Hobart and William Smith Colleges Athletics

Stefan Thompson '13 was named the 20th head coach of the Hobart basketball program during the summer of 2019. In four seasons, he has climbed to No. 6 on the program's career wins list, tied the record for the most wins in a season, guided the Statesmen to two NCAA tournament appearances and won a Liberty League Championship.

In his first season as a head coach, Thompson directed Hobart to a 23-5 overall record, earning an NCAA tournament at-large bid. In the first round, the Statesmen faced No. 14 Saint Joseph, which was led by Basketball Hall of Fame Coach Jim Calhoun. Hobart put five players in double figures in a 78-74 win over the Blue Jays to advance to the second round at No. 17 Springfield. With a last second layup, the Statesmen secured a 62-61 win to reach the Round of 16 for the first time in program history. How far that magical run would have gone remains a mystery as the pandemic forced the cancelation of the remainder of the tournament.

Last season, Thompson engineered another 20-win season, securing the 2024 Liberty League Tournament Championship and another NCAA tournament bid. The Statesmen won a program record 10 straight games to start the season. After a 2-4 start to January, Hobart won eight of its final nine conference games to clinch the top seed in the Liberty League Tournament. The Statesmen defended their home court with wins over RIT and St. Lawrence to capture the program's fourth conference championship. Hobart's season came to an end in the first round of the NCAA tournament in a showdown with defending national champion Christopher Newport.

Thompson and the Statesmen have earned Liberty League Tournament bids in each of his four seasons at the helm. His players have earned nine All-Liberty League awards, the 2021-22 Liberty League Rookie of the Year award and the 2022-23 Liberty League Player of the Year award, seven all-region awards and two All-America awards. Additionally, Jackson Meshanic was named the 2022-23 D3hoops.com Regional Player of the Year.

Last season, Thompson and his assistants were voted the Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year and tabbed the Rochester Area Coaching Staff of the Year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. In 2020, Thompson was recognized as one of the top young coaches in the collegiate game, earning a spot on the NABC Under Armour 30 Under 30 list, while also earning the D3hoops.com East Region Coach of the Year. In 2022, Thompson was presented with the HWS Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Award. He serves as co-chair of the HWS Athletics Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Sustained Dialogue Team and is a member of the HWS Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. 

Off campus, Thompson is a board member for Willow Street Foundation, which provides education and leadership opportunities for financially disadvantaged students in Syracuse. He is also the founder and director of Bigger Than Basketball (BTB), hosting basketball camps in Rochester and Syracuse. BTB not only teaches the game, but also provides campers and their families with the knowledge needed to navigate the world of youth, college and professional sports.

Thompson was an assistant coach for the Statesmen for two seasons before being named head coach. He and his co-workers were voted the 2017-18 Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year after Hobart posted a 21-5 record that included a program-record 15-game winning streak.

Thompson returned to Hobart after three seasons as an assistant coach at Wilkes University. In addition to his coaching responsibilities, he also served as the director of intramurals. In 2016, Thompson earned a master's degree in education from Wilkes.
 
A native of Syracuse, Thompson graduated from Hobart in 2013 with a bachelor's degree in sociology and anthropology. The first NABC All-American in program history, he led the Statesmen to an 82-31 record over four seasons. He and his classmates were the first class of Hobart basketball players to produce four consecutive winning seasons in over 55 years and the first ever to make four consecutive postseason appearances.
 
The Statesmen made back-to-back ECAC Upstate Tournament appearances in 2010 and 2011, winning the regional crown on the second try. In 2012, Hobart earned its first at-large bid into the NCAA Championship field, beating Ohio Wesleyan in the first round before falling to eventual national runner-up Cabrini in overtime. A year later, Thompson and the Statesmen won the Liberty League regular season and tournament championships and returned to the NCAA tournament field.
 
Thompson was named to three All-America teams following the 2012-13 season, garnering a spot on the NABC second team, DIII News fifth team and D3hoops.com honorable mention.
 
Thompson reached a number of milestones in his senior season. He became just the seventh Statesman to record 1,500 career points. Thompson amassed a total of 1,643 career points which put him fourth on Hobart's all-time scoring list. He also became the only Statesman to score more than 1,000 points and record more than 400 assists. Thompson ranks second on the Hobart list with 492 career assists. He was also the first member of the Hobart basketball team to play in the NABC/Reese's Division III College All-Star Game, where he posted 12 points, four rebounds and three assists.
 
The three-time All-Liberty League selection and 2012-13 Liberty League Player of the Year finished his final season atop the conference with 5.4 assists per game and a 2.3 assist-to-turnover. Thompson ranked fourth in scoring (15.6 ppg), free throw percentage (.841) and minutes played (34.6), fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (.422) and sixth in 3-points field goals made (1.9).
 
Thompson earned All-East honors from the NABC and D3hoops.com in his junior and senior seasons. As a first-year, Thompson was named the Rookie of the Year for the Liberty League as well as the D3hoops.com East Region and the ECAC Upstate Region.