WRESTLING: Flathead's Thompson returns
<p>Jeff Thompson, head Flathead High wrestling coach, takes a breather while wrestling with Bryce Stacy during a practice in 2007. (Karen Nichols photos/Daily Inter Lake, file)</p>
Teams with state championship aspirations that lose their head coach just weeks before the beginning of the season have to scramble, their pool of possible candidates severely limited and the usually exhaustive vetting process expedited by necessity.
In that sense, Flathead’s search for a new wrestling coach was no different than anyone else’s would have been. The search was quick, the candidate local and the time between interview and first team meeting was less than a day.
The difference for Flathead, though, was the legend teaching business classes right down the hallway.
Jeff Thompson, who resigned after leading the Braves to their third straight state championship and a top-10 national ranking in 2008, has been tabbed to replace Rich Vasquez and begin a second tenure as the school’s head wrestling coach.
Vasquez resigned one week ago, citing health concerns.
“I’ve always had the itch,” Thompson said. “I absolutely love the sport. It’s done so many great things for me.”
Thompson stepped down after eight seasons at the helm, deciding at the time he needed to devote himself more to his wife and six children.
“The timing is not great but it is good,” he said. “Sometimes, you never know when that exact time is. It might not ever be the perfect time but the time is now.”
Thompson said Vasquez first approached him about his resignation two weeks ago, and he immediately spoke with his wife, Carrie, and kids about the opportunity to return as Flathead’s coach.
“I said here’s an opportunity to me to step up with wrestling and for Flathead High School,” Thompson said. “[Carrie] was very positive, she said ‘life is short, do what you love and you have my 100 percent support.’”
Thompson’s first tenure at Flathead was among the most successful in Montana history. He led the Braves to a state championship in 2004, then three more from 2006-08. His last Flathead team was nearly unstoppable, racking up a state-record 410 points at the state meet behind 10 state finalists and five state champions. Thompson was a four-time Montana coach of the year and led his teams to a 126-19 record in dual meets.
Since stepping away in 2008, Thompson has remained a coach with the Kalispell Wrestling Club and spent the last four years as the coach at Kalispell Middle School. Those experiences, along with his interactions with Flathead students as both a business teacher and volunteer wrestling coach, have kept Thompson well aware of the type of team he’s inheriting — one that finished third in Class AA last year and should be among the favorites for the 2017 state title.
“It’s hard to have that pressure and I’m not going to say that we’re going to compete for a state title but Flathead’s expectations are very, very high,” Thompson said. “Our goal right now is to get to know the athletes, build a system we truly believe in, get better throughout the year and see what happens.
“Right now, we’re truly not focused on [a state championship] but it’s exciting. It’s not like we’re stepping into a team that was at the bottom of AA. Rich has left us a great team.”
Thompson will be joined by his longtime colleague Jeff Anderson on the Braves coaching staff. Anderson was the head coach at Great Falls High School when Thompson won three titles as a wrestler there, and was Flathead’s head coach before becoming Thompson’s assistant. Anderson, a sports medicine and physical education teacher at Flathead, resigned with Thompson in 2008.
“I probably wouldn’t have [returned] without him,” Thompson said of Anderson. “He’s my right-hand man and he’s a fantastic coach. He makes my job look so easy.”
When the Braves begin practice on Nov. 17, Thompson’s best wrestler will be the former coach’s son, Trae Vasquez, a two-time state champion. The junior was undefeated last year and, Thompson said, was undeterred by the prospect of working with a coaching staff no longer helmed by his father.
“I’ve coached him probably the second-most beside his dad,” Thompson said of Vasquez. “He’s a young man now that’s wrestling for himself and his has very high goals, very high expectations for himself. He wants to wrestle at the next level, in college, and he’s looking at [the coaching change] like a taste of what it’s like at that next level to wrestle for a different coaching staff.
“Him and his dad have an excellent relationship but he’s looking forward to the opportunity to get to that next level.”