Brighton's John Thompson recognized by peers as Michigan's top athletic director
BRIGHTON — John Thompson learned early on the level of detail it takes to be a successful athletic administrator.
His father was the athletic director for Sault Ste. Marie, and was always in need of volunteers to help make events run smoothly.
Whatever needed to be done, Thompson was eager to assist.
“I remember being at the ticket table helping with tickets at Blue Devil hockey games and running the track results up to the press box after they crossed the finish line,” Thompson recalls. “Maybe it started there.”
Thompson seemed destined to follow his father’s footsteps and become an athletic director — and he did.
He just took a more circuitous route than most to find his calling in life.
Thompson hasn’t held any job longer than his current one, having served as athletic director at Brighton High School for 20 years.
He is one of the most respected A.D.’s in Michigan, having recently received the Thomas Rashid Athletic Director of the Year award from the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. Thompson is the first Livingston County A.D. to receive the award, which was first presented in 1972-73.
“What we do in Brighton athletics, it’s a team effort,” Thompson said. “We’ve got great staff in the office, great training staff, strength and conditioning staff, 155-plus coaches who go out every day to work with our kids in our community to not only help them in sports but in life. The recognition is really recognition for Brighton athletics, Brighton Area Schools and our community.”
Before coming to Brighton in 2003, Thompson tried a little bit of everything.
He planned to become a lawyer, receiving a bachelor’s degree in pre-law from Lambuth College in Tennessee before switching gears and become a college football coach. He began at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire before becoming an offensive and defensive line coach at the University of Washington for three years.
During Thompson’s time in Seattle, the Huskies won two Rose Bowls and were 1991 national co-champions with Miami.
“(Washington coach) Don James was just a remarkable man,” Thompson said. “He gave me an opportunity. I just learned so much.”
Thompson moved on to South Carolina and Lock Haven University before realizing the nomadic life of a college football coach wasn’t for him.
“I love the coaching and the teaching aspect to athletics, but in that business you win, you move, you lose, you move. My dad was a college coach. I moved a lot as a kid. When I got out of college, I was doing a lot of moving for the business. At a certain point, I thought it would be nice to hang your hat somewhere more than two or three years at a place.”
Thompson returned to Michigan to take a job at the The Summit, a multi-sport entertainment complex near Lansing before landing his first job as an athletic director at Remus Chippewa Hills.
He came to Brighton in 2003 to replace then-interim A.D. Hal Anderson, who took over following the resignation of Bruce Zylstra in 2002.
“I really saw an opportunity to be part of a school district and a community I thought had a lot of untapped potential,” Thompson said. “Selfishly, my wife’s family is from Pennsylvania. Chippewa Valley is up north between Mount Pleasant and Big Rapids. This put us six hours away from her family, as opposed to nine or 10. We just had our first child. From that standpoint, it was a good middle spot.”
Brighton has become one of the top athletic programs in Michigan during Thompson’s tenure. The Bulldogs have won 12 Michigan High School Athletic Association state championships in five different sports after winning only six before his arrival.
“I don’t think there’s any substitute for hard work,” he said. “There are no short cuts. Depending on the team, depending on the year, sometimes we have a little more talent competing out there than others. But what really keeps the pace is the hard work day in and day out, not only in season but out of season. It’s a lesson our kids embrace and our coaches embrace.”
Thompson has been a member of the MHSAA’s Representative Council for 14 years, helping establish policies and rules changes.
He and former Novi A.D. Brian Gordon co-founded the concept of unified sports, which combine special education and general education students, within the Kensington Lakes Activities Association. Brighton was recognized as an ESPN Unified Champion school in 2018.
Of all the groups with which Thompson interacts in his job, his favorite are the students.
“I love working with our coaches and staff,” he said. “With the size shop that we run, I wish I had more time day in and day out to be around our student-athletes. That’s the best part. You watch them grow from seventh or eighth grade all the way through their senior year when they’re walking across the stage. Just to watch our student-athletes grow, that really is where the reward is for me.”
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Brighton's John Thompson recognized by peers as Michigan's top athletic director
