Sweet Water High School has named former defensive coordinator Pat Thompson as the team’s new head coach.

Thompson coached with former Sweet Water head coach Stacy Luker since 2007 when he came over from Thomasville.

“He’s been defensive coordinator at Sweet Water for several years,” Marengo County School Superintendent Luke Hallmark said. “He’s a good coach and a great person.”

Hallmark said there were close to 100 applicants for the position since it came open in mid-January.

“We narrowed it down to about six applicants,” Hallmark said. “All six were very good applicants, but we knew what we had with Pat. The others all had good interviews, but we knew none of them could have provided the smooth transition we wanted like Pat can.”

Hallmark added that he feels Thompson was the best applicant for the job.

The position came open after former head coach Stacy Luker accepted the head coaching position at Neshoba Central High School in Philadelphia, Miss. Neshoba Central is a Class 5A school in Mississippi.

During Luker’s 12 seasons as head coach at Sweet Water, he compiled a record of 131-32 with five state championships and eight region championships.