Muskegon, Mr. Basketball End Title Wait
March 22, 2014
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING — Deshaun Thrower had this moment in mind back in November, even while the pain — literal and figurative — was still fresh from his final high school football game.
"I'll try to get healthy for basketball and try to win it in that," a banged-up Thrower said after he and his Muskegon teammates lost to Birmingham Brother Rice for the second straight year in the MHSAA Division 2 championship game at Ford Field.
Fast forward to March 22, and Thrower sat in another postgame press conference following an MHSAA championship game.
This time, he wasn't hanging his head and talking in hushed tones. Instead, he was smiling and clutching the Class A basketball championship trophy following Muskegon's 91-67 rout of Bloomfield Hills at the Breslin Center.
"It feels fake right now, because we're so used to being on the other end," said Thrower, a star quarterback in football and winner of Mr. Basketball this winter.
"This year, it's tears of joy instead of tears of sorrow. It feels good to get it for us, coach and the rest of the players who didn't get it.
"Just knowing I won my last high school game ever, won it with my teammates ... it feels good to leave on a good note."
Muskegon coach Keith Guy said Thrower's leadership was as big a key to the championship run as his numbers and physical tools.
"I don't think anybody's been in more big games than he has in football and basketball," Guy said. "He's a tough leader. He makes sure everyone is doing what they're supposed to do and holding themselves accountable. To have a leader on your team like that, everybody else follows."
The Big Reds won their first MHSAA championship since 1937 and third overall. They also rode future University of Michigan two-sport All-American Bennie Oosterbaan to a title in the 1923 Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Association tournament; the MIAA was the predecessor to the MHSAA.
It's also the school's first MHSAA title in any sport other than football since the 1937 boys basketball team won the championship. The Big Reds have won five football championships, but took a big step toward removing the label of being just a football school. They reached the MHSAA Quarterfinals last season, losing 64-61 to Grand Rapids Christian.
The basketball team had six members of the football team.
"We want to build what they have here at Michigan State, a two-headed monster," Guy said. "(Football) coach Shane Fairfield does an excellent job. We share the kids and teach them the same message; it shows. The football team finished in the finals and the basketball team finished as champions, so I think that formula works."
Muskegon finished 28-0, joining the 2003 Rockford team (also 28-0) as one of only two unbeaten Class A champions in the last 24 years. Only two other Class A teams have had 28-0 seasons: Flint Central in 1981 and Flint Northwestern in 1985.
"They're good," Bloomfield Hills coach Duane Graves said. "We knew they were good. You can't go 28-0 and not be good. They have a good balanced attack. It had us on our heels all night."
Thrower affirmed why he was chosen Mr. Basketball as the state's top senior, scoring 21 points on 7 for 12 shooting.
Junior center Deyonta Davis may have established himself as the front-runner for next year's award, scoring 26 points on 12 for 14 shooting, grabbing 13 rebounds and blocking three shots.
"He's a different kid where he doesn't show a lot of emotion," Guy said. "There are no big moments for him. You won't see him cry. You probably won't see him smile. He's always even-keeled. Tonight he relaxed and played the way he's capable of playing. He came out with a lot of energy, and I thought he controlled the game."
The game was close for much of the first quarter, but Bloomfield Hills couldn't keep pace with Muskegon for long.
The Big Reds held an 18-15 lead when they scored nine straight points to ignite a 15-2 run that put them comfortably ahead for the rest of the game.
Muskegon built its lead to 43-22 with 24.2 seconds left in the first half and led 45-25 at halftime.
Senior guard Dylan Deitch gave Bloomfield Hills a glimmer of hope in the third quarter, hitting two 3-pointers and scoring eight points. His drive to the basket with 5:06 left in the third cut Muskegon's lead to 47-32, but the Big Reds responded with the next six points to put to rest any doubt about the outcome.
"Everything was geared toward the postseason," Guy said. "We've been trying to climb this mountain for years, and got here. These guys have the formula for success. We don't have any egos on our team. They're genuinely playing for one another. They're happy for one another. If one does better than the others tonight, they're happy as long as we get the win. It's truly a brotherhood and a family."
William Roberson Jr. had 17 points and five assists, while Joeviair Kennedy had 14 points for Muskegon, which scored a season-high 91 points.
Bloomfield Hills is a first-year school that formed when Andover and Lahser merged. Neither of the original schools ever won a regional championship, with Lahser reaching a Class A Regional Final last year under Graves' coaching before losing 65-41 to Rochester.
Xzavier Reynolds scored 21 points, going 4 for 4 from 3-point range, while Yante Maten had 13 points and three blocks for the Black Hawks (24-4).
Bloomfield Hills shot 9 for 31 (.290) in the first half before going 15 for 24 (.625) in the second.
"Shots just didn't fall," Graves said. "That happens. The ball didn't bounce our way. We couldn't make a layup in the first half — in and out, in and out. Someone forgot to take the Saran Wrap off the rim for us. Other than that, I thought the boys fought as hard as they could."
Click for the full box score and video from the press conference.
PHOTOS: (Top) Muskegon's Deshaun Thrower blocks off Bloomfield Hills' Todd Weiss during Saturday's Class A Final. (Middle) Bloomfield Hills' Cameron Dalton (00) works to get past Muskegon's Jordan Waire.
Jackson Remembers, Honors Hoops Hero
By
Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
December 8, 2016
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
JACKSON – More than 30 years ago, Gary Thompkins moved away from Jackson after his high school days. But he never really left home.
He thought about leaving the sun and warmth of his Arizona home and coming back to Jackson, hopefully to coach the basketball team at his alma mater, Jackson High School. His son Zeke wanted to play at the same school as his father, and Gary's dream job was to coach the Vikings.
While the coaching move wasn't in the cards at that time, Thompkins did return this summer to host a youth basketball camp at the old gym at his high school. He hoped it would become an annual event, and he planned to return again this month when his number would be retired.
On Sept. 3, less than a month after the camp and just 12 days shy of his 51st birthday, Thompkins died of a massive heart attack in Phoenix.
“It's just how life works,” said Jack Fairly, athletic director at Jackson. “He came home and ran that camp and a few weeks later he has a heart attack. Immediately you wish you would have retired his number sooner, but how do you know?
“It's a learning thing, too. Don't wait sometimes to tell people what you want them to know.”
The shocking news traveled through Jackson and his Thompkins’ friends like a lightning bolt. At his service in Jackson, one speaker said, “Growing up, we knew about Tony Dungy. We knew who the best football player was to come out of Jackson, but he was older than us and we didn't know him that well. When it came to basketball, we had Gary. Gary was our Tony Dungy.”
It seemed most everyone agreed, and in 2002, the Jackson Citizen Patriot named Thompkins the best high school basketball player in Jackson County history.
“He's the best player I ever coached, and it's not even close,” said Andy Sheridan, who coached Thompkins in high school.
Tuesday night, Jackson High School fulfilled its plan to retire Gary's No. 40 in a heartwarming, emotional ceremony. Gary's father, Bobby Thompkins, and Sheridan were on the court to reveal the banner as Gary joined his father and Regina Pierce as the only Jackson High School basketball players to have their numbers retired.
Following in Dad's basketball shoes
In the 1960s, Bobby Thompkins was the top basketball player in Jackson, and up until Tuesday night, he was the only male basketball player to have his number retired at Jackson High – a school that won Class A titles in 1948 and 1955.
“Bobby really pushed Gary and worked with him,” Sheridan said. “Bobby really wanted him to play, and that was a good thing.
“The thing is, though, if a kid doesn't want to play, he isn't going to play. I've had kids who had talent but didn't have the desire. Gary wanted to play all the time. If I could have opened that gym up 24 hours a day, he would have been in there 24 hours a day.”
Bobby Thompkins was an inside player, and Gary was a point guard who could do it all. There were not many similarities.
“Gary could go out and shoot it from 15, 20, 25 feet, and I was anywhere from 14 to 15 feet in, so I always played inside while Gary was outside,” Bobby Thompkins said. “But that was one of the things that Andy and I talked about as he grew up.
“It was to his advantage and his future for him to be able to handle the ball and play outside, and that is the way Andy coached him.”
It could not have been easy playing basketball in Jackson with the last name of Thompkins. But Gary embraced it. He was proud of his father but wanted to be better. He played with a swagger and had a flair for the dramatic. He was good, and he knew it. But off the court, he came off as just another guy.
“In 1984, his senior year, I was just back out of college, and I was substitute teaching,” Fairly said. “He gave me the time of day, and I was like some guy he didn't need to know. He was everything to us. He was our Mr. Basketball.
“The impressive thing is that he took the time to talk to me and get to know me. He shook my hand and introduced himself to me and made me part of what was going on with him just by being polite. Not every great star does that, and I think that spoke volumes about his character. So you root for a guy like that.”
Having Sheridan as his coach was a perfect match, too. Sheridan and Bobby Thompkins had been teammates on some fine basketball teams at Spring Arbor College and maintained their friendship throughout the years. Gary attended Jackson Catholic Middle School, but when it came time to choose a high school, he went to a public school for one important reason.
“Bobby called me and said, 'If you're going to be the coach, Gary is going to be at Jackson High,'” Sheridan said.
In Gary's senior season, Jackson won a Class A District title and won a game in the Regional tournament for the first time since 1969 before losing in the Regional Final. Thompkins left Jackson High with several impressive accomplishments: He finished second in the voting for Mr. Basketball – the highest finish ever for a Jackson County player – and was a two-time Class A all-state first-team selection and a four-year varsity player.
In the annual state high school all-star game that year, Gary was voted the Most Valuable Player. On Father's Day.
Thompkins established school records for career points (1,543), rebounds (801), assists (582) and steals (218). Those records still stand. He could do it all on both ends of the court.
He was heavily recruited by former University of Michigan coach Johnny Orr and played for Orr at Iowa State, where he teamed with another Michigan high school star – Flint Northwestern’s Jeff Grayer – and helped the Cyclones return to the NCAA Tournament for just the second time since 1944.
Perhaps the highlight was Iowa State's 72-69 second-round victory over Michigan in 1986 – a game that Orr called “my biggest victory.”
In four seasons at Iowa State, Thompkins had 900 points and 600 assists. He lived up to the hype.
Always living the game
After giving pro basketball a shot, Thompkins settled into a coaching and teaching role. He was a special-needs instructor and basketball coach at Greenway High School in Phoenix, and he was fondly known as “Coach G.”
Basketball wasn't his only focus, but it always was a passion.
“Gary was a great player, and he actually lived the game,” Sheridan said. “All the way through his coaching, he would call me so many times and tell me how his teams were doing and how his kids were doing. He really lived the game. He really did. Basketball was his thing.”
Not surprisingly, Thompkins' two step-sons are gifted in basketball. His oldest step-son, Sammy Barnes-Thompkins, played as a freshman last season at Boston College before transferring to Odessa College in Texas this winter to get more playing time.
The younger step-son is Zeke Thompkins, a freshman at Greenway High School in Phoenix who already is catching the eye of college coaches. And it is Zeke who had a dream to one day play basketball at Jackson High – his father's school.
A few years ago, Thompkins considered moving back to Jackson to coach the Vikings and give Zeke the chance to play there. Although the job likely would have been his had he wanted, things didn't match up. But it remained a dream.
“What they did in Arizona was make him a permanent sub, and being that he was a permanent sub, he automatically could coach and support his family,” Bobby Thompkins said. “That was one of the pieces that I think was missing in regards to coming home, but he wanted his kids to play here and wanted to coach here.”
It was with a ton of pride that Gary returned to Jackson on Aug. 13 to hold a shooting camp at Jackson High School. It was interesting that instead of holding the camp in the current gym – the one in which he played – he wanted the camp to be held at the cozy old gym that housed the two MHSAA championship teams and is filled with character.
It was his way of giving back and staying in touch with his old school. He had hoped to make it an annual event that would grow in size each year.
“It was a hot day, and Gary did a great job with the kids for us,” said Dan Crowley, Jackson High boys basketball coach. “He was very gracious to everybody.
“He was looking forward to coming back for the first game when his number was retired.”
Instead, the ceremony went on without Gary. It was heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time, especially for his family.
“The way in which I’m dealing with it is that it's an opportunity to do something for a young man who was successful,” Bobby Thompkins said. “I have to thank the school district and also thank Andy and Jack, who also have promoted this, and at the same time, this might give an opportunity for others to have the opportunity to have their numbers retired. It would be great for their families.
“Also, it's a positive reinforcement for our community, giving honor and respect that is needed for those who were successful.”
Gary Thompkins left a legacy in Jackson as versatile as his playing skills. He was fierce and confident on the court. He was nice and gracious off it. And he possessed a tremendous love for his family, his sport and his high school that stayed with him until his final days.
He packed a ton of living into his nearly 51 years. It would have been a surprise if he hadn't.
Chip Mundy served as sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980-86, and then as a reporter and later copy editor at the Jackson Citizen-Patriot from 1986-2011. He also co-authored Michigan Sports Trivia. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Former Jackson coach Andy Sheridan (left) and Bobby Thompkins hold up the banner signifying the retirement of Gary Thompkins’ number during Tuesday’s ceremony. (Middle) Gary Thompkins, during his high school career with the Vikings. (Below) Gary Thompkins, left, with former high school teammate and current NCAA Division I college official Earl Walton during Thompkins’ camp at Jackson High in September. (Top photo by Laura Quinn; middle photo courtesy of the Jackson Citizen Patriot.)