Shairone Thompson enters his third year on staff, and second as associate head coach, for the Utah Tech Volleyball program in 2026.
Thompson helped head coach Camilla Hafoka earn 2025 WAC Coach of the Year honors and led the Trailblazers to a 21-6 overall record & a share of the WAC regular season title alongside Utah Valley with a 10-2 mark in conference action.
Advancing to the finals of the WAC Championships, the Trailblazers fell in five sets to the Wolverines in the championship match in Abilene as it was the program's first time advancing to a conference tournament final in the NCAA era.
Four Trailblazers earned postseason All-WAC honors led by Casidy Fried being named to the First Team followed by Kennedi Knudsen and Taylor Snow earning Second Team honors. Freshman Tehanie Waters was selected to the All-WAC Freshman Team.
In the classroom, 10 Trailblazers earned Academic All-WAC honors to co-lead the WAC along with Taylor Snow, Marley Roe, Mya Laufiso and Nana Asiata were tabbed to the CSC Academic All-District Team.
In his first season on the sideline as an assistant coach in 2024, Thompson ushered the Trailblazers to a 15-12 overall mark & a fourth-place finish in the WAC regular season standings with a 9-7 record.
The pair of Kennedi Knudsen and Lusia Langi earned All-WAC honors with Knudsen being named All-WAC First Team and Langi was tabbed to the WAC All-Freshman Team while Knudsen, Casidy Fried, Marley Roe and Mya Laufiso earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors.
Before coaching at Utah Tech, Thompson was a part of the BYU-Hawaii women's volleyball programs as a volunteer assistant from 2012-2016 season, where he and Trailblazers head coach Camilla Hafoka under then-head coach Mona Ah-Hoy help lead the Seasiders of Hawaii to a PacWest tile, along with a NCAA West Regional championship and a NCAA Division II national runner-up finish.
Thompson was an assistant coach at Kahuku High and Intermediate School for both the girls and boys' program, respectively. Upon working with the girls program, he assisted in helping them achieve numerous conference title and state appearance finishing in the top five for multiple years.
On the boys volleyball side, he has helped them reach conference and state appearances. Shai also coached club volleyball as an assistant for many years and has been a mainstay in his community for volleyball.
Prior to his time in St. George, Shai played for the BYU-Hawaii men's basketball program and played in numerous national level tournaments for adult leagues.
