Fred Thomas is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach and former player. He was the seventh and final head coach for the

Malone Pioneers The Malone Pioneers are athletic teams of Malone University in Canton, Ohio, United States. The Pioneers compete in Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as members of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). ...

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes and ...

from 2015 to 2018. After the announcement of the conclusion of the football program at Malone, Thomas became an assistant football coach for the

Mount Union Purple Raiders The University of Mount Union is a private university in Alliance, Ohio. Founded in 1846, the university was affiliated with the Methodist Church until the spring of 2019. In the fall of 2020, Mount Union had an enrollment of 1,958 undergraduat ...

Alliance, Ohio Alliance is a city in eastern Stark County, Ohio, United States. With a small district lying in adjacent Mahoning County, the city is approximately northeast of Canton, southwest of Youngstown and southeast of Cleveland. The population was 21 ...

beginning in the 2019 season. He had previously served as an assistant coach at Malone for the 2015 season.

Coaching history

Assistant coaching and high school

Thomas was the defensive coordinator at

Walsh Walsh may refer to: People and fictional characters * Walsh (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname Places * Fort Walsh, one of the first posts of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police * Walsh, Ontario, Norfolk ...

for 16 seasons and worked at

Youngstown State Youngstown State University (YSU or Youngstown State) is a public university in Youngstown, Ohio. It was founded in 1908 and is the easternmost member of the University System of Ohio. The university is composed of six undergraduate colleges an ...

from 1978-1986. He also was a high school head coach at Girard,

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

, and GlenOak all in Ohio. He became an assistant coach at Malone for the 2015 season under Eric Hehman.

Malone

When Coach Hehman resigned at Malone, it took the university just over 24 hours to offer the new head coach position to Thomas, something that Malone Athletic Director Charlie Grimes said was an easy move--a decision they said was based in confidence, excitement, respect, and heart. Thomas took over the program after its first winless year in school history and coached the team during its first season in the

Great Midwest Athletic Conference The Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. It was named the 24th (at the time) NCAA Division II conference and oper ...

. As the first season progressed, three teams including Malone had come together to start conference play in 2016 and Malone finished third among the three. After the conclusion of the 2018 season, Thomas heard the decision to discontinue the program fifteen minutes before having to tell his assistant coaches and players.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Fred Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Malone Pioneers football coaches Mount Union Purple Raiders football coaches Walsh Cavaliers football coaches Youngstown State Penguins football coaches Youngstown State University alumni