Karleen M. Thompson (née Shields; born July 1, 1968) is the associate head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers women's basketball team since 2018. Before joining the Cavaliers, Thompson was a WNBA head coach for the

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. The team plays its home games at Crypto.co ...

in 2004 and the

Houston Comets The Houston Comets were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Houston. Formed in 1997, the team was one of the original eight WNBA teams and won the first four championships of the league's existence. They are one of two ...

from 2007 to 2008. Additionally, Thompson was an assistant coach for the

Clemson Tigers women's basketball Clemson may refer to: * Clemson, South Carolina, a city in the U.S. state of South Carolina ** Clemson University, a public university located in Clemson, South Carolina. *** Clemson Tigers, the athletic programs of Clemson University. * , a U.S ...

team from 2010 to 2013 and the

Atlanta Dream The Atlanta Dream are an American professional basketball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Dream compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded for the ...

from 2013 to 2017.

Early life and education

In 1968, Thompson was born in California. While attending high school in

Snyder, Texas Snyder is a city in, and the county seat of Scurry County, Texas, United States. The population was 11,438 at the 2020 census. The city is located in the lower part of the Southwestern Tablelands ecological region. History Snyder is named fo ...

, Thompson played on the volleyball and basketball teams. For her post-secondary education, Thompson continued playing basketball with

Contra Costa College Contra Costa College is a public community college in San Pablo, California, United States. It is the west campus of the Contra Costa Community College District. It is part of the California community colleges system, one of the three college s ...

in 1991 before moving to the

USC Trojans women's basketball The USC Trojans women's basketball team, or the Women of Troy, is the collegiate women's basketball team that represents the University of Southern California, in the Big Ten Conference. The team rose to prominence in 1976, at which time scholarsh ...

team in 1993.

Career

After completing her social sciences degree at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

in 1996, Thompson joined

Gatorade Gatorade is an American brand of sports-themed beverage and food products, built around its signature line of sports drinks. The drink is owned and manufactured by PepsiCo and is distributed in over 80 countries. The beverage was develope ...

as a sports marketer. The following year, Thompson started her

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. The league comprises 13 teams (scheduled to expand to 15 in 2026). The WNBA is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The WNBA w ...

career when she became a manager for the

in 1997. With the Sparks, Thompson moved to assistant coach in 2002. In 2004, after the resignation of head coach

Michael Cooper Michael Jerome Cooper (born April 15, 1956), nicknamed "Coop", is an American basketball coach and former player. He played for the Los Angeles Lakers during his entire career in the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning five NBA champ ...

, Thompson was named one of the team's interim head coaches (the other being Ryan Weisenberg) in 2004. During the remainder of the 2004 season, Thompson had eleven wins and three losses as co-head coach. At the 2004 WNBA Playoffs, Thompson had one win and two losses before Los Angeles was defeated by the

Sacramento Monarchs The Sacramento Monarchs were a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. They played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 until folding on November 20, 2009. They played their home games at ARCO Aren ...

in the first round. Upon leaving the Sparks, Thompson was an assistant coach of the

between 2005 and 2007. While she was an assistant coach for a

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

basketball team in 2007, Thompson was named the Comets general manager and head coach. With 30 wins and 38 losses as the Comets' head coach from 2007 to 2008, Thompson left the WNBA to work in college basketball as an assistant coach for the

team from 2010 to 2013. She resumed her WNBA career in 2013 when she became an

associate head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

for the

and held the position until 2017. In 2018, she continued to work as an associate head coach when she was hired by the Virginia Cavaliers women's basketball team.

Personal life

In February 2009, Thompson sued the WNBA in a New York district court lawsuit. In the case, Thompson said she was misled to stay with the WNBA when the organization took over the Comets in March 2008. Additionally, Thompson stated she had lost future job positions when the Comets disbanded in December 2008. The case was dismissed in October 2009 due to a lack of

diversity jurisdiction In the law of the United States, diversity jurisdiction is a form of subject-matter jurisdiction that gives United States federal courts the power to hear lawsuits that do not involve a federal question. For a federal court to have diversity ju ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Karleen 1968 births Living people Atlanta Dream coaches Basketball coaches from California Clemson Tigers women's basketball coaches Houston Comets head coaches Los Angeles Sparks head coaches Virginia Cavaliers women's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from Texas Basketball players from Texas People from Snyder, Texas Contra Costa College alumni USC Trojans women's basketball players Junior college women's basketball players in the United States