Edwin Thompson is headed to G'Town. (EKU photo)
Georgetown Hires Eastern Kentucky’s Thompson
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There’s potentially just one head coaching job available in college baseball after Georgetown hired Eastern Kentucky’s Edwin Thompson as its next head coach, sources told D1Baseball Monday.
Thompson, a Washington D.C., area native, heads to G’Town after spending the last five seasons turning the tide of the EKU program.
Thompson had the Colonels headed the right direction the past few seasons. For instance, EKU finished the 2017 campaign with a 24-32 overall record but had taken significant steps forward the last three seasons — tallying 30 wins in 2018 before reaching the 32-win mark in 2019. Who knows what EKU could’ve accomplished in 2020 after beginning the season with a 12-2 record.
The 40-year-old skipper finishes his EKU tenure with a 122-123 overall record, while also guiding the program to back-to-back 30-win seasons for the first time since 1999-2000. EKU recorded 16 Ohio Valley Conference wins in 2019 — the most since 2013.
Before his tenure at EKU, Thompson had built a robust resume. He spent two seasons as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Duke before spending four years with USA Baseball, then heading to Georgia State for three seasons as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator.
“Edwin going to Georgetown just makes a lot of sense,” a source close to the situation said. “When you look at his background, where he’s from, things like that, he checks a lot of boxes for a place like Georgetown.”
Thompson has his work cut out for him at Georgetown. Pete Wilk recently retired as the long-time skipper and tallied over 400 wins with no postseason appearances in 20 seasons. Additionally, G’Town has never reached the NCAA tournament, and that’s something Thompson will try to change sooner rather than later. The Hoyas finished the 2019 campaign with a 22-34 record before going 4-13 in 2020 before the season was shut down.
With his departure, EKU now heads back to the drawing board. Assistants Shaun Cole and Julius McDougal are expected to get strong looks for the head job, particularly Cole. Cole, the pitching coach, was previously the coordinator of player development for the San Diego Padres and earned a national title ring during his time as an assistant at Arizona. Other names could be in the mix, too, including former Kentucky assistant and recruiting coordinator Roland Fanning, who is now at Oklahoma State.
For now, Thompson is on the move to Georgetown, and a new era begins for the Hoyas.
