Longtime Lacrosse Volunteer Thompson Selected As Sportsperson Of  Year

By Andy Hutchison

Woody Thompson lives, sleeps, drinks … coaches … lacrosse. He promotes the game and encourages up-and-coming athletes to pick up a stick and give it a try.

“I consider myself an evangelist of the game,” Thompson, 47, said.

During the better part of the last decade, when he has not been out on the fields working hands-on, Thompson has been working hard behind the scenes, making sure the opportunities have been there for the players to hone their skills, compete, and have fun on the fields in Newtown.

After spending eight years volunteering his time to Newtown Youth Lacrosse (the last five of those as president of the organization), Thompson stepped down in 2008.

In recognition of Thompson’s dedication to the game and its players here in town, he is this year’s recipient of the Newtown Bee’s Harmon Award For Sportsman Of The Year. The award, now named in honor of Kim Harmon, last year’s recipient and the late sports editor of The Bee, has been given to a member of the Newtown community for outstanding contributions to sports since 1986.

Thompson had a lot to do with the success of lacrosse in town. Since he started with the youth program as a helper at the bantam level (when his son, Lewis, was a second-grader in 2001), the number of participants has more than doubled and is going strong at close to 400 these days. Thompson, though, recognizes that the sport was going to grow one way or another.

“The game would have grown in this town, as it has throughout the country, without my involvement,” he said.

But somebody had to put in those countless hours scheduling practice times, allocating field space, tracking registration … and the list goes on.

Thompson was a big part of keeping the town’s youth lacrosse wheels turning by tacking all of the many tasks involved with the youth program, but he did not do it alone. Other volunteer parents and lacrosse enthusiasts played key roles in helping to organize and maintain the league, he said. Among those he has worked closely with and, in some instances, sought advice from, are Jim Bauer, Maura Fletcher, and John Bridges, who are responsible for the success of the girls’ program in town, Paul Kelly, Jack Read, and Raub Beitel. Then there is Mark Feltch, who got Thompson involved with the youth program initially, and Bob Marusi, Thompson’s successor as president.

“I never could have done what I did without these people,” Thompson said.

Welcome To Newtown

Thompson moved to Newtown in 1998 and immediately became involved with Newtown sports as a coach and divisional coordinator in the Newtown Soccer Club. He said lacrosse was not offered in Monroe or Trumbull at the time, leading to the decision to come to Newtown. When he has not been volunteering in sports, he has been working in sports. Since 1992, Thompson has worked at a leading sports marketing agency, Octagon, where he is executive vice president-creative director.

Thompson may be done as president of the youth program, but he maintains strong involvement with the game in Newtown. Last spring he became a parent liaison for Newtown High School’s boys’ program. His son Lewis, a Newtown High varsity player as a freshman, is one of two children Thompson has (and they both play lacrosse). He and his wife Katie Pendleton also have a daughter, Marnie, a senior captain on this year’s NHS girls’ team.

Now, with his close involvement with the high school program, Thompson sees many of the once new-to-the game lacrosse enthusiasts competing at the high school level.

He is the vice president and communications director for the Connecticut-New York Lacrosse Association (CONNY) and was recently elected to the board of the Connecticut Chapter of US Lacrosse. He will serve as the liaison between the governing body and youth players in the state, continuing to encourage the youngest players to participate in the he loves.

“I always think ‘boy, if I could have gotten a stick into that kid’s hands a little earlier,’” Thompson said. “My goal has been to bring athletes to the game.”

But not at the expense of them having an opportunity to play other sports, Thompson is quick to point out. Thompson said an emphasis on focusing too much on one sport, in some instances becoming year-round sports, is something that does not sit well with members of the lacrosse community.

“I think any lacrosse person will tell you that they value the multisport athlete. We don’t want to build year-round lacrosse players.”

He said the best athletes in the high school are not all playing lacrosse in Newtown, in part because they are focused on a particular sport even in the off-season, while they are in other towns, including Weston, New Fairfield, and Ridgefield.

“As the sport has grown, the level of competition has increased and it’s been difficult for us to keep pace — sometimes with smaller towns that have developed this culture,” Thompson said.

Thompson said he encourages athletes to play a variety of sports to avoid burn out, not to mention lacrosse players can benefit from other sports because of the skills that overlap. The game is similar to basketball in terms of strategy and possesses the speed of soccer and physicality of football and stick skill and physical play of hockey.

“It’s a sport that exists for all types of athletes,” said Thompson, adding that less-skilled players can overcome a weakness by tapping speed and fast players can compensate for lacking stick skills, while there is also a place for physical athletes.

In football, only the fastest players are the running backs. In lacrosse, players with varying speeds and different builds get a chance to run with the ball. “In lacrosse, everybody gets to be a running back,” he said. Thompson calls lacrosse “an equal opportunity sport.”

While lacrosse is a sport for all types of athletes, it is not necessarily affordable for all who could play. Helmets cost roughly $125, decent sticks $80 and gloves about $60, for example, Thompson said. Lacrosse registration fees need to be kept to a minimum to avoid pricing prospective players out, he said. Another way to potentially save money is to cut back on night sessions at the fields in which the cost of use of lights adds to the equation, he added.

Lacrosse has been a big part of Thompson’s life since he was a child. He played high school lacrosse where the game has for many years been big, on Long Island. “You grow up wanting to be a lacrosse player,” Thompson said.

And these days, Thompson tries to get children in Newtown to grow up with a liking for the game.

“It has a purity to it,” Thompson said. “It’s a very free-spirited, creative game.”