Kaplan head football coach resigns on Thursday

KAPLAN — Kaplan High School is now looking to fill the head football coaching position after filling it less than a year ago.
Going into his second football season, John Thompson resigned from his teaching and coaching positions on Tuesday.
The school district did not give a reason for his resignation.
The teaching/head-coaching job opened today and remain open for another 7 days. A new head coach is expected to be named by the end of May.
The 2027 Kaplan senior football class will now be coached by their fourth head coach in four years.
Thompson was hired as the head coach on Aug. 20, 2025, days before his 44th birthday.
Before arriving at Kaplan, his first head coaching job, he was the strength and conditioning coach and defensive line coach at Vermilion Catholic for eight years.
In his first year at Kaplan, he guided the Pirates to the second round of the Division III Non-Select playoffs. The Pirates, the No. 20th seed, upset the No. 13 seed Pine in the first round of the playoffs.
Thompson was hired one week after the head coach, Stephen “Tank” Lotief, was relieved of his coaching duties on July 31, 2025, 20 minutes after completing a morning practice.
During his two stints spanning 12 years at Kaplan, Lotief was highly successful, posting a 100-42 record, including an 8-3 record with a second-round playoff appearance in the 2024-2025 season.
Prior to the second hiring of Lotief, Cory Brodie was the Kaplan head football coach.
So, from 2021 to 2026, Kaplan High has now had three different head coaches: Cory Brodie (2021-2023), Lotief (2024) and Thompson (2025).