Lakewood High Has A New Football Coach

LAKEWOOD, OH — The Lakewood High School football team has a new head coach. Thomas Thome will take over a team that went 1-9 last season.

Thome comes from the Twinsburg school district, where he was defensive coordinator for the football team. He is also a social studies teacher.

"As a team, we want to help create well-rounded student athletes that are prepared for success in life not just on the football field,” Thome said in a statement. “Academic excellence, community involvement and personal growth are just as important to the success of any athletic team.”

Thome replaces Tom Hannan who resigned as head coach of the football team after just one season. He said the demands on his time in the community, and away from football, made the job "impossible" to do. He added in his resignation letter that he felt he had made some positive changes in the program and wants to see the next coach build on those accomplishments.

Thome is a Nordonia High graduate and returned to the region in 2012. He spent a year teaching and coaching at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson. He then spent five years at Lucas High in Richland County, as a teacher and varsity assistant football coach and defensive coordinator.

“We miss Tom. He helped make our programs better and five years later we are still benefiting from the impact he had,” said Lucas Head Coach Scott Spitler of his former assistant. “The kids flock to him because of his enthusiasm, which is what will lead to an immediate influence on whatever program he takes over.”

He also spent one-year as an assistant coach for the Division I Regional runner-up Stow-Monroe Falls in 2015, when that team went 13-1. He then became Twinsburg's defensive coordinator. He also was the head coach of the Twinsburg girls' track and field team.

Photo from Rick Uldricks, Patch