Jeannie Thompson always loved getting the opportunity to hang out with her older brother, Bobby Thompson, growing up in Everett.
She said Bobby was the type of guy that had “a million friends” and “brought energy and life to every situation he was in.”
“Being the younger sister and getting to tag along, (I) just got to kind of revel in watching him go about and do his thing, especially in high school,” she said. “I’m sure there were times he didn’t enjoy having me tag around, but he always kind of took me in and had a positive attitude, too.”
A big chunk of that time was spent on the hardwood, where Jeannie and Bobby both excelled as standouts at Everett High School in the 1990s before playing in college, Bobby at South Puget Sound Community College and the University of Maine Fort Kent, and Jeannie at The College of Idaho. Jeannie said her older brother had a huge influence on her basketball career, recalling the times she’d run pickup games with Bobby and guys at the local YMCA when Bobby would vouch for his sister’s ability to run with the guys.
“They weren’t going to let a girl come and play. You had to be able to prove yourself and kind of hold your own, and Bobby was that older brother that said, ‘No. She’s fine. She can hold her own. Let her play,’” Jeannie said. “And they deferred to him and were like, ‘Alright, man. We’ll see.’ Thankfully having him vouch for me and just having competed with him so long, trying to beat him, that kind of … helped make me a better player.”
Bobby said those games were “fiercely competitive” and “like every single YMCA pickup run you’ve ever heard about with guys that are talking trash and are mouthy. Guys that aren’t trying to let anybody in that are outsiders.”
He said that the guys definitely viewed Jeannie as an outsider at times, but there was never any doubt to Bobby that his sister could hang.
“She’d come in and she would just torch ‘em,” Bobby said. “Then it turned into they didn’t want to let her play because they didn’t want to get embarrassed. She was one heck of a basketball player.”
Between those pick-up games at the YMCA and their successful playing careers as Seagulls, the Thompsons created plenty of long-lasting memories on basketball courts in Everett. Two decades later, the pair is getting a shot to create more as head coach of the high school program for which each once starred.
Bobby, a 1996 Everett grad, was named the new coach of the Seagulls’ boys basketball team in April. Jeannie, who graduated from Everett in 1998, took over the girls program in September.
“It’s been really fun,” Jeannie said. “We’re each others’ biggest fans and we’ve always obviously supported each other through every facet of our lives, so to be able to see each other every day and support each other through this new adventure has been very special.”
They even got to experience their first wins as varsity head coaches at Everett together when the boys and girls squads each beat rival Cascade at the annual BruGull Fest on Dec. 6 at Everett High School.
“The coolest thing about (that night) was going out to dinner with our family afterwards being able to celebrate those two wins,” Bobby said.
Jeannie and Bobby aren’t the only Thompsons that get to embrace this family experience on the court either. Bobby’s oldest daughter, Lilli, is a sophomore on Everett’s varsity team. Her sister, Lanie, will join the girls program as a freshman next season.
Jeannie, who coached at Jackson High School from 2003-2013, said the opportunity to spend time with her nieces was one of the biggest reasons returned to coaching last season as Everett’s C-team coach. It was also a deciding factor in accepting the varsity job prior to this season.
“It’s time that I wouldn’t be able to have with her otherwise, I guess,” Jeannie said of the time she’s gotten with Lilli so far. “You know how crazy life gets. I’m busy with work. She’s busy with school and her friends, and it’s hard to make time to make those special moments. So to have a couple hours literally carved out every single day is kind of truly unique, and I feel very, very blessed and fortunate that I’ve been able to have this opportunity.”
It’s also been a unique experience for Bobby.
“They come home everyday and I get texts from my sister and I talk to my daughter about how things are going,” he said, “and just the energy that’s coming from Lilli right now, getting to be around her aunt every day, and what (Jeannie’s) doing with the program, it’s cool to see what they’re building. I know that Lilli feels blessed to have her as a coach.”
This is the first high school varsity coaching job for Bobby, who spent five years guiding The Everett Hoop Club — a local AAU program — before taking over at Everett. But he’s had the opportunity to learn from the examples Jeannie set when she coached at Jackson.
“Her experience and the way she interacts with kids is something I’ve always admired from afar,” Bobby said, “just her demeanor, her sideline demeanor, her relational skills and just her ability to empower her girls.”
He added: “In a lot of ways I look up to my sister greatly, and she’s modeled the way for me. Now to be on the same platform as her doing this at the school we both graduated from — the school we both love — it’s kind of indescribable, honestly. I think it’s really surreal to both of us right now.”
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