Friday, Feb. 11, 2005

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Landmark founder, coach to be roasted tomorrow

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

Those who follow high school cross-country or track know the name Bill Thorn.

A Tyrone resident, he was one of the founding members of Landmark Christian School and has achieved a lot of success as a coach of both the boys and girls cross-country and track teams. His cross-country and track teams have earned a combined 20 state titles and 28 region titles. His teams have also won the most consecutive state titles in girls and boys track and have scored the most points in a state meet in any classification.

While he is proud of these accomplishments, Thorn states that there is no secret recipe for the success. He adamantly refuses the title of guru and states that what he does is take ordinary people and helps them do extraordinary things. It is because of his amazing success and impact on everyone he encounters that he is being honored tomorrow night.

Thorn began his coaching career in 1955 at Georgia Military Academy, which is now known as Woodward Academy. He coached football at the school and proceeded to coach football, and sometimes track, at Headland High School, Colonial Hills Christian School and Fayette Christian School before helping to start up Landmark Christian School, where he coached football up until a few years ago. Thorn said that while there are different learning processes for each team that he coaches, the principles are all still the same.

“Like the Bible,” Thorn explained. “Those words are there forever.”

One of the keys to his team’s successes could be the consistency of Thorn’s message, which is all about training. He believes that if an athlete does the program day in and day out in practice and does it correctly, that the results of that training are there when it counts.

“I don’t believe in hope or good luck,” said Thorn. “What happens is what you’ve trained.”

If that is true, the runners of the Landmark Christian School are among the best trained in the state. The good results even show up in seasons when they are not expected to. Thorn recalled the 2003 boys cross-country team that lost to some of their state opponents in meets during the season and then beat them in the state meet.

“The only chance they had was to keep doing what they were doing,” said Thorn. “They didn’t feel beaten. They just kept on.”

He found a similar story in this year’s girls cross-country team, which didn’t have the numbers for a full team for much of the season, but also won the state championship.

“They never let up and it paid of for them,” said Thorn. “They’ll never forget that. It will carry over into everything they do. They won’t win every time but they will be successful.”

Thorn states that he is not a noted runner but he has been running since 1968. He has run in the Peachtree Road Race every year for 35 years and has also been involved in other races, though he seldom runs in them now as many of them fall on dates that his teams are competing in meets. He exercises between an hour and an hour and a half each day and never takes a day off. He finds that running track can be used as a tremendous developmental tool for people if done right, adding that it can, “take you to another level.”

Thorn is an impressive person to speak with and one gets the feeling that he feels anything can be achieved if you put your mind to it. The creation of Landmark Christian School is an example of that. He had begun to get a feel for what a Christian school education entailed and he and several parents wanted to create a school that gave students a private Christian school education, while also giving them the same opportunities in athletics and fine arts that students at public schools received.

The school’s first location was in a warehouse behind the Mask Tire Store in Fayetteville and there were 184 students. It became apparent that they were outgrowing that location and in 1991 they purchased the old Campbell High School in Fairburn. Their campus has grown to over 60 acres and recently they opened a second elementary school on 18 acres in Peachtree City.

Thorn is proud of the school and its accomplishments and the school is equally as proud of their coach. The roast tomorrow will feature guests from all of Thorn’s stops in his coaching career and close to 300 people are expected to attend. The event is a fundraiser for the Eagle Backers, the booster club for the athletics and fine arts department.

Thorn is deciding on continuing his coaching career on a year to year basis, though he shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. He will celebrate his 51st wedding anniversary with his wife, Patty, this June and one day hopes to have sometime to go back to his first love, fishing. As for right now, the boys and girls track teams are practicing and both have their sights set on another state title. If they stick with Coach Bill Thorn, they have a good shot of winning it yet again.