Hi! My name is Klaire Thoman and I have been competing in sports for as long as I can remember! I played multiple sports growing up, but got serious about volleyball around my freshman year of high school, and knew I wanted to play at the next level. I committed to the University of Arizona to play collegiate volleyball as a Libero/DS the summer of my junior year, and ended up transferring to finish out my volleyball career at Indiana University.
What I love most about working at NCSA is helping young athletes who remind me of myself during the recruiting process. At 5’4″, playing a “tall sport” came with its challenges. I faced everything from navigating the complex recruiting landscape to hearing discouraging comments like, “You’re too short to play at a high level,” or “You should dream a little… smaller”—often from my own coaches, teammates, and mentors. Looking back, a resource like NCSA would have made a world of difference. It would’ve given me the confidence to embrace who I was as an athlete and helped me push through the ups and downs of a tough and often disheartening journey that is the recruitment process.
The last thing I’ll share is a piece of advice from my dad that has stuck with me through everything I do: Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something—because if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will.