The Box is packed with excited, cheering fans. The cheerleaders are getting ready to pump up the crowd. The Lady Buffs volleyball starters get together in the center of the court to share words of encouragement and motivation before the match starts. Meanwhile, on the bench, Hali Thompson excitedly makes her way to each remaining player, giving her a high five to start the game. Hali is the biggest fan of Lady Buff volleyball.
Hali, 25, has developmental delays and a physical illness that challenge her in different ways.
“She’s obviously very social,” Brad Thompson, Hali’s father, said. “The social side of her really probably keeps her physical health as good as it is. Being in a group of people causes her to really flourish in these settings.”
When Hali was in seventh grade, she began following her first volleyball team. Hali’s parents, Brad and Karen, wanted her to be a part of a team, and the seventh grade volleyball coach was thrilled to have Hali join them.
“I love sports,” Brad said. “Karen willingly goes with me, and our son was involved in football and baseball. We wanted Hali to have a team, and Canyon girls’ athletics is awesome. We knew the seventh grade volleyball coach, and she was like, ‘Yeah, come on.’”
As a sophomore in high school, Hali had to have brain surgery.
“She wouldn’t let them do it until volleyball was over,” Karen said. “She told the neurosurgeon she couldn’t do it until after volleyball and her brother Justin was done with football.”
When Hali was a junior in high school, the Canyon volleyball team played in the state finals. Hali receive a state silver medal from the tournament, which she prominently displays.
“We’ve been blessed because she graduated from Canyon and came [to WT], and the Lady Buffs were always great,” Brad said.
When Hali went to WT and participated in the Where the Learning Continues program, there weren’t many women who knew her. Fortunately, a setter from Canyon High School went on to play for WT. She was Hali’s ambassador to the WT volleyball team.
“She said, ‘Hey, here’s H-Baby,’ and they just took her in and loved her, and seven years later, we’re still doing this,” Brad said.
Hali is introduced by the seniors of the WT volleyball team each year to the new players.
“They introduce her as the tradition,” Karen said.
Hali attends a few practices in the spring and meets a few of the new players who have come in. The Thompson family attends the Meet the Lady Buffs event each year, and Hali attends a few practices in the fall.
“Coach Skoch doesn’t give himself enough credit,” Brad said. “He stops practice as soon as Hali walks in the door.”
Head coach Jason Skoch said Hali was already here when he began coaching at WT; he inherited her.
“I take this job very seriously, and probably a little too serious at times,” Skoch said. “Having her around gives me perspective. She just enjoys herself and being around company. She’s happy, so why not? She enjoys life, and those are fun people to have around.”
Hali works hard to know each one of them and remember their names. Each year at the BritKare Lady Buff Classic, Hali gets a program that includes a team roster, and she studies it until she knows each one of them, at least by their numbers.
“I am studying them,” Hali said. “I’ve known some of them maybe about four or six years.”
Hali enjoys standing with the team at home games and cheering for them. Before each game, Hali can be seen giving high fives to each of them. She also has “secret” handshakes that she does with a few of the players.
“I just love every one of them,” Hali said, “including the ones I really don’t know very well. It feels like all of them are family, including the new ones.”