Nathan Thompson is a banker, but he's also a coach, an athlete, a sports enthusiast and an unabashed supporter of Russellville High School. All of that has
combined in his being named the new RHS athletic director this week.
Two days after she told The LoJo that Thompson is the new boys and girls golf coach at his alma mater, new RHS principal Kim McDaniel announced
that the interview committee which she had assembled to help her select a new AD had chosen the 2001 RHS graduate.
McDaniel said, “I think Nathan is a great role model for our student athletes and will continue working to meet the needs of those students and the
position. He has been involved with our school system in some capacity for the last 29 years and wants to continue supporting our school for many more
years! What more could I ask for from someone in that role!”
The new athletic director works in the loan department of First Southern National Bank in Russellville and will continue in that role while leading Panther
and Lady Panther sports at the same time. “First Southern encourages employees to be involved in the community,” Thompson says. “(Community President) Alex
Keltner has always given his support to my being involved in the athletic program at RHS.” Rusty Clark, president of the entire FSNB operation, is a former
assistant basketball coach at RHS.
Thompson says he will spend a couple of hours per day performing his duties at RHS after leaving the bank in the mid-afternoon. He will be accessible at
the bank for making athletic department decisions, too, by both phone and email.
Thompson succeeds Phil Todd, who officially retired as a faculty member and as athletic director on June 30. Todd, however, is resuming his role as head
boys basketball coach, a position he held from the fall of 1991 through the end of the 2004 season. As a non-faculty member, Todd will be a
paraprofessional coach, just as Thompson is as golf coach and athletic director.
Phil Todd was Thompson's basketball coach at RHS during the greatest era in Panther basketball. He was a member of three teams which won the region and
played at state, including two that played their way into the Final Four at Rupp Arena. He was the shooting forward for the team.
Two of the coaches Thompson will be 'directing' are among the state's most successful. In addition to Todd, former state champion baseball coach Greg
Shelton has agreed to succeed Lou Kendall as the RHS baseball coach.
Thompson was also a starter in baseball and was also a part of Coach Keith McReynolds' Bees team which won the state Senior Babe Ruth 16-year-old state
champions in 1999
Thompson has served as the Panthers' head soccer coach, beginning in the fall of 2009, and was an assistant before that. He knows the game well, as one of
the top scorers in RHS soccer history and playing collegiately for Kentucky Wesleyan College. It appears, however, that Russellville is no longer fielding
a soccer team. The varsity season was canceled last year because of a lack of participation and the same will apparently be true this year.
Additionally he knows volleyball well, since his dad, Tom Thompson, coached the Russellville team. His sister Sarah was a standout player for the Lady
Panthers. Tom Thompson slso coached softball and was the long-time Panther soccer coach.
When he gave up playing sports on a school team, Thompson turned his competitive instinct to playing golf. He is now an avid golfer. As RHS golf coach, he
is succeeding Dennis Pardue, who recently resigned after accepting the head boys basketball coaching job at Garrard County High School in Lancaster.
Thompson acknowledges that he applied to be head basketball coach when a successor was being chosen for Pardue in that role. As the top basketball
assistant, he had coached the team on an interim basis when Pardue wasn't available, and the Panthers were successful with him at the helm.
The Thompson family has long been involved in education. Tom Thompson not only coached but was well-known statewide for his devotion to teaching special
education students and to Special Olympics. He taught adult education following his retirement. Nathan's mom Sandra worked at Stevenson Elementary School
for many years and now is the voice and face of the central office of Logan County Schools as receptionist. His wife, the former Laura Stokes, teaches at
Lewisburg School. (They have a two-year-old daughter, Avery.) Nathan's sister, Sarah Ibarra, is the new Family Resoure and Youth Services Center director
at Auburn School. His mother-in-law, Jamie Stokes, is food services director for the Logan County Schools.
Thompson says each RHS coach does his or her own scheduling and selection of assistant coaches. He knows a lot of paperwork and compliance issues will be
coming his way, but he says with “careful planning and good efficiency” he believes he will have time to handle the position.
“My college degree is in marketing, so I feel like I bring a new perspective to the position in that regard,” he says. “As a banker, I also have experience
in dealing with financial matters.”
There is no question of his loyalty to Russellville High School. When Pardue was considered to be a top candidate for the then-vacant basketball position
at Logan County High School, Thompson was asked if he would be an assistant for the Cougars. “My loyalty is not to any coach but to Russellville High
School,” Nathan Thompson firmly answered.