FC's Thompson working to reshape his body and game

When Forrest City’s 2012-13 basketball season opens in November, Forrest City coach Dwight Lofton expects to see a new and vastly improved Trey Thompson.

Thompson, Lofton’s incoming junior forward/center, has been busy this summer playing AAU ball with the Arkansas Hawks, but more than that, Thompson has rededicated himself on and off the court.

Thompson, 6’9” and 220, has shed about 20 pounds of what Lofton called “baby fat” and is playing much more aggressively on the floor.

“The specialized training Trey is receiving this summer in AAU ball will do nothing but make him a better player and a better person,” Lofton said. “That’s what he is getting this summer. I’m glad he is doing what he wants to do and he is making me, as well as Forrest City, proud.”

At 16, Thompson, the No. 33 prospect in ESPN’s 2014 class, has been working hard for Hawks coach Bill Ingram, Arkansas Sports Performance trainer B.J. Maack and Arkansas Baptist coach Louis Bonner. Especially since April.

Lofton has seen Thompson in AAU action one time this summer.

“The Hawks are a perimeter-based basketball team,” Lofton said. “Outside of Trey, the Hawks have no inside game.

“He is doing well,” Lofton added. “He is playing a lot more aggressively and more than that, I think he is playing a lot more decisively when he has the basketball in his hands. He is more Trey-oriented than he has been in the past. We have talked about his unselfishness on the floor in his past two seasons, and sometimes that was a problem. He has a lot more confidence now and that leads to being more aggressive in his game.”

Thompson, who has been a two-year starter for the Mustangs, has already received scholarship offers from the University of Memphis, Florida and Arkansas.

The Mustangs will open the 2012 season on Nov. 16, at West Memphis.

“The sky is the limit for Trey,” said Ingram. “He is already a four-star recruit. This time next year, he should be a five-star recruit, if he keeps playing well.”