Former Hartselle High School basketball player, Colsten Thompson, has been named the women’s assistant basketball coach at the University of Alabama Huntsville. The 2013 graduate is currently pursuing an engineering degree from the university, and has earned a scholarship with his new position.

Although Thompson has been working as a personal trainer for some time now, he says he was surprised when he was contacted with the offer. “Surprise is an understatement. This was never in the plan, but that just proves God has a plan. It is crazy how it has always worked out. God can make anything happen, even the dreams you didn’t know you have,” Thompson said.

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Thompson works full time with the team. He attends each practice and will attend every game once the season starts. Thompson says he will primarily be focusing on player development.

Before being contacted by the head coach with the new position, Thompson said that he had been working with several of the players on the team. He said that coaching had come naturally after training for several years, but was still a surreal experience. “It was a crazy experience. I never thought I would be at a division two level teaching,” Thompson said.

After graduating high school, Thompson played basketball at Martin Methodist College before transferring to Wallace State University to earn his associates. He then decided to pursue a career in engineering, and transferred to UAH. Due to regulations, Thompson was not going to be able to play on the basketball team his first semester there, but received an offer to play at a semi-pro level. It was after he finished with the semi-pros that he began to get into training players. “It progressed into getting more and more clients. I had never even thought about doing that before,” Thompson said.

Thompson then began working with Joe and Jason Smith that run a training program in the Hoover area. The brothers quickly took him under their wing and helped develop his training skills. “It is definitely a different perspective than playing. It is kind of like I had to teach myself how to train,” Thompson said.

With the help of the Smiths, Thompson said he quickly improved as a trainer and began running camps in addition to personal training. “I have learned that each day you do it you get better at it. You learn what ages listen and what they respond to,” Thompson said.

Thompson said he currently has plans to continue his studies at UAH while coaching, and is expecting to graduate May 2020. “Here I am seven years later still working with basketball. As long as I continue to pray and ask God to lead me, and as long as opportunities keep presenting in both fields I will keep working to succeed in both,” Thompson said.