Eric Thompson joined the Sun Devil Wrestling staff in August 2021 as a volunteer assistant coach and immediately made his mark as the Sun Devils' upperweights coach. His drive resulted in a promotion to a full-time assistant coaching position in July 2023, where he has now been elevated as an associate head coach as of May 2026.
“Eric Thompson is one of the rising new stars in the wrestling coaching ranks. Spending over 10 years at Penn State and Iowa State, he’s learned what it takes to coach at the highest level. His performance here at Arizona State has now put him in position to have head coach in his title,” said head coach Zeke Jones.
“He’s had a tremendous amount of success with our upper weights, placing an All-American in each year of his tenure, and is now helping guys like Cohlton Schultz and others get ready for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games,” Jones added.
A Sun Devil heavyweight has earned All-American honors in each year of Thompson’s tenure. Schultz became the program's first five-time All-American (2021-2025), while Rider transfer David Szuba earned All-American honors in his final collegiate season, placing seventh in the heavyweight division at the 2026 NCAA Championships.
Fellow Sun Devil upperweight Colton Hawks (197-lb) turned in one of the more noteworthy performances in recent history at the NCAA tournament. Hawks, who had spent majority of the season recovering from ACL surgery, was penciled in as the No. 28 seed of the tournament. The graduate student pulled off the largest upset of the tournament, knocking off ACC Champion, Virginia Tech’s No. 4 seed Sonny Sasso. Hawks followed that with another upset of No. 13 seed Bennett Berge in the Round of 16.
In Thompson's first two seasons with ASU he specifically aided in the development of 2022 NCAA heavyweight runner-up Cohlton Schultz, All-Americans Kordell Norfleet and Anthony Montalvo, and underclassmen legacy Cael Valencia. Thompson was in Schultz' corner during his 22-1 2021-22 season when the then third-year wrestler won his first Pac-12 title, collected Pac-12 Wrestler of the Year honors, and went toe-to-toe with Gable Steveson in the NCAA heavyweight final.
Thompson helped coach Norfleet to his fourth Pac-12 title at 197, secured the transfer of 2020 All-American Montalvo prior to the 2022-23 season, and worked intimately with 2023 Amateur Wrestling News All-Rookie Cael Valencia. In two seasons working with Thompson, Valencia has earned 24 victories (five duals), and was a 2023 NCAA qualifier at 174. Thompson helped Schultz capture the fourth Pac-12 Championship individual title of his career in 2024, as he became one of just six Sun Devils to win four times at the conference tournament. Schultz also added a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Championships weeks later, marking his fourth All-American honors.
Thompson coached at the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club prior to coming to Tempe where he trained Kyle Snyder and David Taylor, five world-team members and four Olympians.
Before joining the coaching staff, Thompson wrestled at NLWC, where he trained to make the 2016 Olympic Team. He took fifth place in the 2016 Olympic trials. During his collegiate career at Grand View University, Thompson was a three-time NAIA National Champion at 285 pounds and was named NAIA Wrestler of the Year in 2012.
Other stops for Thompson include a three-year stint with M2 Training Center where he worked with over 100 athletes and a one-year position with Lock Haven University as an assistant coach. Thompson is married to his wife Sarah, with two children, Crew and Jensen.