Utah State University Athletics

Shelby Thompson joined the Utah State coaching staff as an assistant coach in 2025, then took over as interim head coach on March 17, 2026.

In her first game at the helm, she led the Aggies to a 2-1 victory against Idaho State. She went on to earn her first conference win in walk-off fashion at home against Nevada. Against SDSU, Thompson led Utah State to its fourth-ever series win against SDSU, and its first-ever in San Diego.

In 2026, the Aggies excelled in extra-base hits, slugging the second most doubles in the Mountain West (82). Among their 48 home runs, they belted four grand slams across three separate players. They accumulated 53 hit by pitches, ranking 14th in the NCAA and setting a program record. 

Thompson fostered Utah State’s largest ever graduating class of 10 seniors, including five among the pitching staff, and offensive standouts in Kya Pratt and Grace Matej. Thompson guided Pratt to her second-straight Mountain West All-Conference team selection, setting program top 10s in doubles (T-4th - 16), total bases (9th - 100), and hits (T-10th - 61) over the course of the season while Matej also jumped into the single-season leaderboards in home runs (T-4th - 12), RBIs (T-8th - 41), and total bases (T-8 - 101).

During her first season on staff in 2025, Thompson helped lead the Aggies to one of their most successful campaigns in recent history as the team made its first-ever Mountain West Tournament appearance and first overall postseason qualification since 2017. Utah State boasted one of the nation's top offenses, ranking in the top-35 nationally in doubles per game (8th - 1.73), batting average (15th - .341), on-base percentage (16th - .429), slugging percentage (16th - .557), hits by pitch (20th - 50), RBIs per game (22nd - 6.13), scoring (24th - 6.54), hits (31st - 494) and home runs per game (32nd - 1.27). Additionally, the team set program records for batting average (.340), hits (493), runs (340), doubles (90), home runs (66), RBIs (319), total bases (807), slugging percentage (.557), walks (181) and on-base percentage (.428). 

Utah State defeated No. 19 Baylor 6-4 for the team's first win over a top-20 opponent since 2010, and just the team's sixth overall ranked win since 2000. It also defeated Purdue 4-3 for its first win over a Big 10 foe since 2016. 

Thompson coached a program-record seven players to all-Mountain West accolades, shattering the previous program record of four. This was the most all-conference accolades by a Utah State ever in any league. Three Aggies graced the league's first team, including catcher Grace Matej and outfielders Kya Pratt and Tatum Silva. Additionally, infidlers Ariel Fifita and Claudia Medina each earned NFCA All-Pacific Region Third Team accolades, the first time since 2016 that USU had multiple all-region honorees. 

Thompson joined the Aggies after a strong playing career as a pitcher at UC San Diego. There, she made 73 appearances and 38 starts in the circle in four years from 2021-24. Her best season came as a senior in 2024, when she made 25 appearances and 16 starts for the Tritons. Thompson was a three-time Big West All-Academic Team honoree. 

Prior to her time at UC San Diego, Thompson played club softball for the Oro Valley Suncats under USU head coach Todd Judge. The native of Tucson, Arizona, attended Ironwood Ridge High School, where she was a two-time first team all-league honoree and was named the conference defensive player of the year in 2019, as well as the region player of the year as she helped lead the Nighthawks to a 5A state title.