Kari Thompson had a 102-98 record in six-plus seasons as head women's volleyball coach at North Dakota State. After joining the Bison as an assistant coach in 2006, she was named interim head coach in October 2010, became the 11th head coach in program history in January 2011, and accepted the head coaching position at Southern Illinois in May 2017.
In her interim role in 2010, Thompson went 9-2 and led the Bison to their third straight Summit League championship and second NCAA tournament in three years. NDSU finished 20-11 overall and tied for first place with a 14-4 record in The Summit League.
She was named Summit League Coach of the Year in 2011, her first full season at the helm, as the Bison went 26-9 and won a fourth straight Summit League title with a 16-2 mark. NDSU made another NCAA tournament appearance and achieved the program's highest ranking at No. 42 in the NCAA Rating Percentage Index.
With a young team in 2013 that at times featured six freshman starters, Thompson directed NDSU to the No. 5 seed for the Summit League Tournament. The Bison claimed three of the seven spots on the league's All-Freshman team. In 2014, she led NDSU to one of the nation's top improvements in the win column, earning nine more victories than the previous season. The Bison won seven of their last nine regular-season matches and advanced to the semifinals of the league tourney.
Thompson was a 2010 recipient of the American Volleyball Coaches Association's "Thirty Under 30" award recognizing the top young coaches in the country.
"I'm thrilled to continue to be a part of an institution with a rich tradition of academic and athletic excellence and a strong commitment to the volleyball program," Thompson said. "This great volleyball community combined with a great volleyball facility provides an exciting environment to showcase these athletes."
Thompson was the head coach of a USA Athletes International team that competed in the June 2011 European Smash Tour in Italy and Austria. She says it was an enjoyable experience, but one that made her appreciate the quality of NDSU's program.
"I think we have a very special group of players here," Thompson said. "It's the work ethic. When people come here, they don't come to sit on the beach. There's no beaches here. They definitely come to play volleyball, go to school, and work hard."
Thompson herself embodied that same work ethic. She climbed the career chain since beginning as a volunteer assistant in 2003 at Green Bay, where she was a three-year volleyball letterwinner.
Before coming to NDSU, she spent two years as a graduate assistant for volleyball operations at Alabama, where she was in charge of the off-court duties such as stats and video breakdown, and travel. She says the behind-the-scenes work was a unique training opportunity.
"I also got to watch every single practice and really pay attention to how players interact with each other, and how they respond to different coaching. You can only see so much as one coach when you're involved on the floor, so when you're sitting back and watching like I was, I think I saw a lot more and learned a lot about the game in those two years."
Thompson spent her first 4 1/2 years at NDSU as the team's top assistant before being thrust into the head job midseason. "I feel like I was very well prepared to step into this even though I may have not thought I was ready when that happened. It makes me very confident now."
A native of Amherst, Wis., she began her collegiate career at Concordia-St. Paul and graduated from Green Bay with a bachelor's degree in communications and the arts in December 2003.
