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Still Coaching and Loving It
01/17/2012...Grande Prairie, Alberta - Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves women’s volleyball coach Ron Thomson was raised in Chetwynd, British Columbia which is recognized as the “Chainsaw Sculpture Capitol of the World” as it showcases over 50 chainsaw carvings spread throughout town.
So it is no wonder that Thomson has carved out a nice career in the world of volleyball with more than 500 collegiate wins as a coach with the Wolves (500th win came against the Concordia Thunder 25-21, 25-14, 25-13 November 4, 2011).
Thomson, who played for the Wolves (1982 – 1985), caught the coaching bug while attending the University of Alberta, where he also played one season for the Golden Bears, “I was a bit of a left side back row…a specialist I guess but I was a bit smaller.”
It was in the Edmonton capital that he later took on the reigns as an assistant coach for the U .of A. Pandas women’s volleyball team and later the Golden Bears men’s volleyball team.
After a coaching stint with the Grant MacEwan Griffins and careers with Alberta and British Columbia Amateur Volleyball, Thomson received a phone call in 1991 from volleyball legend Leigh Goldie.
“He called to see if I wanted to come in to coach the (Wolves) men’s volleyball team as their head coach was on a one-year sabbatical,” recalled Thomson, 47. “I had been keeping my eyes and ears open for something like this as I had always wanted to get into a good coaching position.”
Now 20 years later Thomson is still at the college and coaching the sport he loves.
“My high school coach Terry Buker always made the game fun and a lot of the guys we played with made good friendships and the competiveness came from the guys in the program. He motivated us to keep going,” said Thomson of one of his mentors.
Of his coaching style Thomson said: “I probably used to be a stomper and screamer at one point in my career especially in my early career with the men. But you mature and start to understand the game and the players. I have mellowed but I still think I am an intense and demanding coach. My real strengths I believe are in the practice environment with the technical and teaching parts of the game.”
Part of that teaching has led the Wolves to two silver medals and one bronze at the CCCAA national championships.
There could have been, perhaps, more trips to the podium as Thomson took a five-year hiatus from the sport in 2002.
“I needed a break as my own kids were quite young and I wanted to be around them,” said Thomson of his wife Sandra and children Carly and Liam.
In 2008 he returned to the sport: “I missed it. It was nice to have a break. Now I surround myself with good assistant coaches so I don’t have to be at every practice. Things are balanced now.”
Thomson has been awarded twice the CCAA's prestigious Coaching Excellence award ACAC Coach of the Year five times.
