We’re proud to be a part of an ongoing partnership with Dick’s Sporting Goods, which is sponsoring our Player of the Week award. We’ll be releasing a featured Vballrecruiter.com Player of the Week, sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods, on Tuesdays. Below is this week’s Player of the Week: Halle Thompson. *** After 10 years in competitive cheer, Halle Thompson was ready for a change. As she said, “there are only so many levels and I needed something else to do. Volleyball just happened to be there.” Thompson – a 6-0, 5-star outside from the Class of 2026 – wasn’t totally unfamiliar with the sport. Her older sister, Fallon, was getting into her recruiting years when Thompson began playing around 11 years old. Fallon is currently at Gonzaga and Thompson has fond memories of watching her sister growing up. “I was at all of her tournaments doing flips on the sidelines,” Thompson said. “I was her biggest cheerleader. I loved watching her. I did developmental (volleyball) for a month or two then I made the top 11s team. One of my biggest reasons for playing was watching my sister all those years and watching her team and her progress. I didn’t think about playing in college for volleyball until these past two or three years.” One thing Thompson – who has a twin brother, Cullen, – didn’t anticipate is how much of an escape volleyball would offer and how much she would embrace it. Beyond the competitiveness the sport offers and the camaraderie it brings, she never thought it would provide her with so much joy. “I think what drew me into volleyball is the amount of serotonin it brings me,” Thompson said. “Whenever I’m down or in a sluggish mood, if I played volleyball, or practiced or was just in the backyard with my sister it was such a distraction from anything I was thinking about. Most of all, it’s so fun. It’s literally the only thing I do really. I really enjoy it and meeting new people and creating the relationships out of state. It’s super exciting.” Along with her pure athleticism, Thompson has been experiencing a recent run of success in both club and high school. Playing with Hou Skyline 15 Royal last summer, the team captured the 15 Open bronze medal at the USAV Girls Junior National Championships. “It was kind of a new team last year and I was proud of how we finished against teams that had been together since they were 12,” she said. “To finish third was a better outcome than I thought at the beginning of the season. That was amazing. I was stoked for that.” That led her into her sophomore season at Grand Oaks. The program had never been past the second round of the state playoffs, but with two additional 5-star recruits in the mix in senior middle Jaela Auguste (Florida) and junior outside Samara Coleman (Pitt) the expectations were high. Grand Oaks suffered what turned out to be its only loss of the season to Prestonwood Christian in the semifinals of Volleypalooza in August. From there, Thompson and company ran off 24 consecutive victories. It included winning 60 straight sets at one point until dropping the second frame against Sachse in the regional semifinals. “It was definitely an unspoken pressure,” Thompson said. “We wouldn’t bring up the rankings or how we haven’t lost a set. You could feel the pressure building and we hadn’t dropped a set until Sasche. Losing that set it was a humungous pressure lifted off our shoulders and it prepared us for our next matches.” The state championship season was in peril, however, after Grand Oaks fell behind two sets to none in the state semis against Prosper. It featured losing the second set 25-12. “We got kicked in the face and we needed to wake up,” Thompson said. “We had never gone to five sets and it was super nerve-wracking knowing we had to take it to five when it mattered the most. We had 11 graduating seniors and even though I was younger, as a six-rotation outside I knew I had a leadership role. The wheels were coming loose and so I brought out the screwdriver and started turning the screws back on. That we pulled that out I still can’t believe it happened to this day. At that point, no one was stopping us. I can’t believe it to this second. Winning state was surreal.” Thompson finished the season with a team-leading 525 kills, averaging 4.1 per set. She was also first in aces, third in digs and fourth in blocks. Since then, she’s turned her focus to club, where she’s suiting up for Hou Skyline 16 Royal. The group recently finished 11th at the Triple Crown NIT. “This season has been trial and error,” Thompson said. “We added a new libero and middle. Both Blaire (Thiebaud) and Lacy (Tinnell) got hurt and they were out. Triple Crown was our first competition with everyone back. We finished in the same place last year at Triple Crown. It’s not the outcome we wanted but it’s good to know we are not peaking too early. I would rather get 11th here than at nationals.” As our featured Player of the Week sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods, we recently spoke with Thompson about volleyball and more. Who is a role model or someone you look up to? Thompson: I love this question. My role model is definitely my sister. She’s a constant source of inspiration. She’s guided me through a lot of things. Her resilience and facing challenges. She had an injury right before her recruiting season. She moved clubs. Her resilience and unwavering support and encouragement taught me so many valuable lessons that I don’t think anyone else could have taught me. She’s far away right now going to Gonzaga so that’s hard but spring break is coming up. If you could choose to do anything for a day, what would you do
