarkstown South High School
Class of 1998
Tommy Thothongkum kept knocking on the door to a New York State title in the triple jump until he finally broke through his senior year outdoors. Tommy had finished second three times with gold medal-worthy performances but captured the elusive State crown in the spring of 1998, overcoming a painful foot injury that persisted from the indoor season right through outdoors.
Tommy was not physically intimidating at 5-foot-9 and 145 to 165 pounds (by the end of senior year), but he earned a reputation as a consistent, laser-focused competitor who rose to the occasion in championship meets. He has held the indoor County record in the triple jump, 48 feet 6 ½ inches, since 1998. He earned the silver medal at the State championships indoors his junior and senior years, the latter with a fine leap of 47-10 ½ that came within 3 ½ inches of the winning mark of 48-2 by archrival Antoine Johnson of Tuckahoe. Tommy also placed second outdoors his junior year after rolling his ankle during warmups and being able to complete only his first jump, which held up for the silver. He claimed the coveted State title the following spring, despite a lingering heel bruise to his right foot that flared up frequently during the winter and spring.
Twice selected as Rockland County Athlete of the Season for track & field, Tommy earned seven first-team berths on the All-County squad. He is the County indoor class record holder in the triple jump for juniors (46-1 ¾) and sophomores (44-11 ½), and also the junior class record holder outdoors, at 47-8. With that mark he ranks No. 6 on the all-time Rockland list, as well as No. 7 in the indoor long jump, 22-7 ½. His performances as an upperclassman added luster to what was an already sterling record as an underclassman. As a sophomore he finished fourth in the outdoor State meet (45- ¼) and seventh indoors (44-0). Tommy's winning ways started as a ninth-grader, when he won the Rockland County spring championship in the long jump (21- ½) and placed third in the triple jump (43- ½).
All told, Tommy won nine Section 1 Class A titles and eight Rockland County championships in the long and triple jumps.
Early Promise in Jumping
Tommy got his start in track at age 12 in a town of Clarkstown recreation meet organized by Don Schlesinger, the father of Tommy's future teammate, Jodi Schlesinger. His older brother, Tony, signed Tommy up for the meet and he participated in the 50-yard dash and long jump. The following year he joined the track team at Felix Festa Middle School and while other kids gravitated toward the track, high jump or hurdles on the first day of practice, Tommy was the only one to head to the sand pits. He benefited from the creative coaching style of junior high mentor Ray Sussmann, who innovated techniques and strategies to keep things fresh for his young charges.
Sussmann also coached Tommy during indoor season in high school and assisted Coach Giulia Adler Duitz with the jumpers in the spring. Ray Kondracki, South's head coach indoors and out, kept Tommy "grounded" and "humble" and counseled him not to "paralyze" himself with over-analysis.
The team aspect was always emphasized at South, which carried large rosters and was invariably in the hunt for Rockland and Section 1 championships. Tommy loved to give and receive encouragement with his teammates, and was by all accounts a team player who not only performed in the horizontal jumps but also ran the sprints, hurdles and sprint relays and fared respectably in the high jump, too. He even ran cross country his junior year, at Coach Kondracki's urging, to build his stamina for the long indoor-outdoor grind from November to June.
Golden Memories
When he reflects on the most memorable moments during his time at South, Tommy cites the state championship as the most gratifying, capping off four years of sustained effort and commitment. But he also remembers other, less heralded occasions. For example, there was the meet at the Armory freshman year when the team was on the bus ready to depart, waiting for the late-finishing triple jump to conclude. Kondracki promised Tommy a Viking windbreaker if he could crack 40 feet for the first time, and he delivered with a big 40-10 effort. His County indoor record 48-6 ½, set at the West Point meet, also ranks high on his hits list, but so do the head-to-head duels with Antoine Johnson at RCC, going back and forth with personal-best efforts that riveted the cheering throng lining the jumping pit. Teammates like Jodi Schlesinger (who was setting records simultaneously), Kelly Barrett and Paul Golando remain friends with Tommy to this day, as does former Nyack track athlete Allen Jimerson, his college teammate at Cornell. Opponents such as Henry Eyma of North Rockland and Sheldon Roberts of Suffern stand out as jumpers Tommy aspired to measure up to during his freshman and sophomore years.
Tommy reserves special praise for the athletic coverage provided by the Rockland Journal-News during his scholastic career. His name was frequently in the headlines and the ample space allotted in the Sports pages for track & field was greatly appreciated and eagerly anticipated. "It was a big part of high school," he says. "My dad would buy the newspaper and we always looked forward to seeing the articles."
A Taste of Success at Cornell
Tommy was recruited by Cornell track coach Rich Bowman and chose the Big Red via early decision, although as an Ivy League school Cornell offered no athletic scholarships. Tommy started off with a bang, popping a personal-best 49-4 leap in his first indoor meet, at Cornell. Jumps coach Nathan Taylor got Tommy on a weight-training regimen that added strength to his fundamentally sound jumping technique. Tommy responded by improving his PBs to 50-5 ½ in the triple jump and 24-1 in the long jump.
Coach Taylor became Cornell's head coach in Tommy's sophomore year but unfortunately he left after that year to take over the program at Penn. Tommy also suffered a back injury from which he never recovered, forcing him to call it quits midway through his junior year. He decided to take a timeout from college at that point, returning home for the spring semester. But what started as a semester off to regroup became a momentous career decision to enter the culinary field. This was quite a turnabout from his courses of study at Cornell, which began with engineering and changed to education and earth science, which Tommy had visions of teaching at the high school level, accompanied by a coaching position.
Culinary Delight
Tommy got started working in the culinary industry at the entry level while earning an associate's degree in hospitality at Rockland Community College and a degree in culinary arts at the French Culinary Institute in New York. He spent five years working at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC, rising from banquet cook to sous chef. That was followed by stints at several restaurants, including Mesa Grill, BLT Fish, Aquavit and Enduro. He then served for 10 years as executive chef at Restaurant Associates with accounts serving entities such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sony, Citigroup and Warner Media, followed by two years as executive chef at Princeton University. Tommy currently works as an executive chef for Lifeworks Restaurant Group, a division of Aramark, at the Evercore Partners investment banking firm in midtown Manhattan.
Tommy, who is 43, resides in Queens with his wife of 10 years, Jennifer, and their two children, Balerie, 15, and Nathaniel, 8. Tommy draws a parallel between the career path he chose and the one he did not. "I am still teaching and coaching people, but it's in cooking instead of science."
Tommy was not physically intimidating at 5-foot-9 and 145 to 165 pounds (by the end of senior year), but he earned a reputation as a consistent, laser-focused competitor who rose to the occasion in championship meets. He has held the indoor County record in the triple jump, 48 feet 6 ½ inches, since 1998. He earned the silver medal at the State championships indoors his junior and senior years, the latter with a fine leap of 47-10 ½ that came within 3 ½ inches of the winning mark of 48-2 by archrival Antoine Johnson of Tuckahoe. Tommy also placed second outdoors his junior year after rolling his ankle during warmups and being able to complete only his first jump, which held up for the silver. He claimed the coveted State title the following spring, despite a lingering heel bruise to his right foot that flared up frequently during the winter and spring.
Twice selected as Rockland County Athlete of the Season for track & field, Tommy earned seven first-team berths on the All-County squad. He is the County indoor class record holder in the triple jump for juniors (46-1 ¾) and sophomores (44-11 ½), and also the junior class record holder outdoors, at 47-8. With that mark he ranks No. 6 on the all-time Rockland list, as well as No. 7 in the indoor long jump, 22-7 ½. His performances as an upperclassman added luster to what was an already sterling record as an underclassman. As a sophomore he finished fourth in the outdoor State meet (45- ¼) and seventh indoors (44-0). Tommy's winning ways started as a ninth-grader, when he won the Rockland County spring championship in the long jump (21- ½) and placed third in the triple jump (43- ½).
All told, Tommy won nine Section 1 Class A titles and eight Rockland County championships in the long and triple jumps.
Early Promise in Jumping
Tommy got his start in track at age 12 in a town of Clarkstown recreation meet organized by Don Schlesinger, the father of Tommy's future teammate, Jodi Schlesinger. His older brother, Tony, signed Tommy up for the meet and he participated in the 50-yard dash and long jump. The following year he joined the track team at Felix Festa Middle School and while other kids gravitated toward the track, high jump or hurdles on the first day of practice, Tommy was the only one to head to the sand pits. He benefited from the creative coaching style of junior high mentor Ray Sussmann, who innovated techniques and strategies to keep things fresh for his young charges.
Sussmann also coached Tommy during indoor season in high school and assisted Coach Giulia Adler Duitz with the jumpers in the spring. Ray Kondracki, South's head coach indoors and out, kept Tommy "grounded" and "humble" and counseled him not to "paralyze" himself with over-analysis.
The team aspect was always emphasized at South, which carried large rosters and was invariably in the hunt for Rockland and Section 1 championships. Tommy loved to give and receive encouragement with his teammates, and was by all accounts a team player who not only performed in the horizontal jumps but also ran the sprints, hurdles and sprint relays and fared respectably in the high jump, too. He even ran cross country his junior year, at Coach Kondracki's urging, to build his stamina for the long indoor-outdoor grind from November to June.
Golden Memories
When he reflects on the most memorable moments during his time at South, Tommy cites the state championship as the most gratifying, capping off four years of sustained effort and commitment. But he also remembers other, less heralded occasions. For example, there was the meet at the Armory freshman year when the team was on the bus ready to depart, waiting for the late-finishing triple jump to conclude. Kondracki promised Tommy a Viking windbreaker if he could crack 40 feet for the first time, and he delivered with a big 40-10 effort. His County indoor record 48-6 ½, set at the West Point meet, also ranks high on his hits list, but so do the head-to-head duels with Antoine Johnson at RCC, going back and forth with personal-best efforts that riveted the cheering throng lining the jumping pit. Teammates like Jodi Schlesinger (who was setting records simultaneously), Kelly Barrett and Paul Golando remain friends with Tommy to this day, as does former Nyack track athlete Allen Jimerson, his college teammate at Cornell. Opponents such as Henry Eyma of North Rockland and Sheldon Roberts of Suffern stand out as jumpers Tommy aspired to measure up to during his freshman and sophomore years.
Tommy reserves special praise for the athletic coverage provided by the Rockland Journal-News during his scholastic career. His name was frequently in the headlines and the ample space allotted in the Sports pages for track & field was greatly appreciated and eagerly anticipated. "It was a big part of high school," he says. "My dad would buy the newspaper and we always looked forward to seeing the articles."
A Taste of Success at Cornell
Tommy was recruited by Cornell track coach Rich Bowman and chose the Big Red via early decision, although as an Ivy League school Cornell offered no athletic scholarships. Tommy started off with a bang, popping a personal-best 49-4 leap in his first indoor meet, at Cornell. Jumps coach Nathan Taylor got Tommy on a weight-training regimen that added strength to his fundamentally sound jumping technique. Tommy responded by improving his PBs to 50-5 ½ in the triple jump and 24-1 in the long jump.
Coach Taylor became Cornell's head coach in Tommy's sophomore year but unfortunately he left after that year to take over the program at Penn. Tommy also suffered a back injury from which he never recovered, forcing him to call it quits midway through his junior year. He decided to take a timeout from college at that point, returning home for the spring semester. But what started as a semester off to regroup became a momentous career decision to enter the culinary field. This was quite a turnabout from his courses of study at Cornell, which began with engineering and changed to education and earth science, which Tommy had visions of teaching at the high school level, accompanied by a coaching position.
Culinary Delight
Tommy got started working in the culinary industry at the entry level while earning an associate's degree in hospitality at Rockland Community College and a degree in culinary arts at the French Culinary Institute in New York. He spent five years working at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC, rising from banquet cook to sous chef. That was followed by stints at several restaurants, including Mesa Grill, BLT Fish, Aquavit and Enduro. He then served for 10 years as executive chef at Restaurant Associates with accounts serving entities such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sony, Citigroup and Warner Media, followed by two years as executive chef at Princeton University. Tommy currently works as an executive chef for Lifeworks Restaurant Group, a division of Aramark, at the Evercore Partners investment banking firm in midtown Manhattan.
Tommy, who is 43, resides in Queens with his wife of 10 years, Jennifer, and their two children, Balerie, 15, and Nathaniel, 8. Tommy draws a parallel between the career path he chose and the one he did not. "I am still teaching and coaching people, but it's in cooking instead of science."