William & Mary Athletics

Josh Thornton enters his second season with the Tribe women's soccer staff as an assistant coach. Prior to joining the Tribe, Thornton spent two seasons as an assistant men's coach at Bates College in Maine.

In his first season in Williamsburg, W&M closed the season with wins in two of its last three matches. A pair of players earned All-CAA honors under his tutleadge as sophomore Renee Kohler earned second-team honors, while redshirt senior Sarah Segan earned a third-team selection. Shackford also helped mentor junior Alex Kuhnle, who was called up to the Romanian National team.
 
Thornton joins the Tribe after spending two seasons at Bates College coaching the men's team, and helped the Bobcats to a 16-13-2 record. In his first season on campus, Bates advanced to the NESCAC Tournament for the first time since the 2008 season. He helped guide Peder Bakken to the All-NESCAC Second-Team honors following the 2018 season. Following his first season, Nate Merchant (first-team) and Max Watson (second-team) were both named to the All-NESCAC teams. Merchant was also tabbed the Second-Team All-New England, and United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-America honors.

During his time in Maine, Thornton has been the Premier Director of GPS Maine. With GPS Maine, he has coached some of their national teams and has also helped the Maine ODP coaching staff.  He won the GPS Coach of the Year award in 2015, before winning the Southern Maine High School Coach of the Year award in 2016 after winning the Main B State Championship with Yarmouth High School, and posting the best school record in school history with a 16-1-1 record.  Thornton most recently coached with the Portland Phoenix USL2, which came in second in the Northeast PDL division in 2018.
 
Thornton started his coaching career for youth academies in England. He went to Brunel University to pursue a degree in teaching. After completing his degree, he taught and coached for two years in London at Harrow Borough School. He owns his level 2 badge from the English FA as well as his USSF C License.