Karly Thompson

Karly Thompson entered the Fannin County school system as a 4th grade student in the fall of 2004 when she, her sister Katie and parents Beth and Jim Thompson moved to Blue Ridge from Sarasota, Florida. Karly discovered early that she had a natural talent for the game of softball. As her 8th grade year rolled around, she was one of the best players in the area as she helped the Fannin County High School JV team post a record of 7 wins and 3 losses. Her coach said “We had a great player in shortstop Karly Thompson. She had to pitch a game when our regular pitcher was sick and threw a no-hitter”. She moved on as the starting shortstop for the varsity squad as a freshman in the fall of 2009. During her high school career, Karly Thompson was a formidable hitter and equally skilled with her glove on defense. Playing the challenging position of shortstop, she committed only 22 errors in four years, posting a fielding average of .960. Her high school teams had winning records each year with 15 wins in 2009 and in 2010, 25 wins in 2011 and 24 victories in 2012. Karly’s numbers were impressive each season, highlighted by her senior year when she batted .404 with 9 home runs, 45 RBIs and 31 runs scored. Her 9 home runs set an all-time record for Fannin High School. As a junior in 2011, Karly was named second team All-Region, helping her team win the Region 8AA championship and a 5th place finish in the state tournament. As a senior she was a first team All-Region and a first team All-State selection. When asked about her biggest thrill during her high school career, she is quick to mention the 5th place finish in the state tournament in 2011. In addition to playing with the Fannin Lady Rebels, Karly was recruited to play with the elite Atlanta Vipers amateur team during the summers of 2012 and 2013. Comprised of some of the finest amateur softball players in the South, the Vipers finished 5th in the national amateur tournament held in Clearwater, Florida in 2012 and won the national championship in the tournament in 2013. Karly held down the all-important shortstop position for each of these teams. Karly was also an outstanding competitor for the Fannin Lady Rebels track and field squad. As a senior she finished second in the discus throw at the Region 8AA track and field meet. She went on to finish 7th, winning a medal at the state meet with a throw of 110 feet, four inches. In recognition of her athletic accomplishments, her classmates voted Karly as the Most Athletic senior girl in the 2013 graduating class. After high school Karly signed to play collegiate softball at Morehead State University. Morehead State is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, consisting of 11 schools competing in Division I of the NCAA. Softball is a spring sport at the college level so Karly began her college career in the spring of 2014. As a freshman Karly played in 46 games with 29 starts at shortstop. She was the starting shortstop as a sophomore, junior and senior, posting batting averages of .257, .301 and .276. She led the Eagles with 9 home runs and 31 RBIs as a junior and led the team with 11 doubles as a senior. Her biggest thrill at Morehead came during her junior year when she was named OVC Player of the Week. In that week in games against Toledo and Belmont, she hit for an average of .529 with 11 runs batted in. Karly graduated on time with a degree in Exercise Science in 2017. She went on to earn a Master’s degree in Sports Management and also completed the requirements for a teacher’s certificate. Her plan was to enter the coaching profession so her education path was designed with that goal in mind. After graduation Karly served as a graduate assistant at Morehead. She later was an assistant coach at Presbyterian University, was head coach at Washington County and is currently the head softball coach at Habersham Central High School in Georgia. She enjoys the teaching aspect of coaching at the high school level where athletes have not yet taken on the ‘entitlement’ character of many college athletes. Her focus is on the present and helping the young ladies whom she coaches compete at a championship level on and off the field.