Thomas, Dave
| Dave Thomas – (1994) |
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The nomination blank proposing Dave Thomas for Lorain Sports Hall of Fame enshrinement contained the following observation:
“The commitment of time to coaching is most impressive—coaching and administering, together, is real dedication.”
Dave’s flare for athletics began at Lorain High School in 1964. He participated in varsity track, baseball and football. In his senior year of football, he was selected to the All-Buckeye Conference team as split end.
Shortly after graduation from high school, Dave became deeply engrossed in coaching CYO football at St. Mary Church, capturing successive championships in 1967-68. Later, in basketball, he would snare two CYO flags between 1974 and 1977 while coaching the St. Nicholas Church five to a combined 34-7 record. Dave also served as director on the Western CYO Board.
During the 1968-81 period, he coached in the Lorain Touch Football League. Dave also served as a league director with the State of Ohio Touch and Flag Football League. From 1977 to 1981 his Adams Cafe team won 65 games in a row in the city league, still a state record. From 1968 through 1981, Dave led his teams to 11 championships enroute to a city record 152-21-4, another record that still stands.
In 1981, the Lorain Parks and Recreation Department, in need of a volunteer to develop a city soccer program, found the right tandem in Dave and John Sebok. They created the Lorain Soccer Association. From its inception, Dave devoted much of his free time to coaching and administration. His PACC aggregation featured 21 championships on the way to an over-all 210-24-19 record, including a national record six straight titles in the annual Lorain International Tournament which Dave helped found in 1984.
These feats led to Lorain City Council commendations and Lorain’s first, and still only, Presidential Sports Award from President Jimmy Carter.
In addition to coaching football and basketball, Dave formulated a soccer program for Lorain Catholic High School. The team won four sectional titles and reached the regional finals while compiling a 94-52-21 slate and recent state ranking in Division II. The Spartans’ Chiah Valentine was named to the Division II Midwest All American High School Team and several others earned state honorable mention.
Since 1988, a total of 19 players tutored by Dave earned All Greater Cleveland honors and he has had several athletes move on to competing at the college level.
Thomas was a major factor in organizing the Lorain County High School Soccer Coaches Association for 16 area schools, along with the Big Five Soccer Conference for independent teams from Amherst, Oberlin, Lake Ridge Academy and Lorain and Elyria Catholic.
He was named North Central Conference Coach of the Year three times, and was selected Division II Coach of the Year in 1988 by the Greater Cleveland Soccer Coaches Association. That same year, Dave coached the West Side All Stars to victory over the East Side All Stars. One of his goalkeepers was Brad Friedel, of Bay Village, now a goalkeeper for the United States team in 1994 World Cup competition.
Thomas helped administer soccer programs statewide since 1983. He served as vice president of the Ohio North Youth Soccer League, president of Lorain County Soccer, director of the Lorain International Soccer Tournament, president and director of players and association development for the Lorain City Soccer Association, advisor to the State of Ohio Special Soccer Olympics and chairman of the State Soccer Team Committee for Junior Olympics.
He was named coach for the East-West Junior Olympic team in Europe and later as coach of a college team that toured nine European countries, playing 25 games that included a 1-1 tie with a powerful team from England before approximately 16,000 fans in Wells, Austria.
