Thompson family is bonded by Camas basketball

Scott Thompson and Keirra Thompson’s journey as coach and point guard is winding down. For a third consecutive year, the Papermakers are playing for a bi-district title at 8 p.m. Saturday in Auburn. After that, Class 4A’s defending state champions have two weeks remaining in their 2024-25 season.

Scott Thompson said prior to the season that it’s his last as Camas’ girls basketball coach after seven seasons. Father and daughter, and head coach and senior point guard will end their basketball journey together, too.

“I’ve been very blessed and very fortunate,” Scott Thompson said, “I’m just trying to enjoy every second that I have left with her and with the team, and with coaching girls basketball.

“It’s kind of crazy, but it’s coming to an end.”

Developing the skillset

In Scott Thompson’s first tenure as a high school head coach, young Keirra had a corner of Fort Vancouver High’s gym reserved for items that kept the toddler occupied. Coach Thompson led the Fort Vancouver boys from 2006-14, won 80 games and guided the Trappers to five postseason berths.

Back then, he required Fort players do 20 minutes of ball handling before open gyms. Those players gravitated toward a young Keirra, who tagged along with dad.

Before dad knew it, his daughter became a master at 2-ball drills before entering kindergarten. That helped set her on a path to be the point guard she is today: a pass-first player known for her creativity.

Players know to be ready for anything from no-look passes to a cutter in the lane to behind-the-back bounce passes along the baseline. That creativity came naturally, Keirra Thompson said.

“I feel like over the years,” she said, “I just developed that, figured out what worked and what didn’t. I played against a lot of guys, so that stuff would work and if it worked against them, it would almost work against any other girl that I would play.

“Once I started doing it and once it started working, I just kept at it.”

That skillset is all on her, Coach Thompson said. In his prep days at Mountain View and later Whatcom Community College, Scott Thompson was known for his defensive prowess.

Coach Thompson said he’s lucky to have great point guards over the years coaching both boys and girls high school basketball. Not only does he refer to his daughter as the best passer he’s coached, but the most efficient 3-point shooters, too.

“You go down the list of my ‘Who’s Who’ of great point guards I’ve coached,” he said, “and she gets a little bit of all of the best parts of them. … Sometimes as a coach, you don’t get to enjoy those moments because you’re always worried about the next play. And, so she’s out here doing her thing and I’m trying to figure out what defense we’re in. So sometimes, I don’t get to really sit back and enjoy how great of a highlight reel she’s become.”

Connecting

Some parents who are coaches choose not to coach their children. Scott Thompson never thought twice about it. Father has coached daughter for all but one season of organized basketball.

Fellow Camas senior Sophie Buzzard has been on teams with the Thompsons since she and Keirra were fifth graders. The Thompsons on-court communication is second to none, Buzzard said.

“It’s really easy to work with both of them when they’re both on the same page so easily,” she said. “Their relationship is awesome, and it’s fun to see their game translate on and off the court.”

Buzzard, a Portland State signee, is having a big senior season, too. She was named the 4A GSHL’s defensive MVP and kicked off the postseason in consecutive games scoring 25 and 19 points, respectively, in wins over Kentwood and Olympia.

Buzzard’s scoring isn’t the only number that’s taken off. After Camas lost six of eight rotational players off its 2024 Class 4A state championship team, how could the Papermakers replenish that scoring loss without taking away what Keirra Thompson does best at point guard?

As it turned out, scoring came naturally, too, for a player who already is the program’s career assists leader.

Keirra Thompson began the season shooting better than 40 percent from 3-point range. In January, she surpassed 1,000 career points in the same week when she set the program’s new single-game scoring mark of 40 points.

In November, Keirra Thompson signed with Boise State. For everything she spoke about the program, the Broncos’ culture stands out because it reminds her of what she, and her teammates and coaches built at Camas.

“A lot of teams say ‘team culture, team culture’ but until you’ve actually experienced it, it’s almost like they don’t get it,” Keirra Thompson said. “I feel like our team has experienced it.”

At Camas, she added, “This program has really done a good job of just creating a really good culture.”

End results

In Keirra Thompson’s four years of high school basketball, Camas is 84-24, won three league titles and earned three state trophies. None bigger than last year’s Class 4A state championship, a program first.

Just like in the final moments of last March’s 57-41 state-title win over Gonzaga Prep, dad and daughter embraced in Camas’ final home game Monday. When Buzzard and Keirra Thompson, the team’s seniors, got subbed out in the fourth quarter of the Papermakers’ winner-to-state victory over Olympia to a rousing ovation, the head coach stood at the end of the bench and dad and daughter had a congratulatory hug.

For years, Keirra Thompson has watched her father’s dedication to coaching high school basketball. The triumphant wins and heartbreaking defeats are only part of the lasting on-court legacy of Coach Scott Thompson and senior point guard, Keirra Thompson.

And often captured through a photograph.

“He’s a phenomenal coach,” Keirra Thompson said, “and a phenomenal dad.”