This Week in HS Sports - August 20, 2009

Thompson ready to take the reins at Langham Creek

CFISD veteran assistant is now prepared for his first head coaching assignment

By Lonnie King (TSWA)
Legacy Sports Network 

When Todd Thompson graduated from Rice in 1992 with a degree in political science/pre-law, he figured he’d wait a little while to go to law school, because he had a bit of a coaching bug that he wanted to get out of his system.

“I had taken the LSAT and was going to go to law school,” recalls Thompson. “At the end of that semester, I knew I wanted to coach all along but I hadn’t really just come out and admitted it. So when I graduated that summer, I just knew if I decided I wanted to go to law school when I was older, I could do that.  But I wanted to be around athletics.

The former Rice Owl letterman still may get around to going to law school someday, but so far it hasn’t worked out that way.  And it doesn’t appear to be in the immediate future for Thompson either.  After spending 16 years in the coaching ranks—as a college graduate assistant, high school position coach, and high school offensive coordinator—he now prepares for his first season as the head coach and campus athletic coordinator at Langham Creek High School in the Cy-Fair ISD.

 So it looks like this coaching thing may work out for him.

 The truth is that Thompson was probably born to be a coach.  It’s in his bloodlines.  His father, Johnny Thompson was a long-time coach in northeast Texas.  The elder Thompson was coaching at Van when they defeated McGregor in the 1979 Class 3A championship game.  His brother is a coach too.

 But the family ties didn’t help him get around any state regulations for high school coaches at the start of his career.  He had to be certified to teach in order to coach in the high school ranks.  So, Thompson went to night school to earn his teaching certification that would allow him to take a spot on the staff at Lubbock Coronado.

 “I had a friend out in Lubbock who helped me get out there and I got hired before I was certified,” Thompson says, “so I went to school at night in the summer at Texas Tech to get my teacher’s certification.”

 Following that season, some good fortune, in the form of current Titans offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger, brought Thompson back to the Houston area.  At the time Heimerdinger was the Rice offensive coordinator and a guest speaker at the West Texas Coaches Clinic.

 “I was sitting in the lobby with him after he had spoken and we were talking a little bit,” says Thompson.  “He said, ‘Hey, we’re about to have a GA (graduate assistant) spot open. Would you be interested?’”

 It was an opportunity that Thompson felt like he could not pass up.  And he hasn’t left the Houston area since.

  * * * * *

 On a recent evening, following a Lobos team practice, Thompson spent time unveiling some new motivational signs that will soon adorn the walls in the hallways, locker room and coaches’ offices at Langham Creek.  The signs will create a new look around the campus.  But Thompson’s mark may be most evident in his team’s performance on the field this season.

 After spending 11 seasons on the Cypress Falls staff, the last six as offensive coordinator for a program that played in two regional finals and a state championship game between 2004 and 2006, Thompson brings his version of the no-huddle spread offense to a team that, on the surface, appears perfectly suited for that brand of wide-open football.

 He’s got a talented offense, led by quarterback Will Bryant, who led the district in passing yardage in 2008.  Twin brothers Mitchell and Garrett Juergens lead the talented corps of receivers that Bryant will have to throw to.  The athletes appear to fit perfectly into the system that the coach has become known for. 

 Ironically, that wide-open style of offense was born out of necessity in 2004, his second season as Cypress Falls’ offensive coordinator.

 After losing to a first-year Cypress Ridge team, 44-26, in the eighth game of the season and with an upcoming bye week on the horizon, Thompson discussed changing the offensive set for the Golden Eagles from a modified two-back pro-style set to the four-receiver spread offense with Cypress Falls head coach David Raffield. 

 “I felt like we had guys on the sideline that were better than guys on the field, just because of what we were running on offense,” Thompson says now.  “I felt like we had receivers that were better than our fullback and receivers that were better than our tight end, so the only way to get them on the field was to have more receivers.”

 Raffield agreed to try it and Cypress Falls went to a complete no-huddle offense two weeks later against a formidable Tomball Cougar team under head coach Pat Patterson.  The Golden Eagles marched downfield on their opening series to score, and won the game, 31-7. 

 That game also set them on course to go all the way to the Region III Division 1 championship game.  They eventually lost to a more experienced Westfield Mustang team, 42-14, that Thanksgiving weekend, but the new offense was a bona fide success.

 “Since then, I’ve told myself that we’re not going to lose a game because we don’t have our best guys out there,” he says.  “We’re going to have our best guys on the field.”

 He has already put that philosophy into practice at Langham Creek.  Thompson has moved players on both offense and defense from one position to another to better utilize their abilities and give his team an advantage.

 Trevor Hadley, who will be a junior, has been moved from running back to inside receiver on offense.  Senior Devon Rhodes has moved from defensive end to outside linebacker.  In both cases, Thompson felt he needed to find a way to keep those players on the field.

 “We’re always trying to do whatever we have to do to get the best eleven out there,” he notes.

  * * * * *

 After learning that he had been selected to succeed Mac Woodfin in early May, Thompson had several of the usual chores that a new head coach has to deal with.  In addition to meeting with the coaches who remained on the staff and getting to know the players in the program, Thompson also had to hire five new coaches to round out his staff.  Dealing with those issues was made a little easier by the familiarity of the Cy-Fair school district.

 “I was really glad that I got to stay in this district, having been here so long,” Thompson says. “That part of getting this job was comfortable for me.  There were a lot of new things that I had to learn for the first time, but (learning) the district itself, that was a lot of stress that I wasn’t under, having been here.”

 Plus there was the unique characteristic that the Langham Creek campus itself shares with his former school.

 “The nice thing is that this school is exactly the same as Cy Falls,” says the coach.  “Every door, every room—same blueprint.”

 So he doesn’t have to worry about getting lost in the halls. And Thompson can still keep in touch with his former boss when he needs some advice.

 “David (Raffield) and I talk probably more than he wants to, because everything that happens to me is new and I want to make sure I’m not messing something up,” he says with a smile, adding that sometimes he sends text messages so that Raffield won’t have to answer the phone.

 When asked to confirm that, Raffield laughs and says he tries to answer any questions he can, but adds that he’s really only given Thompson one piece of advice. 

 “Todd is a tremendous coach with a great football mind,” says Raffield. “My big advice for him: it’s his program—do it the way he wants to.  He’ll do a great job.”

  * * * * *

 While Thompson seems to anticipate that there will be the ups and downs that always come with a change in leadership, he says he likes what he has seen on both sides of the football in the preseason practices. The coach has high expectations for his program in his first season, though he won’t make a firm prediction for his team’s win total.

 “We’re going to show up and have a plan to win the game every week, play the best we can and see what happens,” he states.

 And though he says he hasn’t seen a lot of what has been written about the 2009 Lobos, he has heard some of the talk that many people think he will have a very good football team.  And he doesn’t downplay it or shy away from it.

 “I’d rather be the team that people is going to be tough, because I want to be known that way,” he says confidently.  “I’m not going to try and say we’re not going to be very good, because I think we should be.”              

 Like the attorney that Thompson might at one time have become, he seems ready to make his case on the field.

Previous stories : August 15, 2009