Longtime assistant in Midlands lands first head football coaching job

River Bluff defensive coordinator Brian Thompson is the new football coach at Union County.

Thompson’s hire was made official Tuesday night at a Union County school board meeting. He replaces Bradley Adams, who left to become the head coach at Woodruff.

It will be Thompson’s first head coaching job. The Brookland-Cayce grad has been an assistant for more than 20 years with stops in the Midlands at Lexington, AC Flora, Brookland-Cayce and Dutch Fork. He has been at River Bluff since 2014 and been the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

In 2016, Thompson was diagnosed with cancer and went through chemotherapy that year. But the cancer is now in remission.

Thompson was one of three finalists for the job. The other two were South Pointe’s Jason McManus and Union County assistant Brian Robinson. All three finalists had their second interviews Friday.

According to reports, McManus was offered the job and was expected to take it but decided Tuesday morning to stay at South Pointe.

This story was originally published May 1, 2018 at 9:38 PM with the headline "Longtime assistant in Midlands lands first head football coaching job."