Conquerors' Thompson stands tall in drive for another title

COVINGTON — It took a game of "Capture the Flag" for Will Thompson to capture the hearts of his Kentwood teammates.

That's when the little transfer from Mount Rainier made his first big impression, darting through a sea of potential tacklers untouched during a preseason drill.

"He got the flag and he was shaking through all the people," defensive back Adrian Chandler said. "I was like, 'OK, this guy's getting out of here.' I could see he was good by the way he was running. No one was touching him. If no one touches you when you play capture the flag, you've got to be good."

Will "The Thrill" Thompson is good, all right — all 5 feet 4, 150 pounds of him.

Good enough to start at tailback on opening night for the defending Class 4A state champions, rushing for 135 yards on just 10 carries and scoring a touchdown in Kentwood's only loss of the regular season, 22-20 to Kentridge.

Good enough to break a 72-yard touchdown against Mountain View in Saturday's semifinals, jump-starting the Conquerors (12-1) to a 20-9 victory. The win gives them the chance to defend their title tomorrow against Capital (10-2) at 7:30 p.m. at the Tacoma Dome.

Good enough to average 162.9 yards in the 10 games in which he had significant playing time.

Thompson, a junior who hadn't played organized football since ninth grade, has 1,638 yards on 214 carries with 15 touchdowns in 11 games. He had just two carries for 9 yards in a game, however, trying to come back too soon from a high ankle sprain in the sixth game of the year after sitting out in Week 5. Thompson, who also missed Kentwood's quarterfinal game against top-ranked Bethel because he was academically ineligible, said the ankle still bothers him. But he plays through it.

"They haven't seen me at 100 percent yet," he said of the playoffs. "It tweaks during the game, but I just tough it out."

When you're usually the smallest player on the field, you learn to be tough. Thompson proved that when he started playing youth football. No one questioned whether he belonged on the football field.

Thompson was good enough as a freshman to play some junior-varsity football at Tyee. But he quit midway through the season to concentrate on his youth team, the Burien Bearcats, and helped them win the championship. His parents moved to Des Moines three weeks into his sophomore year, and Thompson transferred to Mount Rainier. He said he didn't turn out for football because he wanted to spend time in the weight room.

"I thought maybe I needed to get bigger," he said, noting he increased his bench press from 160 pounds to 235.

"People don't realize I've had some pretty good short running backs before," Ingles said. "He and Aaron Armstrong are very similar. His attitude and personality is that he isn't going to let his size stand in the way of being a very good football player. I almost got a little twinkle in my eye when I saw him (Thompson). I could see shades of Aaron."

Kurt Phelps, who coaches the running backs, didn't blink, either. After all, Phelps was just 5-6 and 150 pounds when he was a starting running back at Kentridge. After only a few practices, Phelps was ready to name Thompson the starter.

"When I first saw him, I knew we had something special," Phelps said. "How special, I didn't know."

Special enough to capture the confidence of his teammates and maybe, just maybe, special enough to help them capture another championship.

Sandy Ringer: sringer@seattletimes.com.