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Saturday, December 1, 2007
Beau Knows Basketball
Western Arkansas, AR
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Farmington boys basketball coach Beau Thompson is among the top young up-and-comers in the game. He also was a heck-of-a athlete during his high school days at Huntsville and even went on to play basketball at Arkansas Tech.
HSSTM: We understand you were a pretty solid athlete at Huntsville and played basketball at Arkansas Tech. What is your greatest memory as a player?
Thompson: Probably my best memory as an athlete was winning a state baseball title in 1995. My next best was my last game at Arkansas Tech on Senior Night. We went into triple overtime and I actually hit one from halfcourt to put it into a second overtime. For me to make a shot was pretty good because I didn’t score many points. We ended up beating Southern Arkansas University and the score was in the 100s. My scoring average was a whipping 8.2 points per game, so that one shot was about half of my average for each game.
HSSTM: When you coach against your alma mater, what goes through your mind? I mean, do you want to beat them more than the others or what?
Thompson: You never play a game that you don’t want to win. If there’s any team that it’s hard for me to play, it’s them. Mostly because of (Huntsville) coach Jim Stafford. Not only did he coach me, but he’s my best friend in the world. I don’t beat much, but I don’t get any pleasure from it if I do. I haven’t beaten him in senior high. We’ve played him in so many different games, but right now my record isn’t very good against him in senior high. He beat me four times last year. I was for him in every game except for the ones against us.
HSSTM: Why did you choose to get into coaching?
Thompson: I really never thought I could do anything else. I grew up in the gym at Huntsville and anytime I had any free time, that’s where I wanted to be … In there, or on the baseball or football field. That’s where I feel comfortable and what I’m happiest doing. I’m one of the happiest guys in the world. I hardly ever have a morning where I dread going to work.
HSSTM: Of all the sports you could have coached, why basketball?
Thompson: It’s just the most enjoyable sport for me to be around. I’ve been through the ranks and coached every sport you could coach. I never get tired of practicing basketball. It’s just the sport that I enjoy. If I was good enough, I would still be playing, so I’m doing the next best thing instead.
HSSTM: What has changed about the game, if anything, since you were playing?
Thompson: I think the biggest change is the skill level of the players. Players these days play so much more than we used to whether it’s the summer on AAU teams or what. When I was playing, the summer was for baseball. If you didn’t play baseball, you didn’t have anything to do. They play year-round and the skill level has gotten so much higher than it was.
HSSTM: What are some of your personal goals you hope to achieve as a coach?
Thompson: One of my goals is to win a state title some day. I know that may not happen and that won’t mean that my career won’t be complete. But that is the ultimate goal and something you should reach for. It’s hard to put our job at the high school level in a win or loss column. If you get the best out of every team you’ve got, you’ve pretty much achieved your goal because you can never tell what you have year in, year out.
HSSTM: Do you think your young age (30 years old) helps or hurts you as a coach?
Thompson: I think in a lot of ways it helps me as far as my relationship with kids. I think I understand kids a little better than maybe some older coaches do. I don’t think it hurts me any. I tried to be a head coach as early in my career as I could and had to go to a small school to do it. I was head coach at Elkins, starting in 2002.
HSSTM: Who have been some of your greatest inspirations?
Thompson: My greatest inspiration is my dad, Phil Thompson. He went to Russellville (Arkansas Tech) on a basketball scholarship and quit after a semester to come home and have me. He’s got up every morning between 4 and 5 a.m. and gone to work every day of his life. He’s always provided for us and been a special person, so he’s definitely the most important person in my life.
HSSTM: What are some of your hobbies when you’re not coaching?
Thompson: That’s a good question. I rarely play golf. I run a lot, so I guess you could call that my hobby. I also love watching football and basketball on TV.
HSSTM: Do you have a favorite vacation spot?
Thompson: Sure do. Cancun, Mexico. It is always warm and you’re always on the beach.
HSSTM: Talk about what you see in this year’s team?
THOMPSON: We’ve got a really different team for me this year. We’ve got a whole lot of talent and it’s going to be hard to get them all on the floor. We’ve got 11 kids who are ready to play in a high school game. If we were playing football, that would be ideal, but we can only play five at once. It’s hard to play all of them and keep chemistry. We have to find a way to keep them on the floor. It’s a good problem to have, but probably be my hardest coaching job to the day to keep them all happy. That doesn’t always happen, but we’re always going to have great, competitive practices and hopefully, the practices are a lot harder than the games. Our league has been so hard in the past that we’re going to need that many players. I do think with this team that we do have options; we can either play really fast or we can play really slow, we can go big or we can go small. It will just be a matter of choosing the right one.
HSSTM: What do you think are some of the keys to building and sustaining a winning program?
Thompson: The biggest key is having consistency throughout your program, from seventh grade up to 12th grade, you have to be on the same page with all of your coaches. So, we try to teach our defense the same, we try to teach the same principles on offense. That is the key to every program and playing as many ball games is key. We try to play just as many JV games as we do varsity games. We do the same with seventh and eighth grade. The more kids you get on the floor under the lights, the better chance you have of winning down the road.
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