Eugene Thompson

CARVER HIGH, NEWPORT NEWS

As a high school athlete, Eugene Thompson played football, baseball and track and field. After a tour of duty in the U. S. Army he attended Compton Junior College, in Compton, CA and graduated from Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) in 1966. At ECSU he played football and tennis. He began coaching as Head Basketball Coach at Southwestern High in Windsor, NC in 1966. In 1970 he began coaching in Delaware Public Schools. He led Wilmington High to State Basketball Championships in 1978, 1983 and 1988. His overall record in basketball was 489-227. As head track and field coach his team was State Champion in 1995. He coached his first varsity tennis team in 1974 while serving as head coach of basketball and track and field. He was named Delaware Coach of the Year in Basketball (1978), Tennis (1978) and Track and Field (1995). He raised funds to help start the Wilmington Tennis Foundation with a goal of raising the level of minority participation. He coached men’s and women’s tennis teams at Lincoln University before he became head men’s tennis coach at Virginia State University in 2005. He was CIAA Tennis Coach of the Year in 2012. He was selected to the Delaware Afro-American Hall of Fame (2009); the Delaware Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame (2013) and the Delaware Tennis Hall of Fame (2013).