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Jon Thompson was named the associate head coach of the Air Force men’s lacrosse team this summer, and his promotion helped to right a wrong that happened two-and-a-half years ago. Thompson ran a championship caliber lacrosse program at Amherst College, but he was woke-d out of existence by its progressive former president Biddy Martin.

His dismissal stemmed from an early morning fracas in an Amherst dorm after a blowout loss at Tufts. Several players in the commons area were still up at 4 a.m. and their noise was bothering a Black player’s girlfriend. As was reported in this space on April 24, 2020, racial slurs were used — but not at the player or his girlfriend.

There was a fight with injuries. Thompson was awakened and drove two players to the hospital. The student newspaper called it a racist incident and a maelstrom of misinformation ensued. On BET.com, @nonprofithoe posted: “Amherst College lacrosse is deeply entrenched in white supremacist ideology. Maybe even directly tied to the KKK in western Mass.”

The mainstream media didn’t bother to investigate. It simply went with the Amherst Student’s version of the events and Martin pink-slipped Thompson for “the failure of teammates to identify who was at fault.”

An investigation revealed little to nothing of consequence and life went on at the elite liberal arts school where according to its website this year’s tuition is $80,250. 

The next lacrosse coach, Rashad Devoe, was in over his head. He was fired, sued the school alleging discrimination and got an out-of-court settlement. Sean Woods was hired last year and Amherst finished third in NESCAC with a 7-3 record. Order and sanity has apparently been restored.

Throughout my reporting I never met nor spoke to Jon Thompson. We’re not friends and we don’t know each other, but his record spoke for itself. He was 125-47 at Amherst, was named a coach of the year, and took the team to its first NCAA Division III final. He graduated from Brown University, has a master’s degree in sports psychology and was working on his Ph.D at Springfield College when he was fired. His wife Susanna was the Head of the Amherst Montessori School where their daughters Aida and Carolina were enrolled.

Biddy Martin overlooked the upheaval her act would cause the Thompson family. They packed their bags and moved to Colorado Springs where he’d landed a job as an assistant coach at Air Force.

Martin retired on July 31, Michael Elliott became the new president on August 1, and Thompson was promoted to associate head coach on August 2. How’s that for symmetry?

“Coach Thompson is one of the brightest minds we have in the game today,” said Falcons coach Bill Wilson. “He is someone we are excited to have teaching and mentoring our men both on and off the field.”

UMass tailback Kay’Ron Adams is itching to be back at 100 percent. A Rutgers transfer, Adams netted just four yards in seven carries last week against Liberty and calls it the result of a lingering ankle injury. “I’m almost there,” he promised. “We see some big defensive linemen, but I just laugh at ’em. They don’t know how hard I’m going to punch it.”

Asked about last year’s coaching staff under Walt Bell he said, “I didn’t like it.”

As for this year’s under Don Brown? “Big difference.”

Adams will keep getting a chance to prove his mettle because a dozen players have rushed this year and no one except Ellis Merriwether has been able to plow through opponents.

The Minutemen are gelling on defense. Dartmouth transfer Jalen Mackie and last year’s leading tackler Gerrell Johnson are terrorizing opposing quarterbacks from their linebacker positions and 6-2, 250-pound defensive lineman and Fla. State transfer Marcus Cushnie had seven tackles including a sack against Liberty.

They might win a game if they stop taking penalties. They’re home today against Buffalo at 1 p.m. The Bulls opened as 17-point favorites but at this writing the line had dropped to 15.5-points on actionnetwork.com. 

The UMass men’s soccer (6-1-6) and field hockey (10-3) teams both suffered recent setbacks by identical 3-0 scores. On Tuesday the men were skunked by No. 15 UVM in Burlington, and on Oct. 7 coach Barb Weinberg’s field hockey team lost at No. 9 Saint Joseph’s.

Soccer hosts St. Bonaventure today at noon, and field hockey hosts Albany tomorrow at 2 p.m.

Rankings-wise, the women are 14th of 82 teams and the men are 71st of 212 teams.

Going into Friday night the UMass and Denver hockey teams were tied for the fourth-best record for five-year win totals with 111 each. It was probably a low scoring game. UMass was up against a defense that returned its starting goalie and top five defensemen from last year’s championship team.

Denver’s goal, according to a College Hockey News podcast, is to be the first team to reach 10 wins.

In last week’s season opener against AIC, UMass coach Greg Carvel did the right thing by starting goalie Luke Pavicich. The kid sat for all but two games last year and deserved his chance.

How to Dig it In: A sign behind the Tampa Bay dugout in  Cleveland said, “World Series: Cash Takes Out Snell;” a sign at Truist Park in Atlanta asked: “When Do the Mets Play?” … Waiting out that long rain delay in Atlanta was apropos of a “Not going anywhere?” commercial. … WFAN’s Richard Neer on the sight of Francisco Lindor hugging Padres third baseman Manny Machado: “Keith Hernandez was probably apoplectic watching at home.” … If the Yankees reach the World Series, StubHub has two seats in Row 9, 21B for $50,706. Recession? What recession? … Prior to the Phillies’ six-run uprising in the wild card round, the Cards’ playoff record when leading by at least two in the ninth was 93-0. … After a station break during the rain delay in Atlanta, viewers saw a large weatherman waving his arm at the radar. Wait that’s no weather guy, that’s Big Papi cracking up his cohosts. … Detroit Tigers fan Crosby Hunt says he’s watching every inning of these playoffs because when it’s over, “It’ll be six months before I can scream at a TV.”

SQUIBBERS: NY Post Hall of Fame hockey scribe Larry Brooks in Sunday’s column: “Zdeno Chara’s signing by the Bruins represents the greatest free agent acquisition in NHL history. Opponents game planned not to go down his side.” … After Sunday’s win the Patriots are now 10-3 in their throwback unis. … Bernardston’s Dave Lorenz was 6,304th of 12,277 runners who finished Sunday’s Army Ten-Miler. “It went well for an old guy,” said Lorenz, who was asked when he realized the “old” part: “At 8.5 miles. It was very clear.” …  Chris Simms thinks that going for an unnecessary 2-point conversion is crazy: “This is not Madden. This is not Xbox or PlayStation.” … Nine of Alex Ovechkin’s 50 goals last year were empty-netters. …Bet you didn’t know that a Springfield Indian hockey player named Brian Kilrea scored the first goal in LA Kings history. … Red Sox radio announcer Will Flemming actually said “Top of mind” during the Toronto series. Please Will, go back to California. … When I heard the news that Bernard McGuirk had died, my first thought was, ‘Not that Bernie McGuirk.’ The world is without a genuine character, and the airwaves are absent another irreplaceable radio personality. … The Kansas football team was playing Houston and the play-by-play announcer said, “I’m seeing big rain drops. Let’s take it down to the field.” Guy on the field: “There’s a huge cloud over the field. Yes. Big raindrops.” Bob and Ray would be proud.

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for four decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com

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