Let's Play 2 (or 3, or 4)
February 16, 2012
A few conversations I had at last week's Women In Sports Leadership conference further affirmed a point I've been making for years -- high school athletes, if they'd like, shouldn't hesitate to play multiple sports.
Doing so does not hurt, but might just help their chances at landing that prized college scholarship -- on top of adding another layer to the high school sports experience.
Reaffirming this for me last week was Michigan State softball coach Jacquie Joseph, who spoke on that subject at the WISL conference. She's heading into her 24th season as a head coach at the Division I college level -- so she's been around for some of the evolution of both high school sports specialization and college recruiting. Plus, she coaches a sport that sees its share of athletes playing just that one.
Later, I spoke with a high school coach who leads teams in three sports and also played one at the Division I college level. She's a believer in this as well.
Some of the things I've been told over the years about playing more than one sport:
- It allows an athlete to learn more skills and hone more parts of his or her athleticism.
- Using another range of movement further helps condition an athlete's body and make it more resistant to injury.
- It's hardly rare to see a college football coach watching a prospect's basketball game -- coaches like to see how athleticism transfers across sports, and sometimes will see something from an athlete playing basketball that he didn't show on the football field. (Football and basketball are used in this example, but the same applies to a number of similar situations.)
- Athletes get an opportunity to play whatever they'd like only this once (unless they turn out to be that rare college athlete who takes on more than one sport at that level).
These are hardly new arguments. But they are always worth repeating -- especially when the people frequently making them (college coaches) are the ones single-sport athletes often are trying to impress.
Providing Opportunities, Molding Leaders Most Rewarding for Hampton Honoree Thompson
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 7, 2025
A leader on the basketball court as a high school and college standout, and then a leader in the classroom and at every level of educational administration over a 33-year career, Arnetta Thompson has been a staunch advocate for underrepresented groups in sports.
To recognize her work in creating opportunities for those groups, and all students, the Wyoming Godfrey-Lee Public Schools superintendent has been selected as the recipient of this year’s Nate Hampton Champion of Progress in Athletics Award by the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
The Hampton Award was created by the MHSAA’s Representative Council to honor Nate Hampton, who retired in 2021 after serving in education and educational athletics for 50 years, including the last 32 as an MHSAA assistant director. Honorees have championed the promotion and advancement of opportunities for women, minorities and other underrepresented groups within interscholastic athletics, while serving as an administrator, coach, official, educator or school sports leader in Michigan.
Thompson is the second recipient of the award, as Novi principal Nicole Carter received the inaugural honor last year. Thompson will receive the Hampton Award during the MHSAA Boys Basketball Division 1 Final on March 15 at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing.
“I just feel honored that I’m allowed to be in these spaces, to be selected as a principal or a superintendent, that people believe in me enough to believe I can help their students become better people and reach their goals,” Thompson said. “The rewarding part is seeing those students that you reconnect with or those you stay connected with and see what their paths in life become as a result of crossing paths with me.
“I’m passionate about students – especially students that are not always the top of the class, not the typical student – and helping guide them with the resources and with people that look like them and then opportunities to do some things they hadn’t done and didn’t even think they could do.”
Thompson is in her second school year as superintendent of Godfrey-Lee schools. She previously served 20 years in Grand Rapids Public Schools – as a teacher for six, then as an athletic director, assistant principal, instructional assistant principal and K-8 principal – and also served as an elementary curriculum specialist for Muskegon Public Schools and in multiple roles in the Muskegon Heights Public School Academy System including as superintendent during the 2021-22 school year. She began her professional career as a teacher in Memphis City, Tenn., schools after graduating from Tennessee Tech University.
She is a two-time appointee to the MHSAA Representative Council – previously serving from 2009-13 and currently a two-year term.
“Arnetta Thompson’s work to empower her students and those who have worked for her and with her is simply inspiring,” said MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl. “She has brought compassion and vision to every district with which she’s served. The Hampton Award recognizes promotion and advancement of underrepresented groups within interscholastic athletics, and Arnetta has continuously provided leadership in that area including now during a second tenure on the MHSAA Representative Council.”
Thompson earned her bachelor's degree in secondary education biology from Tennessee Tech in 1990, and her master’s in education with a concentration in educational leadership from Western Michigan University in 2001. She went on to also earn an educational specialist degree from Grand Valley State University in 2011 and her doctorate in philosophy from Eastern Michigan University in 2017.
During six years teaching at Memphis City, Thompson also served as varsity head coach of the girls basketball, volleyball and track & field teams. Coming to Grand Rapids Public Schools in 1997, she served as a lead teacher at Grand Rapids Union’s alternative high school, then as athletic director and assistant principal at Grand Rapids Creston. She also served as an assistant girls basketball coach at Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills for one season and coached the Grand Rapids Central varsity for four.
Thompson entered college on a pre-medical track. A professor noticed how she provided assistance to another student during a lab and suggested she consider education.
“My grandmother told me one time she thought I had a gift, and she wanted me to use that gift to fight for those who could not fight for themselves. Going into college with the mindset to go into medicine, and then my professor saying that, and talking with some of my colleagues at that time, I was moving in the direction of becoming an educator, and I thought that was the place for me,” Thompson said. (Education) has been even more than I anticipated. … Just the feeling of being an educator, just to give people opportunities, to mold our younger kids into great community leaders.”
Thompson earned eight varsity letters across three sports for Ottawa Hills before graduating in 1985, garnering all-state recognition in basketball and all-city in volleyball and also competing in track & field. She then played four seasons of basketball at Tennessee Tech, starting on the team that reached the NCAA Tournament in 1988-89.
Thompson has been married to her husband Willie for more than 30 years. They have two daughters, Daenetta Joseph and Arnell Thompson.
PHOTO Arnetta Thompson, third from left, claps during Godfrey-Lee's 100th anniversary celebration in 2023. (Photo courtesy of the Kent ISD/School News Network.)