NORTH MANCHESTER — Manchester High School has a new athletic director and boys basketball coach. With the departure of athletic director Kyle Weiland and boys basketball coach Aaron Cripe, Manchester went out and hired Jeremy Markham as its athletic director and Eric Thompson as its basketball coach. Markham had spent 11 years at Manchester College, serving as an assistant athletic director and assistant football coach. Once the job opened at the town’s high school, he made the move over, and made quite the splash for his first order of business. During this month’s school board meeting, Manchester hired former Peru boys basketball coach Eric Thompson. A Tippecanoe Valley graduate, and former assistant coach at Valley, Thompson coached Peru for nine years, reaching a Class 3A No. 1 ranking last season. “We’re very excited to bring in Eric,” Markham said. “We knew he was an interested candidate, and he went through our screening committee. He just rose to the top. He had everything we were looking for. He was able to turn around a struggling program at Peru and turn it into a winner.” Following a 5-16 season at LaVille, Thompson came to Peru in 2002, coaching the Tigers to a 4-18 mark. Through his first six seasons, Thompson accumulated a 59-75 record, but went 53-14 over his last three years there, including sectional championships in 2008 and 2009. “Our community is excited,” Markham said. “We want to be good in all of our athletics. We want to make student-athletes that become better people through athletics.” And with the hire of Thompson, he feels like the school has made a good decision. “He’s a quality coach and a good individual,” he said. “He knows how to coach and he’s a good teacher in the classroom.” Along with being a good teacher, Markham may have hired a basketball coach that can help a team that has gone 52-142 since its last winning season in 2002.
