MENDOTA – Changes in the athletic department are in store at Mendota High School for the 2017-18 school year.

MHS athletic director Gary Barrera has decided to step away from the position, while several coaching jobs are open, including boys’ and girls’ varsity basketball.

Barrera, a 1990 graduate of MHS, has spent the past five years as the athletic director after having been the AD at Hall High School for three years prior to returning to his alma mater.

“It has been a great five years and I want to thank the school board, administration, coaches and athletes,” said Barrera. “I am stepping down to teach again and spend more time with my family.”

Jan Thompson has resigned as the boys’ varsity basketball coach after nine seasons. He compiled a 124-147 record in that span. He won a regional championship in the 2012-13 campaign in which the Trojans posted a 19-13 record. Thompson’s best record came a year later when the team went 21-9 and lost to a talented Dixon squad in the regional championship.

Under Thompson’s watch, Mendota High School has two of the top four all-time leading scorers in MHS history. Joe LaShonse, who just completed his MHS career this year, is second on the list with 1,732 points, while James Carroll, who graduated in 2015, is fourth all time with 1,679 points.

“I sure have enjoyed myself here at Mendota for the past nine years,” noted Thompson. “While at Mendota my wife and I had our first child, Landon. Then four years later, we find out we are going to have triplets.

“We bought a very nice home in Mendota and made some really nice friends. However, Mandy and I aren’t from Mendota, and once we had the triplets, we realized how important family is.”

Thompson has secured a physical education and health teaching position at Newton High School, which is in southern Illinois southeast of Effingham. He will also be the junior varsity boys’ basketball coach with the possibility of being the head coach in a year when the current coach retires.

“The town of Newton is about 40 minutes from my wife’s family,” added Thompson.

Thompson said he is going to miss his colleagues at MHS, but especially his assistant coach Brian Blumhorst, Matt Gehm, Brock Sondgeroth and Jason Artman, who all have become close friends.

MHS will also have to fill the varsity girls’ basketball head coaching position and the boys’ head track job, which Sondgeroth has resigned from effective at the end of this season after 12 years.