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Walter Thompson Jr. does not have a cell phone, but that fact is not the most extraordinary thing about him.
Thompson can’t tell you exactly what year he started coaching track and field, but his best guess is that it was close to 60 years ago.
What, that’s not amazing?
Yes indeed, the 1958 Roosevelt graduate is still leading our kids here in Hawaii as the head coach at Le Jardin Academy.
Le Jardin track coach Watler Thompson Jr. has been around the block (track) a few times.
After leaving high school, Thompson went to Orange Coast College in California for a bit before returning to Hawaii.
“I don’t know if I really know how I started coaching track,” Thompson said after being honored by the track and field community for his long service to the sport at the Roosevelt Invitational meet last Saturday at Moanalua High School last Saturday.
After spending two years in an Army helicopter unit at Schofield Barracks, he approached Ticky Vasconcellos, who was the Roosevelt athletic director at the time, about coaching track and field. Thompson believes i5 was in 1964 that he started as a coach with the Rough Riders’ boys team.
Two years later, he switched to the girls squad with 80 kids on the roster.
“When I finally left (Roosevelt) after 21 or 22 years, I had six girls,” Thompson added. “So I decided to move on. Track was not at the top of the list of girls sports anymore.”
From there, Thompson went on to coach at Kamehameha, ‘Iolani and Pac-Five (not in that order) and spent about 20 years as a girls hurdles coach at Punahou.
Due to the difficulty of driving from his home in Kahuluu to Punahou every day, Thompson left that post.
Three years ago, with two granddaughters at Le Jardin, Thompson approached the school’s AD to see if the track and field athletes needed some assistance in the coaching department.
“The next day, she (the AD) called back and said, ‘You’re the head coach,’ ” Thompson said. “That’s NOT what I went there for.”
But he took the post anyway, and since that time, Le Jardin has had its own track and field team under Coach Thompson, separate from the PAC-5 conglomerate that the Panthers had been a part of for years.
Roosevelt athletic director John Chung was one of those beaming with pride when Thompson was honored during the Roosevelt Invitational.
“He has done so much for the sport in Hawaii,” Chung said.
Not long after taking photos with well-wishers, Thompson was doing what coaches do at meets — helping in any way they can to get the events running smoothly. On this moment, he was assisting the 100-meter dash starter while aiding some athletes with picking up and putting away their blocks and then taking the cart full of blocks down to the other end of the Moanalua field.
Not every 81-year-old (he will turn 82 on May 12) is cut out for this type of work. It keeps Thompson young, for sure.
Asked for a reason why he keeps coaching, Thompson said, “Seeing the younger kids do so well.”
In addition to his coaching the high schoolers, Thompson has run the Renegades Track Club Hawaii for more than 40 years during the summers.
He used Kamehameha’s Tatum Moku as an example of someone doing so well.
“I remember when she said, ‘Coach, I want to try something new,” Thompson said. ” ‘I think I want to try pole vault.’ And look at her now. Amazing.”
Moku, a Warriors junior, is up to 12 feet, 7 inches in the pole vault and is working on trying to pass the state meet record of 13-0.
Thompson sees big potential in one of his sophomores at Le Jardin, too.
“Kelsey Carveille, she runs a good 400 and 800,” he said. “She loves surfing and she loves skiing. She went skiing over spring break and I said, ‘Please don’t come back hurt. Have fun, but don’t get hurt.’ ”
In high school, Thompson ran the 880-yard and one-mile runs, two “old-school” distances.
“I was about fourth (best) on the team,” he said.
Walter Thompson Jr. at the Moanalua track with his plaque at the Roosevelt Invitational last Saturday at Moanalua High School. (Photo courtesy of Sam Moku).
If you happen to locate Thompson’s phone number and would like to congratulate him for his decades of dedication to the youth of Hawaii and track and field, remember to actually dial the number.
Texting landlines just doesn’t work.
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ALSO AT BedrockSportsHawaii.com:
Konawaena’s Caiya Hanks And Kamehameha’s Tatum Moku Sparkle In Lively Track And Field Weekend
