The Plainfield South High School cross-country team rallied around one of its coaches, who lost his brother in a tragic accident last year.
John “Ryan” Thompsen, PSHS assistant cross-country/track and field coach and a physical education teacher at Aux Sable Middle School, lost his brother, Illinois State Police Trooper Corey Thompsen, in a motor vehicle accident in October.
Trooper Thompsen was on duty driving a police motorcycle at the time of the accident.
“He was very good natured,” Ryan Thompsen said about his brother. “He was laid back and relaxed about everything.”
Many PSHS cross country team members knew Corey because he would occasionally run with the team during practice and attend meets during the season, Ryan Thompsen said.
Trooper Thompsen was killed on October 18 on the day the PSHS cross-country team placed second at the Southwest Prairie Conference sectional championship.
On October 26, the team attended the Illinois High School Association regional meet with Trooper Thompsen’s badge No. 7081 written on their arms.
Ryan Thompsen did not know the team would memorialize his brother that way.
“(The team) wanted me to know I was supported,” Ryan Thompsen said.
The team wore black bracelets with Corey’s badge number for the state meet in November, where they placed third.
Ryan Thompsen said Corey attended every state meet — 2021, 2022, and 2023 — during which Ryan was coaching at Plainfield South.
Corey was the one who showed Ryan the scores when PSHS won the state championship in 2022.
Corey made it to another state meet through those bracelets, Ryan said.
“That was really, really special, very emotional,” Ryan said.
Dylan Maloney, a PSHS senior and cross-country team member, knew Corey. He was always asking about how the team was doing.
Corey also hosted the team for dinner on the way to a meet in Indiana, Maloney said.
Maloney wears his bracelet every time he runs.
“It feels like (Corey) is running with us when we wear those bracelets,” Maloney said.
On January 4, the nonprofit Running 4 Heroes did a 1-mile run to honor Trooper Thompsen in Braidwood.
Among the runners were the Thompsen family, current and former members of the PSHS cross-country team including Maloney and Aux Sable eighth-grader Phoenix Viger.
Viger is a student of Thompsen’s and plans to run cross country next year at PSHS.
“It definitely felt nice to support coach and his brother,” Viger said of running the 1-mile memorial run.