Delbarton tennis coach John Thompson earns 700th career win
John Thompson would prefer to avoid all the hype that comes along with his 700th career win.
The Delbarton tennis coach reached the milestone, 5-0, against Sparta on Monday.
Most of those victories came with the Green Wave. A longtime history teacher and former department chair, Thompson has coached the varsity tennis team since 1992.
"The wins are nice, but there's a lot of coaches with a lot of wins," said Thompson, whose team has a 8-3 record this spring. "I look back more on the other accomplishments: The bus driver says something nice about you, or the opposing coach or a parent says something nice about you. That's better than a championship."
Thompson, 61, grew up playing tennis, and was on the team for four years at Amherst (Massachusetts) Regional High School and Gettysburg College. But his path to education was almost accidental.
In the mid-1980s, Thompson was earning his master's in history at the University of Connecticut, with a focus on World War I and II. He had planned to pursue a PhD, but then learned he would have to start from scratch learning French and German. The Spanish he'd already taken didn't count toward the planned concentration in European history.
His mother suggested teaching at a prep school. In 1988, Thompson got hired at Trinity-Pawling, an all-boys boarding school in Dutchess County, New York. He moved on to Delbarton two years later, coaching tennis at the middle school.
Two years later, Thompson became the varsity head coach. He has also coached freshman soccer for 34 years, and was a three-season coach – with middle school or JV basketball – until around 2009.
In 1994, Thompson launched the invitational that would come to be named after former Delbarton tennis player Bryan Bennett, who was killed in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
"He puts a lot into it, and the kids get a lot out of playing soccer for him, playing tennis for him, taking his history class," said Green Wave assistant headmaster for academic affairs Josh Hartle, a former freshman soccer and JV tennis coach alongside Thompson.
"The kids want to be successful, not only for themselves, but also for him because they see how dedicated he is."
More: The son of a legend, Delbarton baseball coach Bruce Shatel reaches his own milestone
Yet Thompson struggled to think of individual highlights in a career that includes 17 NJSIAA Non-Public championships, and 20 of the last 21 Morris County Tournament titles. Finally, he remembered Delbarton's only tennis Tournament of Champions title. The Green Wave beat Westfield in the final.
"When they handed us the trophy, and said, 'Out of 490 high schools in the state, you're the only one remaining,' that stands out as a big moment," Thompson said.
Thompson was also particularly pleased that Delbarton last spring brought home both its first George Shafer Doubles Tournament trophy from Episcopal Academy in Newtown, Pennsylvania, as well as its sportsmanship award. It's rare for a team to capture both.
"We've been quite successful with championships. I've been very fortunate with a lot of great players," said Thompson, a married father of two. "While that's great, that's not why I do it. I always ask the kids, 'Why do I want us to win the next round of the states?' I want us to continue because it's fun and I love it."
Jane Havsy is a storyteller for the Daily Record and DailyRecord.com, part of the USA TODAY Network. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis, subscribe today.
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This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: NJ tennis: Delbarton coach John Thompson earns 700th career win
