Coach Thompson has book on Mustang football published

The winningest high school football program in all of Texas is West Orange-Stark. The history of the Mustangs' success is now available in a book "WOS FOOTBALL, A WAY OF LIFE" written by their long-time coach.

Cornel Thompson had a up close sideline view of the West Orange-Stark Mustangs during most their first 45 years of winning football as first an assistant coach and then as their head coach before he retired in 2021. Thompson has completed a 424-page compilation detailing the players, the coaches, the games, the records, and all the great moments of Mustang football.

The story of West Orange-Stark football began in 1977 with the consolidation of Stark High School in the city of Orange with neighboring West Orange High School. The two schools voted in the spring of 1977 on the uniform colors of royal blue with silver and the mascot as the Mustangs to create the combined West Orange-Stark High School.

Thompson was an original member of the West Orange-Stark coaching staff moving over to the new school after working at Lutcher Stark High School in Orange for several years. Except for the years between 2001 to 2003 when he took the head football coaching job at Palestine High School as well as a position later at Huntsville and until his retirement in 2021 the West Orange High graduate was a part of a football program that won over eighty percent of its games the highest winning percentage of any high school in any classification in the state of Texas.

The last two years have confirmed his decision to retire was a good one. Thompson admitted, "I'm a lot better coach now on the sideline than I was on the field. I've had requests from football staffs that would like me to talk to them about certain phases of the game, but I tell them the secret for us over the years was discipline and defense."

The motivation for Coach Thompson to write the book about Mustang mania started about twenty years ago. "I wanted to leave some kind of history of West Orange-Stark (WOS) football because nobody in the state of Texas has done what we've done for forty-five years. We've been consistent," Thompson stated.

Early chapters in "WOS FOOTBALL, A WAY OF LIFE" are devoted to Thompson's predecessors as the head coaches of the Mustangs with Steve McCarty and Dan Hooks being covered in chapters two and three of the book.

The book is dedicated to the coaches and the players for more than forty years of Mustang football which has truly been a "Family Affair." Thompson related, "It's been a lot of brothers, daddies and their sons, uncles and cousins who have played all through the program. Before I was finished I did coach two grandsons of players I had earlier."

Many people have asked the coach what was the reason he wanted to write the book on WOS football some suggesting he just wanted to make some money. "No, I said. I never made any money coaching. The reason was to promote the legacy of West Orange-Stark and try to keep it alive," Thompson explained.

In an effort to promote the legacy of the winning tradition at WOS the coach plans to make a visit to the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur. Thompson stated, "I haven't been in the Museum of the Gulf Coast for about fifteen to twenty years. When I went there I was dissatisfied with the displays they had over there. We're the winningest program in the state of Texas, so I'm going to take them some information, and I'm going to ask why there's nothing on us and try to get a display up on the Mustangs. I may even donate an old sweaty cap that probably needs an oil change or maybe a pullover or something."

Twenty years of saving newspapers articles and clippings were collected in three four-tiered filing cabinets by the coach plus assistance by local journalists Gary Stelly, Van Wade, Allen Nation, and this reporter who all provided additional information and kick started Thompson's memory when it was fuzzy on certain facts. The last two years since his retirement from the West Orange-Cove Consolidated School District have been spent writing the actual book.

"There were many nights where I got up at three thirty in the morning with something on my mind and couldn't go back to sleep, or I'd wake up at five thirty in the morning and write a chapter. So, roughly two years I did that," Thompson indicated.

Coach T thanked his wife Frances for editing, actually typing the book, and reading it about six times to help with the proofreading. Thompson shared, "I called her one day to ask what she was doing, and Frances said she was going back over the book. I said don't correct it too good, babe. It can't be too grammatically correct because nobody will believe a coach wrote it."

Retired journalism teacher Meri Elen Jacobs at West Orange-Stark was a big help providing Mustang player rosters. WOS Athletic Secretary Thereze Sichko was Thompson's life line he said when he was the athletic director and head football coach for the Mustangs.

One of the highlights of the book according to Thompson is the listing of all his fellow coaches. He said "I tried to list every coach that I've ever worked with in 51 years at the front of the book in the acknowledgements."

Another key aspect of the written history is the game by game for the Mustangs of each year. Thompson admitted some of the details are thin for the early years of WOS before he really started collecting data on the team and during his three year absence when he coached elsewhere.

Thompson described, "It's not just pure football. It's things behind the scenes, adjustments we made at half time, why we made them, and what went on during the course of the game. The end of the book has all the records and the all state players."

"I think people will enjoy reading it. I hope they do. I've told them if they enjoyed please call me to let me know. If they didn't enjoy it, don't let know me," Thompson joked.

The primary audience for "WOS FOOTBALL, A WAY OF LIFE" will be the many players that have been involved in the program in its first five decades. Thompson believes, "All their names are in the book. I told them not to call me for any money because their name had already been printed in the newspaper in the past."

The book Coach Thompson predicts will speak to the players, their families, and all the Mustang fans that have followed the program. "We've had people calling from as far away as West Virginia for copies. We are fixing to send off a bunch of books," Thompson informed.

Those expressing interest in wanting to get a copy of "WOS FOOTBALL, A WAY OF LIFE" has resulted in Cornel and his wife Frances conducting book signings at their home. Frances put out a Facebook post about an informal book signing and immediately got forty requests. Many got their autographed copies of the book on Friday and Saturday, July 12-13.

Some of those coming to the Thompson estate to get a copy of the book were former WOS players, parents of Mustangs, and even opposing players like Scott Worster who went to Little Cypress Mauriceville. "It was always a big rivalry. The '94 season we had a lot of seniors at LCM and really felt like we might have a chance to at least compete with the Mustangs that year. It was a pretty big deal since we were both undefeated going into the game and it turned out to be a pretty good one," Worster recalled. The Bears did win that one 36-7 against the Mustangs.

"West Orange-Stark has definitely put Orange County on the map as far as Texas football goes. It's the winningest program in history which makes it one of the greatest of all time," Worster added.

Roy Mazzagate played on the golf team and was on the football field one afternoon because the golf course was wet. He saw some guys kicking field goals so he gave it a try. Roy made three successful kicks in a row from about thirty yards.

Mazzagate said, "It was right then and there I decided I think I'm going to do this. That was one of the best decisions I ever made to go through the football program here. There's still things that I carry with me. Life lessons that I still carry with me to this day."

Kent Miller purchased his copy during the book signing. Kent is the father of one of the great Mustangs K. J. Miller who played on the back-to-back state champion teams in 2015-2016, is tied as the all-time school leader in touchdown receptions, and had an outstanding college career at Mary Hardin Baylor after his graduation from West Orange-Stark.

The Mustang football program is still raising young men to be leaders. James Broderick wants his sons Brody and David who attend schools in the West Orange Cove School District to read "WOS FOOTBALL, A WAY OF LIFE". "In our household football is a way of life, so I can't wait to get back home to read this book with them and really put that into perspective because that's what football is all about," Broderick concluded.

Promotion for sales of the book will be done through newspaper articles in The Record Newspapers. Thompson also plans to use KOGT.com and interview with local radio stations to advertise the selling of his book. He will be go to a coaching school in a couple of weeks at San Antonio to publicize it.

Thompson is certain his upcoming class reunion for the old West Orange Chiefs during October will have a ton of people who will want to purchase a copy. The annual coaching clinic to be held in Beaumont during January early next year will be another opportunity for the coach to sell his book.

A book publisher from California gave Coach Thompson the best advice as far as getting his book published which was to find a publisher in or near the state of Texas. Thompson remembered, "The publisher said everybody in Texas knows you, Cornel. Publish your book where everybody knows about West Orange-Stark football, and you will sell a bushel basketful of them."

Wise Publications out of Sulphur, Louisiana published 450 copies of the forty-one chapter book. Thompson insisted, "I'm going to promote it until I'm sold out. If I sell out I'm going to buy some more. I just want to spread the word about the legacy of West Orange-Stark to those that don't really understand it."

Paperback copies of "WOS FOOTBALL, A WAY OF LIFE" can be purchased for $35 by contacting Coach Thompson. He will autograph copies for those that request it. Another book signing event is scheduled for Saturday, July 20, between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM at Granger Chevrolet on the corner of 16th Street and Green Avenue in Orange with a limited number of about two hundred copies available.