Thompson High School

In the early 1920s, Shelby County Schools had determined there was enough population in the northwestern area of Shelby County to create a high school. The new school was selected to be in the small community of Siluria. There had already been an existing junior high school and elementary school in the community, which now fed into the high school. The new school named Thompson High School served the communities of Siluria, Shelbyville (now Pelham), Helena, Brantleyville, Maylene, Saginaw, and several other small communities/unincorporated areas through the early times of the school's existence. The school was named after Thomas Carlyle Thompson, who donated the land and most of the funds to build the original high school building which is where the intermediate center is currently located.

Thompson High School's first official school day was October 3, 1921. The first "school bus" provided to THS was a covered wagon pulled by two mules and owned by a local man named Mr. Faust. From the 1920s to the 1950s, the school was a quiet country school, nothing major happened apart from the school not fielding a football team during World War II from 1942-1945.{{Cite web |title=Alabama High School Football History |url=http://www.ahsfhs.org/teams2/teampage.asp?Team=thompson |access-date=November 10, 2022 |website=www.ahsfhs.org}} In 1951, the original high school buildings burned down with nothing to salvage, leading to the construction of a new high school. The 1952 THS building was then built, which is still standing as Thompson Intermediate School.{{Cite web |title=Thompson High School {{!}} History - Shelby County, AL - ALGenWeb |url=https://algenweb.org/shelby/ths.html |access-date=November 10, 2022 |website=algenweb.org}}

The 1950s and early 1960s didn't see much action with the community or school, however by the late 1960s and early 1970s the school's hometown of Siluria was being rapidly outpaced by the newer city of Alabaster, which annexed Siluria in 1971. This made Thompson synonymous to the city of Alabaster, which it still is to this day. The late 1970s and 1980s saw a major increase in enrollment, as many people were leaving the city of Birmingham for communities south of the city. The first attempt of reducing enrollment led Shelby County Schools to create a new zone for Pelham and Helena, creating Pelham High School in 1973. This was Thompson's major rival in multiple sports, they played a football game every year until 2017.{{Cite web |last=Wagner |first=Neal |date=October 5, 2010 |title=Game Ball: A history of the Pelham-Thompson rivalry |url=https://www.shelbycountyreporter.com/2010/10/05/game-ball-a-history-of-the-pelham-thompson-rivalry/ |access-date=November 10, 2022 |website=Shelby County Reporter |language=en}} This reduction only held the growing population for so long, with the 1952 school soon reached design capacity, leading to the construction of a new high school in 1987. This building is now Thompson Middle School after the high school was moved a few decades later. Alabaster continued to grow along with communities surrounding, making Thompson one of the largest schools in the 1990s and 2000s.

By 2011, the City of Alabaster had determined they wanted to create a city school system and bring Thompson with it. The school system was completely split on July 1, 2013, being a part of Alabaster City Schools.{{Cite web|url=http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/05/alabaster_city_school_district.html|title=Alabaster City School District officially starting July 1, separate from Shelby County|website=AL.com|date=May 24, 2013|language=en-US|access-date=December 21, 2018}} This split happened near the same time Pelham City Schools became independent on July 1, 2014.{{Cite web|first=Martin J.|last= Reed|date=June 24, 2013 |title=Pelham de-annexation efforts growing amid city school district concerns |url=https://www.al.com/spotnews/2013/06/pelham_de-annexation_efforts_g.html |access-date=November 10, 2022 |website=al |language=en}} This allowed Shelby County Schools time to readjust school zones and set up new zoning for Helena High School which split Pelham's student body. Some communities such as Saginaw and Brantleyville could no longer attend Thompson as the school system was zoned for city limits only. A new rush of people began coming into Alabaster and Pelham after hearing the schools had become independent, now overwhelming the 1987 building which was originally designed for 800 students, but housed 1900 in its last year as a high school. A new 360,000 square foot building was soon built on 300 acres of land, the first day for students was February 26, 2018.{{Cite web |last=Gathany |first=Bob |date=February 20, 2018 |title=Tour the new $88 million Thompson High School Saturday |url=https://www.al.com/news/2018/02/post_162.html |access-date=November 10, 2022 |website=al |language=en}} The school is easily identifiable by the front rotunda and water fountain. Since the construction of the new school, Thompson has seen renewed interest in athletics funding, now primarily dominating the football scene.{{Cite web |last=Gathany |first=Bob |date=December 27, 2017 |title=Look inside Alabaster's new $68 million Thompson Highl |url=https://www.al.com/living/2017/12/see_inside_alabasters_new_88_m.html |access-date=November 10, 2022 |website=al |language=en}}

The school mascot is the Warriors. The school colors are red, white, and black. It participates in 7A level sports in Alabama. The school's wrestling team, established in 2007, won five state titles in a row (four 6A and one 7A) from 2011 to 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://www.shelbycountyreporter.com/2011/02/19/thompson-claims-first-wrestling-title/|title=Thompson claims first wrestling title|first=Wesley|last=Hallman|date=February 19, 2011|website=Shelby County Reporter|access-date=December 21, 2018}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.ahsaa.com/Sports/Wrestling/Wrestling-Past-State-Champions|title=AHSAA > Sports > Wrestling > Wrestling Past State Champions|website=www.ahsaa.com|access-date=December 21, 2018}} The wrestling team won its sixth state title in 2018 (7A).{{Cite web|url=http://www.wbrc.com/story/37532604/state-champs-are-crowned-in-hs-wrestling|title=High school wrestling state champs crowned|last=Haygood|first=Sheldon|website=wbrc.com|date=February 18, 2018 |language=en-US|access-date=December 21, 2018}}

The Thompson High School Football team went 12–1 during the 2017 season, defeating Hoover High School to win the 7A Region 3 championship{{Cite web|url=https://hooversun.com/api/content/a59b6d62-bb54-11e7-aa20-121bebc5777e/|title=Thompson rallies to win thriller over Bucs|last=PARMLEY|first=KYLE|date=October 28, 2017|website=HooverSun.com|language=en-us|access-date=December 21, 2018}} before losing to Hoover in the state semi-finals.{{Cite web|url=https://hooversun.com/api/content/4a2b0a56-d188-11e7-b34a-121bebc5777e/|title=Bucs win round 2, take down Warriors|last=PARMLEY|first=KYLE|date=November 25, 2017|website=HooverSun.com|language=en-us|access-date=December 21, 2018}} The following year in 2018, Thompson's football team advanced to the AHSAA 7A Finals for the first time in over three decades.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbs42.com/sports/local-thompson-high-school-warriors-take-on-central-high-school-devils-in-state-championship/1640745960|title=Local Thompson High School Warriors take on Central High School Devils in state championship|last=Cochran|first=Ariel|date=December 5, 2018|website=WIAT|language=en-US|access-date=December 21, 2018}} In 2019, the Warriors went 12–1 and advanced to the AHSAA 7A Finals, where they beat the Central-Phenix High School Red Devils 40–14, giving Thompson their first football state championship since 1983.{{Cite web|url=https://www.al.com/highschoolsports/2019/12/class-7a-championship-sawyer-pate-thompson-dethrone-central-phenix-city-40-14.html|title=Thompson dethrones Central-Phenix City in 7A title game|last=Thomas|first=Ben|date=December 5, 2019|website=al|language=en|access-date=December 5, 2019}} Since 2019 Thompson has won four 7A state titles in a row defeating, Auburn High School in 2020, Central-Phenix City again in 2021, and Auburn again in 2022.{{Cite web |last=Thomas |first=Ben |date=December 1, 2022 |title=Football High Live: Updates from the Class 7A title game |url=https://www.al.com/highschoolsports/2022/12/football-high-live-updates-highlights-from-the-7a-title-game-between-thompson-auburn.html |access-date=December 1, 2022 |website=al |language=en}}

Mark Freeman is currently the head football coach.

The 2019 fall eSports season was the first for Thompson, and the Warriors went all the way to the finals to face off against Bob Jones High School for the AHSAA League of Legends State Championship. The Warriors lost the first match but came back and won two straight to win the title.{{Cite web|url=https://www.shelbycountyreporter.com/2020/02/01/thompson-wins-esports-state-championship/|title = Thompson wins ESports State Championship|date = February 2020}}

• Football: 1982 (3A), 2019 (7A), 2020 (7A), 2021 (7A), 2022 (7A), 2024 (7A) {{Cite web|title=Alabama High School Sports History|url=http://www.ahsfhs.org/sports/teampage.asp?Team=Thompson|access-date=June 13, 2021|website=www.ahsfhs.org}}
• Wrestling: 2011 (6A), 2012 (6A), 2013 (6A), 2014 (6A), 2015 (7A), 2018 (7A), 2019 (7A), 2020 (7A), 2022 (7A) {{Cite web|title=Alabama High School Sports History|url=http://www.ahsfhs.org/sports/teampage.asp?Team=Thompson|access-date=June 13, 2021|website=www.ahsfhs.org}}{{Cite web|date=December 2, 2021|title=Rewinding Wednesday's Class 7A title game in Birmingham|url=https://www.al.com/highschoolsports/2021/12/live-updates-from-wednesdays-class-7a-title-game-between-thompson-central-phenix-city.html|access-date=December 2, 2021|website=al|language=en}}
• Boys Basketball: 1976 (3A), 1977 (3A){{Cite web|title=Alabama High School Sports History|url=http://www.ahsfhs.org/sports/teampage.asp?Team=Thompson|access-date=June 13, 2021|website=www.ahsfhs.org}}
• Boys Bowling: 2020 (6A/7A){{Cite web|title=AHSAA > Sports > Bowling > Bowling Past State Champions|url=https://www.ahsaa.com/Sports/Bowling/Bowling-Past-State-Champions|access-date=June 13, 2021|website=www.ahsaa.com}}
• Softball: 1998 (5A/4A), 1999 (6A), 2022 (7A), 2025 (7A) {{Cite web|title=Alabama High School Sports History|url=http://www.ahsfhs.org/sports/teampage.asp?Team=Thompson|access-date=June 13, 2021|website=www.ahsfhs.org}}
• Volleyball: 1979 (3A), 1981 (3A), 1982 (3A){{Cite web|title=Alabama High School Sports History|url=http://www.ahsfhs.org/sports/teampage.asp?Team=Thompson|access-date=June 13, 2021|website=www.ahsfhs.org}}
• E-Sports: 2019, 2020, 2021 (No classification){{Cite web |title=AHSAA > Sports > Esports > Esports Past Champions |url=https://www.ahsaa.com/Sports/Esports/Esports-Past-Champions |access-date=November 29, 2022 |website=www.ahsaa.com}}

In 2018, Alabaster City Schools opened the new Thompson High School. The new, state-of-the-art school totals {{cvt|360,000|sqft}},{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/new-thompson-high-school-opens-in-alabaster/992328630|title=New Thompson High School opens in Alabaster|last=Gasque|first=Conan|date=February 26, 2018|website=WIAT|language=en-US|access-date=December 21, 2018}} and includes: dedicated classrooms for each academy, a 2,500-seat arena-style gymnasium, an auxiliary gym, new baseball and softball facilities, tennis courts, competition track and a 5,300 seat football and soccer stadium, which houses an indoor practice facility.{{Cite web|url=https://www.al.com/expo/sports/erry-2018/09/8bc379bfcb7391/see-thompsons-new-192-million.html|title=See Thompson's new $19.2 million athletic facilities as stadium opens Friday|last=Victory |first=Dennis |website=AL.com|language=en-US|access-date=November 16, 2024 |date=September 13, 2018}}

• Drew Avans, baseball player{{cite web |title=Drew Avans - Baseball |url=https://lionsports.net/sports/baseball/roster/drew-avans/3855 |website=Southeastern Louisiana University Athletics |language=en}}
• Jim Davenport, baseball player{{cite news |last1=Ellis |first1=Baker |title=Siluria native and Giant legend Jim Davenport dies at 82 |url=https://www.shelbycountyreporter.com/2016/02/26/siluria-native-and-giant-legend-jim-davenport-dies-at-82/ |work=Shelby County Reporter |date=February 26, 2016}}
• Conner Harrell, football player{{Cite web|url=https://247sports.com/player/conner-harrell-46103756/|title=Conner Harrell, Thompson, Quarterback|website=247Sports}}
• Brandon King, football player{{cite web |title=Brandon King's Thompson High School Bio |url=https://www.maxpreps.com/al/alabaster/thompson-warriors/athletes/brandon-king/bio/?careerid=3p11t5lkcsfh1 |language=en}}
• Rebecca Luker, actress and singer{{cite web |title=Luker, Rebecca |url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/rebecca-luker/ |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama}}
• T.J. Rayam, football player{{cite web | url=https://www.al.com/sports/2015/07/alabama_legacy_tj_rayam_hopes.html | title=Alabama legacy T.J. Rayam hopes wrestling success leads to recruiting interest | publisher=al.com | date=July 7, 2015 | accessdate=March 1, 2024 | author=Bean, Josh}}
• Taulia Tagovailoa, football player{{cite web |title=Taulia Tagovailoa, Thompson, Pro-Style Quarterback |url=https://247sports.com/player/taulia-tagovailoa-90519/high-school-192068/ |website=247Sports}}
• Peter Woods, football player{{Cite web |last=Fowler |first=Chapel |date=July 25, 2023 |title=Five-star recruit Peter Woods ready to 'prove myself' for Clemson football |url=https://www.thestate.com/sports/college/acc/clemson-university/article277595038.html |website=The State}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://ths.alabasterschools.org/ Thompson High School]

{{AHSAA Class 7A}}

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Category:Public high schools in Alabama

Category:Schools in Shelby County, Alabama

Category:Educational institutions established in 1921

Category:1921 establishments in Alabama