William Thompson (born May 5, 1968) is a retired U.S.

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who is currently an assistant coach with

Capital University Capital University (Capital, Cap, or CU) is a private university in Bexley, Ohio. Capital was founded as the Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio in 1830, and later was associated with that synod's successor, the Ame ...

. He earned one

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with the U.S. national team and played three seasons in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

with the

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one ...

College

Thompson, born in

Cupertino, California Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57,8 ...

, attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

where he played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

on the men's soccer team from 1986 to 1990. Thompson earned first team All American honors as a senior. That year he was the captain of the Bruins team which won the

NCAA championship The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

. Thompson was also the 1990

ISAA Player of the Year The ISAA Player of the Year was an annual U.S. college soccer award presented by the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America (ISAA) between 1984 and 1995. In 1984, the ISAA began recognizing outstanding men's NCAA soccer players with an annua ...

and finished his time at UCLA with 42 goals and 27 assists.

Early career

While playing with UCLA, Thompson spent the 1988 and 1989 collegiate offseason with the Los Angeles Heat of the Western Soccer Alliance. In 1988, he was named to the WSA All Star team. Following his last season at UCLA, Thompson was a member of the U.S. soccer team at the 1991 Summer World University Games. He then moved to France to play for FC Pau from 1991-1994. He was with the team from 1991 to 1994 before returning to the United States for a short spell with professional beach soccer which led him to compete in the Beach Soccer World Championship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil a year later. In 1995, he spent a single season with the Hawaii Tsunami of the USISL. As a Member of the US Men's national team, Thompson played in the 1991 President's Cup in Seoul Korea where he was named the league's Offensive MVP. He also played in the World University Games in 1991 in Sheffield, England, the 1991 Gold Cup in Vancouver, Canada, the 1989 ''Tournoir Espoirs'' in Toulon, France, and the 1988 Marlboro Cup in Miami, Florida. He also competed in the President's Club, and was named the league's Offensive MVP. That same year he also guest played with ''Raj Pracha'' FC of Thailand.

MLS

On February 6–7, 1996,

(MLS) held its first

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vessel ...

. The

selected Thompson in the third round (21st overall) ahead of fellow Bruins Eddie Lewis, Frankie Hejduk, and Ante Razov. At the time he was playing indoor soccer with the

Tampa Bay Terror The Tampa Bay Terror is the name of an indoor soccer team based in the Tampa Bay, Florida area that competed in the defunct National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). The team existed for two seasons before folding: 1995–1996 and 1996–1997. ...

of the National Professional Soccer League. Thompson went on to play four seasons with the Crew. However, at the end of his second season, in which he saw time in only six games (four as a starter), the Crew did not protect Thompson during the

expansion draft An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansion ...

. The next season, he came back strong, appearing in twenty-nine games. However, he retired at the end of the 1999 season finishing with 4 goals and 18 assists for his MLS career.

Coaching

After retiring from professional soccer, Thompson remained in Columbus to pursue a career youth soccer development. From 2000-2001, he served as the assistant coach to the Ohio Wesleyan men's and women's soccer teams. He also served as head coach for the Wellington High School girls' team from 2000-2011. In 2000, Thompson joined Worthington United, a local youth soccer club, growing the program from six teams to 60+, leading the 1990 boys team to the Ohio State Cup semifinals in 2006 and 2007, and to their first state title in 2008. In 2008 Worthington United partnered with the Columbus Crew where Thompson became the Director of Coaching and Player Development, and Academy Director for the Crew Soccer Academy of the newly formed Major League Soccer Youth Development Initiative. Thompson was the Director of Coaching for the Worthington Crew Juniors and Crew Juniors Soccer programs from 2008 to 2015. He was awarded Ohio South's coach of the year honors in 2005 and holds a USSF Youth Technical Director License and a USSF National "A" License. Since 2016, In 2016 Thompson transitioned to the Ohio Premier Soccer Club where he is presently the Ohio Premier Boys Director of Coaching and Player Development/Technical Director. In 2018, the Ohio Premier Boys ECNL U-19 team won the National Championship. Starting May 15, 2022, he will be the Executive & Technical Director of the Los Gatos United Soccer Club.

National team

Thompson earned one

with the U.S. national team. His one cap came in a 1–0 victory over

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

on June 14, 1988.USA - Details of International Matches 1980-1989
He played seventeen total games with the national team, but sixteen of those were not full internationals.

Personal

Billy and his wife, Shawnda, reside in the Columbus area with their two children.

References

External links

MLS Stats

Worthington United

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Billy Living people 1968 births Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards All-American college men's soccer players American expatriate men's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in France American soccer coaches American men's soccer players Columbus Crew players Expatriate men's footballers in France Hawaii Tsunami players Los Angeles Heat players Major League Soccer players National Professional Soccer League (1984–2001) players People from Cupertino, California Soccer players from Santa Clara County, California Tampa Bay Terror players UCLA Bruins men's soccer players United States men's international soccer players USISL players Western Soccer Alliance players Pau FC players Columbus Crew non-playing staff High school soccer coaches in the United States Capital Comets men's soccer coaches Expatriate men's footballers in Thailand American expatriate sportspeople in Thailand