Interview by Abernathy Cochran intern and Gainesville High School senior Donangelo Marshall

Meet Ashley Thompson! She is a junior and cross-country runner at Gainesville High School. She has an extremely remarkable running record; since she has entered high school, she has never lost a region championship race. Ashley was runner-up in the 2020 State 5k meet (GHSA 7A). Her parents are Zack and Ali Thompson, and she has a sister, Page, a senior at GHS. She would like to study sports nutrition or physical training in college. 

We want to thank Ashley for spending time with us recently and telling us more about her life and love of Hall County.

Question: What is your favorite thing about Gainesville High School? 

Answer: “Probably how diverse everything is here. You can see it on my team; I wouldn’t get the opportunity to meet some of my best friends like Ashley Sosa anywhere else. They also recognize me on the morning announcements if I ever win anything, which is fun. They interviewed our team before the region and posted it every day leading up to meet, and the school does other things like ‘Athlete of the month,’ which I won in August, so that’s pretty cool.” 

Q: Why do you love cross country and running? 

A: “I like the competition. In this sport, everyone matters as a team, but you can place individually, so you matter as yourself, too. You’re just motivated by so much that you’ll do good and get your times down, but you’re also motivated that your team will do good and will qualify because you want a part of a good team. When you finish a race, there’s this feeling, and it’s so exciting because no matter how you do, people tell you ‘Good job! Good job!’ so it’s a very supportive sport.
“I got introduced to cross-country in sixth grade. I used to play soccer, and I was a midfielder; I would run down the sideline fast, and they had to create a position for me so I could run a lot because I wasn’t good at kicking the ball. I was only good at the running part. My friend Mary Carter Ruth told me to do cross-country to stay in shape for soccer. I would walk all the time in sixth grade, but when Coach Corbett came, he told me I was built like a runner and encouraged me to run.” 

Q: What’s your favorite restaurant in Hall County? 

A: “El Sombrero. I like their bean burritos. My friends were eating them one time, and I thought they were good, so I get them every time now.” 

Q: Who’s your favorite teacher or coach, and why? 

A: “Coach Corbett is the head coach, and he’s one of my favorites because he really cares about me and always told me I had so much potential, but I never really believed him. I just wanted to run for fun and not really run in college. I wanted to drop the sport in ninth grade, but he kept telling me I had so much potential, so I decided to see, and he encouraged me not to quit. He pushes me in every workout, and even if I think I’m going fast, he tells me, ‘you can do even better next time.’ He’s very supportive and really cares because he spends a lot of time at home on running times and converting them. We have Coach Little, who’s new, and a PE teacher at Gainesville Elementary. She came in to help as a second assistant coach in the summer, and she cares so much about all of us. She sends us messages of stretches and introduced us to yoga. She’s like sunshine, and before all the races, she will go up to the girls on the starting line and start jumping and asking us if we are ready and get us really excited. Then we have Coach Mallard. She’s really nice and has brought a lot of organization and structure to the team and made us a website with all of our team pictures and videos. She was a voice for the girls even though she’s busy as a pole vault coach and AP teacher.” 

Q: Why do you love Hall County? 

A: “I like that it’s small, and I feel like everyone knows each other. I like the sense of community and the Square because it’s really pretty and there are historic buildings in Hall County like on Green Street. I like the Farmers’ Market on the Square when everyone comes and brings their fruits and vegetables and Mule Camp.” 

Q: What is one lesson you have learned from your sport? 

A: “Even when you are not happy with what you did, you have to be proud of others. When someone beats you, you can be mad at yourself, but you can’t show it. You have to say ‘good job’ to other people and be happy for them. You begin not to care if someone beats you and become happier for them doing well than being sad that you lost because you start to care for the other runners.” 

Q: What is your advice to younger athletes doing your sport? 

A: “My advice is don’t quit because many people that could have been great quit too early. Put in the work now because when you get that work ethic going now, it only gets better and progresses from there. If you don’t have practice keep running, it can get so much better if you build up endurance now…you need to be determined now to get ready for high school and build better eating and sleeping habits.”