Scholar Athlete of the Week: Molly O’Toole

News10NBC’s latest Scholar Athlete of the Week is Aquinas senior Molly O’Toole.

Molly O’Toole can really do it all.

“You never want to take your eyes off her because she’s quiet, she’ll get anywhere on the court,” said junior Ajaya Orr. “We’ll find her. She’ll be open.”

A senior leader for the little Irish.

“She’s a really great team mate on and off the court,” said sophomore Loren Green. “She supports us in any shape or form. She’s a great leader. She may not say a lot, but she’s still a great leader.”

And don’t let that quiet demeanor fool you.

“Molly’s a really good shooter,” said sophomore Jade Harvey. “I’ll give her that one. One of the best shooters in Section V.”

But with four years of varsity experience, agent 3-0 for A-Q has developed her game quite a bit, driving and scoring as well as anyone.

“Because teams are going to face guard you, guard, you close I said. But now you got to add that element to your game,” said head coach Mark Loria. “And she worked on it and she’s doing that. So kudos to her, man. She’s really worked hard on it.”

Earlier this year, at the start of her fourth varsity season, O’Toole became just the fifth Aquinas girls basketball player to eclipse the 1000 point mark.

“It felt amazing, like it’s something that I always thought about when I was coming through the program,” O’Toole said. “To have my family to support me and my friends in the stands it meant the world.”

And now after picking up one of the most elusive individuals goals in high school basketball, Molly is dedicating her focus to a team goal.

“We definitely want to go back to states and hopefully win it,” O’Toole said. “As we were really close, we lost in the Final Four last year to Catholic Central.”

And after seeing a glimpse of that state tournament, Molly and her teammates put in the work to make sure their run can go deeper.

“We all trained over the summer,” said Aquinas senior Samiyah Wright. “We got to the gym and did what we needed to do and that shows in our game how we train and we got better. We have the same girls and we’re here to win.”

Molly is committed to play Division II basketball at D’Youville after graduating.

“I knew right when I had my first visit there, I knew it was the place for me,” O’Toole said. “I love the coaching staff, and I met some of the players. It just felt like home.”

So whether it’s on or off the court, Molly O’Toole is just gonna work.

“She’s just tough, she just doesn’t get rattled, she’s just Molly,” Loria said.