Inaugurated with the 2002 season, 8-person football games on the Lower Field have become a treasured community event each fall. Beginning with an 8-2 record and a CIF quarterfinal appearance that first year, the program has remained a force in the sport, with regular appearances in the postseason, including three CIF Championship game appearances. Scores of Thacher players have been honored with All-CIF selections over the years, and two have been named Offensive Player of the Year.
More significant than the individual and team distinctions: every year that Thacher has fielded a team, players at every level of experience and skill have shared rich and rewarding experiences and learned lessons about teamwork, dedication, and sportsmanship on the football field at Thacher. We are very proud of the success many of our alumni have had playing college football. Former Thacher players have also gone on to compete at a number of highly competitive universities, including Whittier College, Bowdoin College, Pitzer College, Colgate University, Princeton University, MIT, the University of the South (Sewanee), LaVerne University, Hamilton College, Williams College, and Middlebury College.
About Coach Hooper: Coach Hooper has been associated with a football team in some fashion or another since 1982, his first season playing tackle football in second grade. Through plenty of wins and losses in the ensuing years, his love for the sport and for the unique opportunity in team building that each fall brings have never waned. Among his most gratifying experiences as a coach are working in partnership with assistant coaches and seniors to build positive team culture and camaraderie. Coach Hooper’s goal is to create an experience that has meaning for players beyond their time on the field and he’s especially delighted when he sees football alumni on the sidelines cheering on the current iteration of Toad Football.
Jeff’s football career began as a member of the Bendwood Bears in second grade. Since then, save for one year of graduate school, he’s been involved with a football team as either a player or a coach. Following high school, he played wide receiver at Division III Trinity University as the program was in transition from a 2-8 squad with fewer than 40 players to a 10-1 season and playoff berth his junior year. After graduation, he taught and coached at TMI-The Episcopal School of Texas in San Antonio for five years, serving as Defensive Coordinator for the last two. After fourteen years as head coach at Thacher, he remains the team’s winningest and losingest coach. Jeff was honored to be named CIF-SS 8-Man Football Division I Coach of the Year in 2012, and is even more honored by the many Thacher alumni who remain interested in and loyal to the team.
Aaron teaches Latin, serves as the dorm head for the sophomore boys, and works as an assistant coach for varsity football and boys’ varsity basketball. In past years at Thacher, he has also taught English and provided musical accompaniment for various student productions on piano and bass. He attended Groton School, where he won the school’s Classics Prize. Aaron received his bachelor’s degree in English from Princeton University and later earned a master’s degree from Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English. He is currently working on his M. Ed. from the Klingenstein Center at Columbia University. After his first two years of teaching at Cushing Academy, near his longtime Massachusetts home, Aaron came west to Thacher seeking a new adventure, but committed to remaining within a boarding school community. Soon after his arrival at Thacher, he met his future wife, Theana, already a member of the Thacher faculty for four years previous to his arrival. Theana and Aaron now live in Los Padres dorm with their children—Gavin, Zoey, and Luke—and two dogs.
Statistics
Overall Statistics
W
L
T
%
5
3
0
62.5
League Statistics
W
L
T
%
3
1
0
75
Non-League Statistics
W
L
T
%
2
2
0
50
Athletics Photo Galleries
A college preparatory boarding school for grades 9-12
Notice of nondiscriminatory policy as to students: The Thacher School admits students of any race, color, national, and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national, and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other School-administered programs.