Sophomore Asia Thigpen, right, grew up around SEC football and that fueled her desire to win. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Asia Thigpen was the No. 1 volleyball prospect in North Carolina when she picked Kentucky but the 5-foot-11 outside hitter suffered a knee injury in mid-September and missed six matches. She still was named to the SEC all-freshman team and had a career-high 15 kills and hit .538 against Tennessee in her first match playing all six rotations.
Kentucky has an even more loaded roster going into this season and has been picked to win the Southeastern Conference title again. However, coach Craig Skinner is happy to have Thigpen on his team.
“Any and every coach would want a player like Asia Thigpen on their team. She is an incredible competitor. She never stops trying to get better,” Skinner said. “You can tell that she’s been working her butt off.”
Skinner noted how hard she hits the ball whether she’s playing in the back row or front row.
“She’s all-in and she will give every player on this roster a reason to compete,” the UK coach said. “I’m not going to bet against Asia Thigpen to be playing for us.”
Thigpen says her family makes her the competitor she is. Her father, Tommy, is a long-time college football assistant coach who is now the linebackers coach for the Arlington Renegades
“My dad was a Tennessee football coach for five years when I was growing up, and being around that. SEC football is a gauntlet of a conference. The fans are crazy. The stadiums are awesome,” Thigpen said. “I think that definitely fueled my desire to always want to win. Then just that competitive grit you have to have.”
Thigpen knew the talent level Kentucky had with returning players, three transfers and three incoming freshmen. Yet she never considered transferring anywhere else where playing time would be easier to get.
“I think you’re gonna have to compete at every school whether that’s a smaller school or a bigger school like Kentucky,” Thigpen said. “I think this year, yes, playing is the goal, but I really just want to focus on my game.”
Kentucky returns All-American Brooklyn DeLeye and added Purdue transfer Eva Hudson, one of the best players in the Big Ten.
“They’ve played a lot of USA (volleyball). They’ve played a ton of matches,” Thigpen, who was also a talented libero in high school, said. “I think learning from them was super important in the spring.”
She learned a lot from her father at an early age. She says when she was between 8 and 12 years old she would be the only girl to attend a football camp.
“My dad coached linebackers, so I was always doing those type of drills,” she said. “But he also really harped on me that the best athletes don’t leave anything out there even in the summer. Sometimes it is really easy when you are in hard lifts to kind of pace yourself but I am gonna push to the last step. What really fuels me is that I want to be the best athlete I can be.”
Thigpen joked her father often offers coaching advice but she’s not convinced how much he knows about volleyball.
“He knows about winning and competing but he’s always wanting me to work on my technique. He’s always telling me I could have gone for that ball but he does always notice the leadership things and I do appreciate that.”
The Kentucky sophomore won’t deny that the Cats are thinking about a potential national championship season with the roster Skinner has assembled.
“We want a national championship. That’s all we want. I think when we all have a common goal, it’s really easy for us to go into the gym because we’re all working towards the same goal,” Thigpen said.
“We don’t talk a lot about winning a championship. It’s like an underlying goal that we all have. When we go to the gym, we’re practicing, and we’re competing our best to win a national championship because we know the work now is what it takes to win a title.”
