Hubbard coach Thompson sees second son place in state meet

Tyler Thompson placed
seventh, joining Tristan who was second in 2006.

By ERIC HAMILTON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

COLUMBUS — Hubbard wrestling coach Scott Thompson has quite a video library of his three sons’ high school wrestling matches. And after this weekend’s state tournament, he’ll be adding one more video to the archives.

The former Brookfield coach watched from the sidelines — behind a video camera — Saturday morning as his son Tyler of Brookfield won his final match of the season to take seventh place at 103 pounds in Division II.

With the effort, he became the second son to place at state, joining older brother Tristan Thompson, who finished second in 2006.

“I’m proud to death of him,” Thompson said. “It’s fantastic that he did it and I’m more proud that he did it without me. It helps him stand on his own a little bit. His coaches obviously did a good job with him this year because he’s seventh in the state.”

This season was very different for Thompson after he decided to leave Brookfield and take the coaching job at Hubbard.

There were several reasons for the switch, but the one he was hoping would bring the best results was the decision he made as a father.

When he took the job at Hubbard, Tyler stayed at Brookfield to wrestle at 103 pounds. His twin brother Tanner went with his dad to Hubbard and also competed at 103 pounds. That made it possible for both sons to make runs at the state tournament.

It worked. Tanner qualified for state in Division II and Tyler made it in Division III.

“It’s quite a feat,” Scott Thompson said. “I’m not sure how many fathers have two sons make it to state in the same weight class, but in two different divisions.

“I never made it to state as a wrestler, but now all three of my boys have.” Thompson said. “I’m really proud of all of them. The pressure is now off the younger two now, since they’ve been trying to live up to the older one. It all worked out very good this year.”

Tyler was pleased with his first state tournament experience and was surprised at the magnitude of the environment after watching Tristan several times before — but participating for the first time.

“It was shocking,” Thompson said. “I knew what the competition would be like, but it’s just a lot different when you’re the one walking out of that tunnel. I feel like I wrestled up to my expectations for the most part, but I could have done better here and there.

“Most people were shocked when my family split like it did and thought I wouldn’t do anything at Brookfield without my dad there. But I guess I proved some people wrong this weekend.”