Head Coach Will Thurston

 Coach Will Thurston enters his thirtieth consecutive year coaching sports at Moorpark College. During this time he has coached Football, Women's Fastpitch Softball, Women's Golf, and for the past eight years, has been the Men's Golf Coach. His career record as a Moorpark College Head Coach is 980 wins, 441 losses and 8 ties for a .688 winning percentage.

Thurston coached teams at Moorpark College have won seventeen Western State Conference titles, appeared in fifteen CCCAA Regional Championship Tournaments (winning one), thirteen CCCAA post-season football bowl games (winning eight), and have appeared in five CCCAA State Championships Tournaments (finishing 3rd. 5th, 4th, 7th and 5th respectfully).  Most recently, two of his golfers have won CCCAA State Championship Tournament individual titles.

Some of the players Will has coached have appeared in the winning and losing end of National Championship sporting events. 1991 & 1993 NCAA Division 1 National Championship Softball Game (Jamie Heggen - winning twice), 1998 NCAA Division 1 National Championship Football Game (Judd Grandzow -winning), 1999 Super Bowl (Jamal Anderson - losing), and 2005 NAIA National Championship Golf Tournament (Chad Wensel - winning individual title).

Will Thurston was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but spent most of his youth in Thousand Oaks, California. After a successful athletic career at Thousand Oaks High School, he played football at Moorpark College in 1975 & 1976 earning All- Western State Conference honors and Most Valuable Player team honors. Thurston continued his playing career at California State University, Northridge for two more years but was riddled with injuries.

Immediately following his college career, Thurston joined the football staff at Moorpark College in the summer of 1979. He held this position for 21 years (1979 to 1999). At one point, he coached football in the fall and was the Head Softball Coach (1984 to 1993) in the spring. Notably, Coach Thurston was inducted into the CCCAA Women's Softball Coaches Association "Hall of Fame" in 2001. Coach Thurston was the inaugural coach of the Women's Golf team (2000-2002) at Moorpark College in 2000 and then began coaching the Men's Golf team (2001 to present) in 2001.

Moorpark College established in 2000 an athletic "Hall of Fame" recognizing outstanding individuals who have contributed to the growth and development of Moorpark College athletics. Six of the twenty-one athletes in the "Hall of Fame" have their ties to Coach Thurston. They are.. .2000 class - Jamie Heggen-Rennie, 2003 class - Michael Crawford and Missy Cress, 2005 class - Jamal Anderson and Ken Lutz, and 2008 class - Malia Outz-Krogstad.

The 2008 Men's Golf team at Moorpark College ended with a First Place finish inthe CCCAA Southern California Regional Championship Tournament and a Fifth Place finish in the CCCAA State Championship Tournament.

Will Thurston graduated from California State University, Northridge in the spring of 1979 with a B.A. degree in Physical Education and then received his M.A. degree in Physical Education from Azusa Pacific University in 1983.

The Thurston Family consists of wife Nancy, sons Kyle and Nicholas and stepsons Jeff and Danny. Notably, Kyle Thurston was the 2006 Western State Conference "Player of the Year" in Men's Golf at Moorpark College before matriculating to University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Kyle and his father have the distinct honor of being named "Most Valuable Player" for their respective teams while playing at Moorpark College.