Thompson enjoys success as athlete with Wolverines
At East Webster, choosing to play multiple sports has almost become understood by athletes in every grade.
Student-athletes start young balancing the different sports from the fall through the summer and have had a seamless transition doing so. Many of them excel at doing this, but not many have been like Art Thompson of late.
Thompson finished his high school basketball career with the Wolverines this spring helping lead his team to the Class 2A, Region 2 championship and within a game of making it to Jackson in the Elite 8. He was an All-Region performer with his 13 points per game and led the team in blocked shots.
His work earned him a spot on the Northeast Mississippi Basketball Coaches Association All-Star roster for the A/2A game to take place in June.
“He was relentless personified,” former East Webster head basketball coach Michael Seger said. “The majority of his impact plays happened because he never quit on plays most would have given up.”
From there, Thompson went straight to baseball and also spent his off time trading in the bat for a golf club. Just last week, Thompson won the district championship in golf when he shot par and he competed for a state title on Tuesday.
That hasn’t slowed down his work on the diamond where he’s helped the Wolverines to yet another Region 2 championship with a 23-6 record and pushed them into the third round of the playoffs this week.
“He’s just such a competitor and that’s what makes him different,” East Webster baseball coach Wes Johnson said of Thompson. “He absolutely loves to compete, and he’s not scared of the moment. We’ve seen him do some things that you don’t normally see from kids.”
Thompson has a .375 batting average for the year and is second on the team with 30 hits. He has 25 RBI, nine doubles and three home runs. In the two-game series against New Site in round two, Thompson had three hits and drove in two runs.
However, the pitching part of things is where he’s becoming most valuable. After pitching sporadically most of the year, Thompson threw a career-high six innings in a win
over Oak Hill striking out seven batters. He followed that up by coming in for relief in game one against New Site with his team trailing.
He went 3.2 strong innings allowing just one run and striking out three to ultimately get the win. Now, Johnson is utilizing his talents even more in the postseason.
“He came in out of the blue and helped us on the mound,” Johnson said. “He’s one of the important parts of our piece and he’s liable to get the ball to start Thursday’s game.
We’ve been kicking that idea around because he’s such a competitor and he’s going to do what it takes to win the game.”
The All-Region baseball player is also going to get an All-Star opportunity at the end of the year when he plays in the Crossroads Diamond Club A/2A game by the Mississippi Association of Coaches. The hard work that he’s put in to be the best he can be in every sport is something that his coaches believe sets him apart from others.
“Every coach should get to coach a kid like Art Thompson,” Seger said. “If I ever coach again, players will grow tired of hearing me talk about his effort.”