Thomson ‘donated his whole life’ to Spartans

Kyle Smart figured he knew Don Thomson well enough to have a little fun after playing four years of volleyball and basketball for him.

“He was that person that if you needed to talk about something, whether it was school related, family related, personal, breakup with a girlfriend,” Smart said. “He was a second dad for everybody who’s ever played for him.

“We had a good relationship, so we’d play practical jokes.”

So on a spring day in 2002, he rallied the boys, armed them with toilet paper and headed outside.

They knew the Neelin Spartans athletic director’s green Ford F150 would be where it always was, just outside the south door of the gymnasium.

They went to work but it didn’t take long before Thomson flung the door open and caught them roll-handed.

Naturally, the boys started running — ironically, a punishment they expected to receive at their next practice.

“Later in the day, we ran into him and he was like, ‘Oh boys, an elephant never forgets,’” Smart recalled.

As the weeks rolled by, Thomson had yet to settle the score. Perhaps he was too busy — well, he most certainly was — running the Spartans athletics department while chasing three young children, Mary, Paige and Jacob around at home with wife Jennifer.

Smart and his teammates didn’t know it then, but they were the start of one of the most remarkable coaching careers Manitoba high school athletics had and will ever see.

Thomson filled the Neelin gymnasium walls with banners, including 13 AAA championships, a feat worthy of every honour a coach at this level can receive.

Yet if you ask those who played for him, not one will mention his astounding success on the scoreboard before telling you how instrumental the man was in helping them find their way in life.

While you could measure Thomson’s legacy in championships and awards and safely place him on MHSAA’s Mount Rushmore of AAA basketball coaches, it’s more aptly measured by the people he transformed.

“He’s donated his whole life to sports in Brandon,” said Nancy Hargreaves, mother of late Spartans star athlete Jason Hargreaves.

“Not just basketball, everything. He’s been there for everybody and he’s mentored so many kids.”

Thomson inspired countless players to give back to basketball and volleyball by coaching the next generation.

Now, his lessons will live fully through them.

Thomson announced Tuesday he’s stepping away from high school coaching and retiring from the school he dedicated 27 years to.

FINDING HIS WAY

Thomson was a standout basketball player for the Crocus Plainsmen before joining coach Jerry Hemmings’ Brandon University Bobcats in 1981.

After being named Crocus Plains male athlete of the year, he played five seasons for BU as it earned two Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union — now U Sports — bronze medals, then a silver in 1984.

After BU self-reported more than $44,000 in overpayments to athletes that year, the program was placed on a two-year probation. It was unable to attend nationals in 1985, and then only allowed to go as the Great Plains Athletic Conference champion the following year.

Thomson’s Bobcats were a fraction of a second shy of that, falling by one point in the GPAC final at the University of Manitoba when Marvin Russell’s tip-in was waved off at the final buzzer.

Thomson returned to BU five years later as the head coach of the Bobcat women. He went 4-14, then was replaced by Shawnee Harle for two seasons before returning to the role for the following seven.

Through his actions from the start, the young coach earned his players’ respect.

“It was his desire to not accept anything less than the best from each individual player he coached,” said Terena Caryk, who played four years for Thomson and was named a GPAC all-star in 1998.

“He probably got an eighth of what Jerry Hemmings got in terms of salary. I don’t know the specs but gender equality back then wasn’t aligned. He used to coach with one of his kids on his back or a couple of his kids running around but he’d always show up.

“He was always the first one there and he showed the commitment that was needed to pursue excellence.”

Caryk was one of his recruits during his second year with the team. She chuckles thinking back at how Thomson was the only one truly pursuing her at six-foot-two and “105 pounds soaking wet.”

Still, he took Caryk and her parents out to Kelsey’s for chicken wings and worked to sell her on the program.

“All I cared about was playing for him. I would have said yes if he just gave me a phone call and asked,” Caryk said.

The next three years were far from pretty, on the scoreboard at least. The Bobcats won just one game in an ultra-tough GPAC as the Manitoba Bisons followed the Winnipeg Wesmen three-peat with a pair of national titles.

But Caryk said Thomson was wise enough to see a bigger picture and focus on the team’s growth in small, tactical victories. Those may have been narrowing a big deficit in the second half or containing a big scorer.

In Caryk’s last season, the Bobcats beat both the Wesmen and Bisons in Brandon.

“He taught me a lot about work ethic and digging in. Over the years, I’ve really had to do that,” said Caryk, who’s now the only female vice-president of Robertson College.

“I was able to, under his coaching, become a (GPAC all-star) and push myself to a degree I didn’t think was possible as a player.”

START OF SPARTANS RUN

Thomson started his teaching career at Harrison Junior High in 1986, staying there until 1994 while coaching his first season of Bobcat basketball in 1991-92.

He bounced back and forth between Harrison and Crocus Plains, splitting his time between the two in 1995-96. He went to Neelin for a year, then a half-and-half split at Crocus and Vincent Massey before taking the job he held for the rest of his career at Neelin in 1998.

Four years later, he started a run of three straight MHSAA AAA basketball coach of the year awards, an honour he received twice more in the years to follow. Over the years, Thomson has earned nearly all the awards Basketball Manitoba and MHSAA can possibly give a coach, and rightly so.

“There’s no chance anybody will fill his shoes,” said Grant Wilson, the BU men’s volleyball coach who played basketball for Thomson in his day and worked alongside him for a year at Neelin, then watched his son Reece play volleyball and basketball for four years under him from 2014 to 2018.

“What he has poured into Neelin and the community as a whole, basketball, volleyball, everything he has done is really insane when you think about the hours he’s committed and the time he’s put in.

“He provides a lot of guidance and lessons that are going to help athletes the rest of their lives. It’s immeasurable what he has done and I couldn’t be more proud to say I’m a Spartan alumnus to see what he has continued to do.”

Thomson arrived at Neelin for the start of the girls’ basketball dynasty run under coach Mike Hill. The Spartans captured eight AAA golds in 10 years, with Thomson securing his first in 2002. At provincials, no team came within 20 points of his powerhouse squad led by MVP Adam McKay.

Neelin completed a three-peat two years later as Jordan Nostedt, one of the program’s brightest stars — both in talent and intellect — played up with the varsity team in Grades 9 and 10.

Nostedt said that group — including 2003 MVP Reed Eastley and 2004 MVP Warren Jacobson — was “basketball crazy,” and willing to be pushed hard. He saw the fiery side of Thomson more than most.

Nostedt said it didn’t come out often but certainly caught the players’ attention, like when he tried to slap a clipboard too hard and shattered it, or the time his guys lacked effort at practice and he punted a basketball across the gym.

“It hit the score clock and there was this moment we were all just watching it, wondering if it was going to fall off the ceiling,” Nostedt chuckled.

“It’s a real gift as a coach to understand when you can kick a ball across the gym and get in the guy’s face and know that’s going to bring out something good and not make things worse, and know when to put your arm around a guy and say, ‘You know what, you did your best.’ He was very good at that.”

The key was Thomson didn’t push a player too hard without first making it clear he valued and respected them as a person. And he certainly pushed them to massive heights.

Nostedt went on to play U Sports — then CIS — basketball for Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

“The standards were raised another level and I felt very prepared for everything that came next in my life. I trace a lot of that back to coach Thomson in those formative years,” Nostedt said.

“Now that the years have gone by, I truly appreciate it more and more.”

MINI SPARTANS

Whether or not Thomson will admit it, many of his championships weren’t just the product of a couple of months of work, they were years in the making.

The last true run of multi-sport dominance Thomson led started in 2014 and ended six AAA titles later in 2018 with a star-studded class including his son, Jacob.

The group includes 2023 CFL first-round draft pick Dayton Black, U Sports volleyball libero Reece Wilson and past Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference basketball MVP Riley Paul, the MVP of their final hoops tournament together.

Looking back, Paul knows the Mini Spartans camps, which Thomson started around 1999, led him to the school.

Thomson and a few of his varsity athletes taught kids from Grades 2 to 6 the basics of volleyball and basketball.

“The experiences there made Neelin so much more special in my eyes … In Grade 8, I looked at the other high schools but in my heart, it was Neelin,” Paul said.

The Spartans played the Vincent Massey Vikings in the city basketball final that year, with Paul’s big brother Andrew suiting up for Neelin. When the game ended, Thomson approached Paul and his best friend Josh Robinson on the floor.

“Don proceeded to give us both a headlock and say, ‘This is going to be you guys one day.’ Lo and behold, it was,” Paul chuckled.

“I don’t want to say he was recruiting us but when I look back on it, that’s exactly what he was doing.”

HARV

You’ll hear hundreds of athletes say they enjoyed Mini Spartans. Some may even say they loved the camps.

None truly loved them like Jason Hargreaves.

Hargreaves attended the camps as a kid and returned in high school as a coach.

At Neelin’s annual awards night, smiles and laughter fill the gym when Thomson mentions Hargreaves having even more fun than the campers. But Thomson isn’t joking.

He was the truest definition of a gym rat, seizing every opportunity he had to learn and grow on the court, whether it be during a high school season, at a summer camp or during the Christmas break when the rest of his family was headed to Asessippi for a ski trip.

“Jason asked if he could stay home because he did not want to miss one basketball practice with Don Thomson. There he was, he was giving up the whole day of skiing and we didn’t go there very often,” said Nancy Hargreaves, Jason’s mother.

“He was willing to give up his day of skiing just so he could go because he knew Don Thomson expected him to be there, that Don was giving up his holiday time.”

Hargreaves led the Spartans to Thomson’s first provincial volleyball championship in 2004, being named tournament MVP.

After many of the same guys rolled through AAA basketball provincials with three double-digit victories earlier that calendar year, they jumped to AAAA. They won a play-in game before upsetting the Fort Richmond Centurions 82-78 and the Oak Park Raiders 65-57 to reach the gold-medal game.

Future Wesmen guard Nick Lother and his brother, Dan, later the U of W volleyball team’s setter, led the Jeanne-Sauve Olympiens to an 81-74 victory and a stinging end to what would have been one of the greatest Cinderella runs in MHSAA history.

“They were so close, so close,” Nancy Hargreaves said. “They were kind of teary-eyed and upset that they lost. My son Jason said, ‘Yes, we lost, but we were down by like 22 and came back.’

“Don never rolled them … even when they were down. He just encouraged them, encouraged them, encouraged them and not every coach would do that.”

Naturally, Jason was one of Thomson’s favourite Spartans of all time, making June 27, 2009, one of the toughest days of his life. Jason died in a vehicle crash on the Yellowhead Highway near the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border.

His uniform numbers hang in the rafters of the Neelin gym and his legacy lives on through the Jason Hargreaves Memorial Award, which goes to student-athletes who exemplify the dedication and passion for Neelin athletics he carried.

In many ways, it’s the top honour a Spartan can receive.

SUCCESS BREEDS SUCCESS

While Thomson directly coached 13 championship teams, Neelin captured an astounding 48 gold medals in volleyball and basketball since he started working full-time at the school in 1998.

The Spartans laid claim to just three basketball titles prior, along with a bundle of badminton and cross-country championships.

But Thomson changed the culture around the school. The standards set for his teams bled into the others and established the program as a force in AAA and sometimes AAAA.

Carey Lasuik watched it happen from afar, then got a front-row seat. Lasuik was an assistant executive director for MHSAA for 19 years while coaching the Daniel McIntyre Maroons varsity boys’ basketball team in Winnipeg in the 1990s and 2000s.

Lasuik’s teams were typically shorter than others around the province due to a strong Filipino presence at the school in Winnipeg’s West End. He knew Thomson was a tactical master and reached out to see if he could help him develop a five-out offence — meaning all five players set up outside the three-point line to create more space to attack taller defenders with speed.

It was around 2005 when Lasuik brought Thomson into one of his practices to show the players. In the middle of the session, Lasuik received the draw for the Winnipeg Invitational Tournament starting the following week.

Of course, it read: Daniel McIntyre vs. Neelin.

“We both start laughing because he’s working my offence with my team and he’s our first opponent of the tournament,” Lasuik said.

“I said to Don, this isn’t fair, you’re working with my offence and we’ve got to try to use it against you. He goes, ‘Carey, just because I know it doesn’t mean I can stop it.’

“We had a really good game, they beat us … by three.”

Thomson certainly believed a rising tide lifts all ships. He was happy to help an opponent challenge his team, because he knew it’d make his team better in the long run.

He simply wanted to see kids get better and enjoy the game more.

Lasuik knew Thomson was brilliant back then but learned even more when he moved to Brandon and volunteered to coach girls’ teams at Neelin in 2012.

Working alongside Thomson, he guided two Spartans varsity girls teams to gold in 2019 and 2023.

“I always said Don Thomson was one of the best, if not the best high school basketball coach there was in Manitoba, including university coaches,” Lasuik said.

“When I moved to Brandon and started working with him, that opinion I had of him, he definitely blew it out of the water. He was actually better than I thought he was.”

The new side he saw was his personal connection to the players. Lasuik explained Thomson’s gift for pushing players without crossing the line.

He’d help them see potential they didn’t know they had.

Like Quinton Hunter, for example.

Hunter didn’t want to play basketball in Grade 9 but in Thomson fashion, he volun-told him to.

He ended up starting on the varsity team for three years and had university programs seeking him out when he signed with the Bobcats in 2014.

“Don saw it in him. Don worked with him and encouraged him … until he said OK, I’ll try it,” Lasuik said. “And Don was right. Sometimes he knows better than the athlete or student-athlete knows themselves.

“They respect him enough that they will look at him as a father figure, a family member, someone they need to make sure they honour and respect. They want to play their hearts out for him.”

STUDENTS BECOME TEACHER,

COACH, DOCTOR, ET CETERA

For the last few years, Thomson shifted to an advisory role as new faces kept the Neelin varsity boys rolling to provincial championships.

The volleyball team added a second-straight AAA varsity boys’ title most expected them to win this year, then added a basketball crown fewer thought would be possible.

While he wasn’t the one standing on the sideline, the players will tell you Thomson’s fingerprints were all over their Cinderella run past the top-ranked Garden Valley Zodiacs hoops squad.

“After every game and every practice he would have feedback and give us tips to help us get through,” said Junior Martine, who started for both championship teams.

“Him being there every day (helped a lot), even when he wasn’t the head coach and being there to guide us along, guide Philpott along being a new coach and just helping everybody out.

“It’s insane, all the athletes and people he’s helped, being one of those, he’s made my athletic career so much better and helped me get through so many things. It’s such an honour being able to be coached and mentored by him.”

In the meantime, one of Thomson’s former provincial team players and mentees, Mike Raimbault, finally got his wish after bugging him for a few years about assistant coaching for him with the Wesmen men’s basketball team.

Raimbault student-taught twice at Neelin and Thomson let him coach some Spartan freshman and JV teams while he completed his education.

When current University of Alberta men’s hoops coach Barnaby Craddock got the BU men’s job in 2005, his first call for an assistant was Thomson, who declined but referred him to Raimbault. When Craddock took off in 2007, Raimbault took the reins for a year before two seasons with the University of Northern British Columbia, which was a Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association school at the time.

The Wesmen hired him in 2010 and he hasn’t looked back.

Thomson jumped on board in 2021 and helped Winnipeg return to nationals the following two seasons.

“His depth of experience is invaluable for us. From game to game we’re seeing different things and he is a very steady presence helping me make some decisions at pivotal times,” Raimbault said.

“It’s a neat juxtaposition for me to watch as he’s in a role where his job is to be the positive guy and to uplift. He doesn’t have to be the heavy.

“To bend his ear and ask what he thinks and know you’re always getting a real, honest assessment of what’s happening in the game, it’s been a great resource for us.”

Thomson retiring soon and becoming a grandfather last week to his daughter Mary and her husband David Stasica’s baby girl, Audrey, in Winnipeg is all music to Raimbault’s ears as he gears up for another season.

“The plan is to have him back, and selfishly, I’m hoping he’s spending a lot more time in Winnipeg,” Raimbault said.

“He’s changed a lot of people’s lives and I’m fortunate enough to myself as one of those people he invested some time in and as I continue to coach, I think about giving back. He’s at the forefront of the example of the reasons why coaches do what they do.”

LIFELONG ROLE MODEL

Thomson’s role with the Wesmen took him to Edmonton in late November for a weekend doubleheader against the Alberta Golden Bears.

With a few hours to kill between a morning shoot around and an evening game, Thomson paid a visit to Jordan Nostedt, who now works as a general surgeon in the Alberta capital and got to show his coach an inside look at the life he’s building.

Nostedt coached Thomson’s kids in Mini Spartans and now got to hear about how Mary’s coaching with the Wesmen women’s volleyball team, how Paige is a film director in Toronto, how Jacob ended up playing volleyball at Douglas College in B.C., and more.

With two kids of his own now, Nostedt got to seek a little more advice from one of his most important mentors.

You see, Thomson’s impact on his athletes is rarely limited to the confines of a gymnasium, though the crucial foundation is built there.

Nostedt lived next door to one of Neelin’s custodians and used to get rides to school early. The custodian would open the gym for him to get extra work in, so Thomson would often show up early to help.

It didn’t always end up being an intense training session, though.

“There were tons of times you’d pop by the office and just chat, whether it was a game we had, a practice we had or closer to the end of high school, talking about university and what that would look like,” Nostedt said.

“That open-door mentality and demeanour created a great place to be part of high school athletics.

“I feel very fortunate for where I am now in life and a lot of that traces back to building those good habits at such a young stage in life so, I’ll be forever grateful for everything that guy taught me and all the work he put into me.”

THE ELEPHANT

On the last week of school in June 2002, Adam McKay and Kyle Smart headed down the hallway to clean out their lockers.

McKay opened his first, only for a bucket of water to pour all over him and his books. Smart started laughing, oblivious to the fact he was about to meet a similar fate.

Doused and confused, Smart looked back into his locker to find the clue taped to the back wall.

It was a picture of an elephant.

“An elephant never forgets.”

Nor will anyone who donned Spartan green during Thomson’s tenure forget how lucky they were.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

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