Elusive Run for Glory

Donald Thompson began the 1998 season as the top returning rusher for Hueneme High. He finished it as the best player in Ventura County.

Thompson, a 5-foot-9, 150-pound wingback, went from a low profile to the region’s most prolific offensive player, rushing for 1,993 yards and 28 touchdowns and scoring 198 points.

The soft-spoken Thompson improved his focus and conditioning after his junior season, when he ran for 750 yards and seven touchdowns to help Hueneme finish 5-5.

This season, the Vikings (7-5-1), despite forfeiting three nonleague victories for using an ineligible player, won the inaugural Pacfic View League title and qualified for the Southern Sect1768910368 Hueneme lost in the Division IV semifinals to San Luis Obispo, 17-7.

“Donald tried to go all the way every time he touched the ball,” Hueneme Coach Larry Miller said. “He showed the size of his heart in every game.”

Miller, a former Hueneme standout whose rebuilding of the Viking program came to fruition this season, said his favorite memory of Thompson relates to a play in which he didn’t carry the ba1819029002 With the Vikings poised to score the winning touchdown against San Marcos in a quarterfinal, Dan Dolby, Hueneme’s offensive coordinator, visited the huddle during a timeout. Thompson asked 1953439842 “Last year he would have said, ‘Give me the ball,”’ Miller said. “But he suggested a play on which he blocked for [Michael] Nurse, and it worked and we won the game. That illustrates th1696623969 Thompson’s efforts helped Hueneme’s program gain respect that had been missing. He recalls attending varsity games as a freshman and sophomore and noticing the spectators’ lack of attention.

“People went to the games, but not to watch the games,” said Thompson, whose class lost only nine games on the field in four years. “They said why bother, we never even made the playoffs. They’d be down by the snack bar, talking.

“This season the stands were packed and you couldn’t even get to the snack bar from what I heard. It was packed even at away games. I’d look up and everyone was there.”

And much of the time, all eyes were on Thompson.