PERKINSTON — Brad Thornton assembled one of the most dominant teams in Mississippi Gulf Coast history, and his hard work has been paid off with a national championship and now the Dave Williams Coach of the Year Award presented by Golf Pride Grips.
The award, voted on by the Golf Coaches Association of America, is handed out to the top coach in each of six divisions of college golf. Thornton’s Bulldogs won the NJCAA Division II Men’s Golf Championship two weeks ago in Joplin, Mo.
“It’s a huge honor,” Thornton said. “Dave Williams Coach of the Year is the pinnacle as far as coaching goes in our sport. To be recognized, it’s completely earned by our players. They did all the hard work, but to be able to be part of that coaching fraternity gets that award is something special.”
Dave Williams won 16 NCAA team national championships and coached eight individual champions at Houston. Thornton is Gulf Coast’s second winner of the award. Tommy Snell won it in 2008 and 2018, the latter coming after the Bulldogs’ first team national championship. Thornton was an assistant on that team. He’s the Golf Pride Grips East Region Coach of the Year, as well.
This year, Gulf Coast lost to only one community college team all year, in the season-opening Folds of Honor Challenge. The Bulldogs won the next 12 tournaments after that, topping 144 teams in total. They dominated the MACCC, winning the conference championship by 33 shots and the NJCAA Gulf District title by a whopping 65 shots over three rounds.
All five golfers who comprised the squad at the national championship won events and were named to PING All-America teams. All finished in the top 10 in the Clippd national rankings, and the Bulldogs had seven in the top 16.
“I’m just so happy for our guys, especially that sophomore class,” Thornton said. “The national championship was the one tournament that eluded them over their time here at Perk. They pretty much accomplished everything you could. I just couldn’t be happier for them. I couldn’t be more thankful for the parents we had who trusted me to send their kids to Gulf Coast for two years, and thankful for the opportunities we shared together over the years.”
For more information on MGCCC’s 12 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.
This post originally posted at https://www.mgcccbulldogs.com/landing/index by MGCCC Athletics
