JAY – Most Maine athletes grow up dreaming of swatting a prodigious home run over Fenway Park’s Green Monster or dropping a two-handed dunk at the Garden.
Either Edwin Thompson was born with a realistic bone or simply had more foresight than the other kids. He visualized himself jumping up and down in a black-and-orange windbreaker, coaching varsity basketball at the Tiger Dome.
Thompson is the new boss of the currently downtrodden, but traditionally powerful, Jay High School boys’ varsity basketball program.
Young and contagiously enthusiastic, Thompson already has used his job as an educational technician at Jay’s middle school to start constructing his feeder system.
“I’m starting there with fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth graders,” Thompson said. “I’m going up to the kids who look like they’re developing into good athletes and saying, You need to be on the basketball court.'”
Thompson is employing the same tactic with juniors and seniors, many of whom he has coached as a football and baseball assistant or as junior varsity basketball head coach.
Several players who stayed away from the hardwood last winter have enrolled in Thompson’s summer basketball program.
“We had some injuries last year, and also there were three or four kids who weren’t playing basketball who should have been playing,” Thompson said. “When you’re a Class C school, you need to have all your best athletes out there.”
The hiring brings diversity to the Jay program in multiple senses of the word. Thompson becomes only the third active African-American varsity basketball coach in the state, joining Tom Bragg of Hyde and Rich Henry of Waynflete.
For someone who just turned 26, Thompson also wields an impressive blend of life experiences. He played two years of minor league baseball for the now-defunct Bangor Lumberjacks.
Thompson attended three different universities, playing Division I baseball at Howard and Maryland before graduating from Division II Webber College in Florida. During his brief stint at Maryland, Thompson struck up a working relationship with basketball coach Gary Williams.
“That’s where I caught the basketball bug. He had open practices, so I would bring my notebook and soak up as much information as possible,” Thompson said. “He was a great resource. It was like having a free coaching clinic.”
In addition to his duties at Jay, Thompson also is assistant baseball coach at the University of Maine at Farmington.
Staying busy is nothing new for Thompson. In high school, he played five sports for the Tigers, focusing on basketball in the winter, baseball in the spring and trying his hand at football, soccer and golf during the fall.
“I didn’t get cheated,” he said.
Thompson welcomes the pressure of waking up the ghosts in Jay’s cavernous gym, where three different coaches have won a Gold Ball and four have led Jay to the state game over the last three decades.
Jay captured the Class C championship under the late Bill Riley in 1978. Bob Fitzgerald helped bring home the title in 1984, and Steve Hamilton led the Tigers to the crown in 2002. Mike Child directed Jay to the Western Maine championship in 2004.
Under Frank Williams, the Tigers reached the regional quarterfinals in 2005 before dropping to 3-15 last winter.
“Growing up, coaching is something I always wanted to do. Even when I was playing, I was coaching,” Thompson said.
“This community is great. It’s always very supportive of the athletes. We’re reminding the kids that last year was just a bump in the road. There have only been one or two down seasons in the last 25 years. I’ve been part of that success. These kids have been part of it, or at least they’ve seen it. That’s something we can build on.”
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