Jerry Thor Hired as Carl Sandburg College Athletic Director
Aaron Frey
Wednesday, June 30, 2021 2:31 PM
Campus News, Athletics
Galesburg, IL
Jerry Thor, who possesses a record of building successful programs as a coach and developing new ones as an administrator, has been hired as the new athletic director at Carl Sandburg College.
Thor comes to the Chargers from Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, Iowa, where he had been since 2017 and served as assistant athletic director-director of strategic initiatives, men’s tennis coach, women’s tennis coach and director of esports. Thor inherits a Chargers program that seen a wealth of success in recent seasons, including Arrowhead Conference All-Sports Award titles in 2017, 2018 and 2019. This past year, the Chargers’ volleyball team qualified for the NJCAA Division II national tournament for the third time in four seasons, and Sandburg’s men’s soccer team posted an unbeaten regular season and was nationally ranked — both program firsts.
Thor’s hiring was approved by the Sandburg Board of Trustees at its meeting Thursday evening, and he will officially begin his duties as athletic director July 1. Vice President of Student Services Steve Norton and assistant athletic director Todd Winkler had shared Sandburg’s AD responsibilities since Mike Bailey stepped down from the role in February 2020.
“I’m incredibly excited and humbled to be chosen to lead this department, and I’m ready to get to work,” Thor said. “This is a program that already is consistently one of the best in its region, and I can’t wait to help Sandburg athletics take another step forward. I’m looking forward to meeting with our coaches, getting to know our student-athletes and connecting with our Chargers alumni and fans to help build and expand that network as we help Sandburg reach another level of success.”
An Illinois native and 2005 graduate of Argo High School in Summit, Thor finished his career at Iowa Central as the winningest tennis coach in school history, going 94-34. This past spring, the Tritons’ men’s and women’s tennis teams both posted top-10 finishes at the NJCAA Division I championships. Iowa Central’s women’s team had a perfect 17-0 record in the regular season, a first in program history.
Also at Iowa Central, Thor ushered in one of the first community college esports programs in the country in 2018, helping develop it into a national power that now includes 45 team members. Iowa Central opened an esports arena on its campus last September to help support the program. Thor spoke at the 2019 National Association of College Esports (NACE) national convention on best practices in growing a program, team organization and player development. He also is a founding member on the National Junior College Athletic Association Esports (NJCAAE) Equity and Inclusion Committee, helping expand opportunities for students and ensuring all feel welcome in esports at the collegiate level.
Prior to his time at Iowa Central, Thor spent 2015-17 leading the tennis programs at Eastern Florida State College. He turned around a women’s tennis team that had gone 3-11 prior to his arrival and helped launch a new men’s tennis team. Both squads went on to achieve top-10 national rankings during his tenure.
Before going to EFSC, Thor coached the men’s and women’s tennis teams at NCAA Division I Niagara University in 2015, leading the Purple Eagles to their best finish in a decade. Thor’s first head coaching job was with the men’s and women’s tennis teams at Seward County Community College from 2012-14. While there, he helped develop both programs from unranked to top-five nationally.
A former community college student-athlete himself, Thor played tennis at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills from 2005-07 and helped the Cyclones to two Skyway Conference titles and a pair of Region IV championships while earning first-team all-conference and all-region selections in each of his two seasons there. He also competed at the NJCAA national tournament in both years at Moraine Valley, helping the Cyclones to top-20 rankings. Thor earned NJCAA All-Academic honors, was an ITA Scholar-Athlete and was inducted into the Moraine Valley Alumni Hall of Fame in 2015.
After graduating from Moraine Valley in 2007, Thor attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a degree in finance. He later earned his master’s in coaching and athletic administration from Concordia University Irvine. Thor also is a doctoral candidate at the University of Louisiana Monroe, having completed his coursework in curriculum and instruction earlier this year with a 4.0 GPA.
Thor and his wife Veronica married in 2012 and have two sons, Sebastian (3) and Benjamin (1).
Jerry Thor