The Coshocton County Beacon October 17, 2018 - Page 14

14 THE BEACON
www.coshoctonbeacontoday.com
OCTOBER 17, 2018
Remembering the ‘sports voice’ of Coshocton County
By Josie Sellers
[e-mail]
COSHOCTON – Th e late Tom Th ompson had a passion for
high school athletics that will not be forgotten by those
connected to sports in our community.
“He was whole heartedly in this for the kids,” said Matt
Colvin, athletic director at Ridgewood High School.
Ridgewood has always worked play calls from WTNS
into its pregame music at football games, but has recently
tried to pay special attention to ones made by Th ompson.
“Th is year and during his whole battle with cancer we
plugged his calls,” Colvin said. “You’d hear his voice and
think about how special of a person he is. His heart was
in Coshocton County and putting the kids in athletics on
a pedestal and giving them a good experience through
radio.”
Th ompson, who lost his battle with cancer on Oct. 6,
worked at WTNS radio for 45 years, up until his death.
He was the sales manager and sports director and was
known as the “sports voice” of WTNS and Coshocton
County.
Steve Cores worked with Th ompson covering games for
a total of 32 years.
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to go with him couldn’t so he asked me to go and do the
stats. He said if I did the stats he’d do everything else. I
did that for him and then at halftime he read them and
looked over at me and asked what I thought about the
fi rst half. He just laughed at the look on my face and then
went to a commercial. Th at’s how it all got started.”
Th at was the fi rst of many games that Cores worked
with Th ompson including playoff , state tournament and
state championship games and the last high school game
played at St. John Arena.
Casey Claxon most recently worked with Th ompson on
WTNS’s Talkin’ Football program.
“I’ve always been impressed with how hard he worked
and how dedicated he was,” Claxon said. “WTNS cov-
ers a lot more high school sports than most local radio
stations will. Typically it’s just football and basketball, but
because of leadership from Tom and the Wallace family
they do a lot more than that and the community supports
their quality of work.”
Claxon didn’t grow up in Coshocton, but he knows
Th ompson has played a role in generations of families
athletic careers.
“My wife (Trista) has games (recorded) that Tom
broadcasted from when she played high school volleyball
back in the 80s and we have some from before Tom got
sick that he did when Keith (our son) was a freshman and
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playing football at Ridgewood. Trista is proud of those
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tapes. Th ey are special to her because she grew up here
knew
Tom. A & lot
of families
that
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tear
sheets have
to . experienced
. .
same thing.”
Please send
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A memorial service for Th ompson will be held at 2
p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 21,
at Coshocton
High School in the
Allwell
Behavioral
Health
Services
Allwell gymnasium
Behavioral
Services
with Health
Pastor Sarah
Juist offi ciating. Memorial
Attn. donations
Ray Bishoff,
Relations/Marketing
Dir
may Community
be Community
made to the Tom
Th ompson Memorial Direc
Attn. Ray
Bishoff,
Relations/Marketing
Fund, c/o the Coshocton Foundation, 220 S.
2845 Scholarship
Bell Street
2845 Bell
Street
Fourth
St. Coshocton, OH 43812; or to Hospice of Central
Zanesville,
OH Cherry
43701
Ohio, 2269
Valley Road SE Newark, OH 43055.
Zanesville,
OH 43701
“He (Th ompson) was so knowledgeable about sports in
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said. “He truly cared.”
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“Not that long ago we were talking about how many
coaches we broke in over the radio,” Cores said. “We
fi gured in all the sports we’ve covered and came up with
about 133.”
He agreed with Colvin too about Th ompson being
about the kids.
“Tom had a pretty fi rm rule when we did games that we
weren’t in it to trash kids,” Cores said. “We reported what
was going on and left it at that. Th e kids are trying as hard
as they can and we try to portray that.”
He also was impressed with how well prepared Th omp-
son was for games.
“His preparation was unbelievable,” Cores said. “People
don’t realize how much time it takes to put on a decent
broadcast. Tom was always prepared.”
Cores was friends with Th ompson outside of work and
will greatly miss him.
“He was one of my best friends,” Cores said. “How I
actually got started on the radio was he talked me into
going with him to a Tusky Valley vs Coshocton game in
1976. I worked at Carroll’s Men Shop and back then Main
Street was hopping. You worked late and didn’t get to see
a lot of Saturday night games. Whoever was supposed
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