Greg Thompson knows one thing for sure — he’ll have a hard time duplicating his 2009 accomplishments this year.
But Thursday Thompson was still enjoying the fruits of his labour from last year.
He was named the Prairie Bus Lines Red Deer coach of the year for directing the Red Deer Steelers to the provincial peewee tier III football championship and being selected Football Alberta’s coach of the year.
“It certainly will be a hard year to duplicate,” agreed Thompson. “Coach of the year for Football Alberta and now Red Deer.”
The Steelers victory was the first provincial title by a Red Deer football team in history.
“It makes winning the championship definitely special considering how long it’s been and with so many great coaches here over the years,” he said.
Thompson played his high school football at LTCHS before spending some time in B.C. trying to catch on at the junior ranks. Finally he called it quits and worked for a year and went to university for a year before returning home to join Jay Hetherington’s staff at Lindsay Thurber.
“I figured if I wanted to be involved in football I’d have to coach,” he explained.
He spent 10 years with the LTCHS Raiders before taking over as head coach at the peewee level four years ago.
“My time at Lindsay Thurber is where I learned to be a coach,” he said. “Working with Jay, Dave Smith and Aaron Sheppard I learned a lot. They never pushed me, they gave me just enough. I got to be a sponge and learned what they gave me and as the years went by they gave me more.”
While he enjoyed his days with the Raiders he likes the peewee ranks even more.
“I like the younger kids, they fit my motive a little better. I like working with the grass roots kids. The high school kids are more committed and there’s more hours involved. There’s a fun atmosphere with the younger kids and the parents are more involved.”
Thompson knew he’s have a strong team last year, but it wasn’t until the midway point that he felt they could make a run at the championship.
“I thought we had a decent team with a lot of great athletes, but we played it by ear. About halfway through the season they started to believe in what we were putting down and that was the turning point. As long as we stayed healthy and stayed away from the flu bug we’d be fine.”
Jamie Thompson of the Red Deer Synchronized Swim Club was also in the running for the award.
Meanwhile, the Red Deer In-line U10 Snipers captured the Sun Life Financial team of the year award.
The Snipers put together an undefeated season, winning everything they entered, including the provincials and the North American Roller Hockey championship. The Joel Peterman curling team, the Steelers and the Jaccl Consulting midget B Chiefs lacrosse squad were also in the running.
• Brent Zimmerman, who directed the Red Deer Elks to the provincial midget AA hockey championship, was named the Red Deer Firefighters minor coach of the year.
• Lacrosse official Dave Westwood received the Ramada Inn and Suites youth (u19) official of the year while Kelvin Kripps, also from lacrosse, was named the Ramada Inn official of the year.
Chanelle Stayer of the Catalina Swim Club and synchronized swimming’s Janice Gerdts were also in the running for the official of the year award.
• Jim Mitchell was honoured as the Legion’s volunteer of the year.
• For additional awards see scoreboard on page C4.
drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com