Normal U-High’s Thompson wins 2025 CSM Volleyball Coach of the Year

Everyone dreams of it but few can actually achieve it, especially in a Class 3A and Central Illinois area loaded with talent. 

But Normal U-High volleyball won a state title, its first since 2000 and sent out a large and treasured group of seniors with a lifelong memory. Head coach Ratasha Thompson led the Pioneers to the pinnacle in just her second year leading the program — and first without the interim tag — and is Clutch Sports Media’s 2025 Volleyball Coach of the Year. 

Thompson led her team to its fourth 30-win season in as many years and saw them win the Bloomington/Normal Intercity title and the Central State Eight Conference championship before embarking on the postseason. 

There, the Pioneers defeated Urbana, Bloomington and Springfield in two sets before taking three sets to beat Morton for the Class 3A Springfield Southeast Sectional title. They beat state power Breese Mater Dei in their super-sectional before capping their year with two-set wins over Crystal Lake Prairie Ridge and LaGrange Park Nazareth Academy at the Class 3A state finals. 

Thompson’s squad featured multiple Clutch Sports Media All-Area selections, including several players who are college-bound. 

Hear more from Thompson about this past season and her career in our interview with her below. Some responses have been minimally edited for clarity.

What have you been able to reflect on in the days since the season has ended? 

“Just how incredible of a season that it was and it's neat to kind of look back and just see the season now, knowing the other side of it, like how it ended. It's just really cool that this team really did it. And I think at the beginning of the year, I knew they could, it was just one of those things that anything can happen. So I'm just so excited for the girls, they really earned it.

They put in a lot of work and I'm just really excited for them that it paid off.”

Your team won 30 games in a row to end the season, was there a switch that flipped at all? Did you guys talk about the win streak often?

“We didn't talk about the winning streak. In fact, I had a couple different reporters talk to me when it was in the 20s and I had no idea. I knew we hadn't lost a while but someone asked a question. I was like, ‘Oh, I didn't even know we were on that much of a winning streak.’ I think I was just genuinely focused on what was next and so I'm trying not to look at a lot of that stuff. I guess. I don't know if the girls were paying attention or not, but I definitely wasn’t.”

“But I don't know if there was really a turning point. I mean, I think we played a really tough schedule, and I think win or lose, you learned a lot from different teams that we played, even teams we've beat too. [Against] Glenwood, we still learned a ton from that match and to play really hard. Some of those games were really competitive, pushed us and made us better and that made all the difference for us.”

In your mind, what made the team so special this year?

“One of the big ones was all the leadership that we had and experience. With the nine seniors, I've said it a million times, but I truly think that that was a big player in why we won state was having all that experience, all of that leadership and the buy-in. Some of these girls have been on varsity for all four years and they've seen how close teams have gotten and they're like, ‘No, this is our year. We can do this, this is the last chance.’ And they've played together for so long, and I think that just makes a better team. There was more trust, there was more camaraderie, I think and I think that's a major contributor.”

What’s your coaching background?

“This year was actually my first official year as varsity coach at U-High. Last year, I was the interim varsity coach because the head coach had stepped down a couple weeks before the season and I had just been hired as the JV coach at U-High, actually. Then, they gave me the job as the interim [coach] and then they had to open up the job at the end of the season. I applied for it and then got it so this is my first like official season but these are my first two years being a varsity coach, like I had not coached varsity before. I've coached JV for two years at a couple different high schools near here and I've coached club a couple seasons. But other than that, I have not had a ton of coaching experience, I've just been around the game for a long time.” 

What’s your experience playing volleyball?

“I went to high school at Sycamore and then I played club at Sports Performance and played there for five years. Actually, I was on the same team in club as a girl who went on to play in the Olympics, which was really cool. Sports Performance just breeds great volleyball players. I think the reason I coach the way I do is that I've seen what it takes to build success and mold great players. And then I went to Illinois State for four years after graduating high school and then just stuck around town. 

What helps keep you going?

“I just really love the sport and I’m actually a stay-at-home mom so this is like my thing that I get to get out of the house and I'm really grateful for my husband. He’s super supportive and he's got a flexible work schedule so he's able to be home so I can go to practices and games and stuff. But it’s just something I'm really passionate about and something I definitely don't have to do, I just really love it. I just wanted to be around the game. When I knew I was stepping back from a full-time job to stay at home, I was like, ‘I just want to be around the game. I just want to coach,’ and so that's why I got back into it. I love watching young players develop and it's just really fun.”

Aside from winning, what’s a fun memory with your players that you’ve had from this past season? 

“I guess it wasn't like during the season, but I feel like we had a lot of fun in the summer, like in our summer leagues. We did a tournament at Illinois State in the arena and that was really fun. I do love doing the overnights that we do; we go up to the Plainfield North tournament and stay the night up there and then in Effingham, we stay the night down there too so that's always fun to do with the team, We would have some goofier practices, like we went and played at a local sand court one day just for fun and that was our practice. I think that was in October on some random, warm day and we just played there and the girls tried to play us coaches, and we lost miserably.”

What’s a piece of coaching advice that’s been helpful for you or one that you’d give?

“I think it's just remembering that they're kids. Remember that you're coaching kids and that they're still developing and you get to influence them — positive or negative — and they're still learning and developing. Even with non-sports stuff like communication and different things like that, just have the mindset of they're still growing, they're still learning, to still extend grace and to also understand that they need to learn some of the other things on and off the court that are important. These are kids and, some of them will go on to play in college and some of them won't, and that's okay, so just to have fun and know that you have an influence.”