{"id":18759,"date":"2013-12-13T22:16:53","date_gmt":"2013-12-14T03:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=18759"},"modified":"2014-01-06T11:15:48","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T16:15:48","slug":"andrew-thorne-from-succeeding-at-basketball-to-wanting-to-help-at-risk-boys-and-girls-like-hes-been-helped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2013\/andrew-thorne-from-succeeding-at-basketball-to-wanting-to-help-at-risk-boys-and-girls-like-hes-been-helped\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Thorne: From succeeding at basketball to wanting to help at-risk boys and girls, like he’s been helped"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Andrew Thorne was fresh from high school and needed a lifeline in August 2009, two weeks before college move-in day, basketball coach Kirby Dean<\/a> threw him one.<\/p>\n

Dean first met Thorne when he went to see a game at Skyline High School in Front Royal, Va., during Thorne\u2019s senior year. Dean saw Thorne as a perfect fit for the style of basketball played by his men\u2019s team at EMU, loving the passion with which Thorne played football.<\/p>\n

Yes, football.<\/p>\n

Thorne spent his elementary years in Manassas in Northern Virginia but his family moved west to Front Royal, just off I-66 about 60 miles northeast of Harrisonburg, when he was 11. Thorne credits the move to his parents\u2019 efforts to address their marital, financial and legal difficulties, along with their realization that they needed to get their two sons away from bad neighborhood influences.<\/p>\n

New neighborhood, but still a struggle<\/h3>\n

Thorne says his parents feared that one more bad move on their part, and they might have their sons taken away from them. So they picked up and started over in Front Royal.<\/p>\n

Thorne\u2019s parents are still together, and his family is doing much better, his mother a janitor in the local ER, his father delivering sheetrock. \u201cWe\u2019re not perfect,\u201d Thorne says. \u201cWe still struggle.\u201d But he could count on his father coming to his sports matches, with his mother, whenever she could get free from work.<\/p>\n

Thorne played both football and basketball from his earliest years in elementary school, activities he credits with keeping him busy and mostly off the streets. James Thorne, Andrew\u2019s father, says that \u201cplaying sports helped. If he wasn’t playing sports, he would have done worse in school.\u201d Once in high school, Andrew quickly rose to star athlete, playing wide receiver, but a scare with a wrong-place, wrong-time, drug-possession charge sent college scouts running, including JMU\u2019s football scouts. On top of that, Thorne struggled to achieve a high enough SAT score to win admission to many universities.<\/p>\n

Impact of Coach Kirby’s visit<\/h3>\n

Both Andrew and James speak fondly of a time when Dean visited the Thorne home in Front Royal. \u201cHaving something like that from a small school stuck with me,\u201d says Andrew.<\/p>\n

James concurs, saying, \u201cHe sat down, talked to us and made us feel comfortable about EMU. He was like a father figure outside of this home to Andrew. Sometimes a coach will deal with a person as a player only. Kirby deals with a person as a student first, a player second.\u201d<\/p>\n

After scholarships and opportunities looked lost to him, Andrew knew whom to call, despite initially turning Dean down for a spot on the EMU team. \u201cHe told me, \u2018If you change your mind, I\u2019ll be here.\u2019 That stayed with me. I knew if I didn\u2019t go to school, I didn\u2019t know what I would do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the season began, Andrew \u2013 playing forward for the Royals \u2013 showed his drive to succeed and strength, proving he belonged with the team. \u201cHe is a competitor in every sense of the word,\u201d Dean says today, \u201cwhich is why we were always kindred spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew says Dean stayed \u201cin my ear to push me along and to be honest. He never gave up, and he\u2019s been getting on my nerves for four years! But that\u2019s what people need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Basketball was “it” at first<\/h3>\n

Dean\u2019s decision to recruit Andrew proved prescient. From 2009 to 2013, Andrew racked up 527 rebounds and made the top 20 list of Career Scoring Leaders at EMU with 1,053 points.<\/p>\n

Andrew admits that once the team began to excel (25-5 record in 2009-10, ranked No. 4 nationally in Div. III), his studies and attendance in classes were benched. By the end of his freshman year, he had failed out of EMU. Andrew says this opened his eyes to the seriousness of his choices; he realized he might never return if he stopped college after his first year.<\/p>\n

Andrew, with Dean\u2019s support, appealed for re-admission that fall and a reprieve was granted under academic probation. From there, Andrew knew in order to succeed he needed to focus and keep his priorities. \u201cI worked my butt off to get off of probation,\u201d Andrew says. \u201cEMU\u2019s decision to keep me after my freshman year and the chance to come back allowed me to try again.\u201d Now a fifth-year senior majoring in liberal arts, Andrew has raised his GPA to above average.<\/p>\n

Once he became an upperclassman, Andrew stepped into a place of leadership within the team. \u201cEMU has helped him out a lot,\u201d says his father. \u201cHe is more focused on being a man now, more responsible, more mature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew agrees. \u201cI\u2019m glad I came here; it helped me grow as a person and as a man. EMU helped me see two different worlds \u2013 this one, and the home I came from \u2013 and how I can transition to either one and still be the same person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoping to prove unbelievers wrong<\/h3>\n

Now that his time as the Royal\u2019s star forward has passed, Andrew is looking ahead. \u201cI am definitely ready to graduate, to make my parents, Coach Kirby, and myself proud, and to prove wrong those people who thought I couldn\u2019t make it.\u201d Andrew plans to return home to Front Royal \u2013 not to return to his old habits, but to change the path followed by many youth in his community.<\/p>\n

Thorne says that an active Boys and Girls Club or a recreation center could make a significant impact in Front Royal. \u201cAt home, there isn\u2019t a place that provides something or somewhere for young people to go. Kids are out after school for hours, getting into trouble. If I had had something early on, a lot of things would be different,” says Thorne, alluding to some of his brushes with trouble. “I can lead by example.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew is determined to get a degree and to get a decent job. He’s not going to give up,\u201d his father says. \u201cEMU started him working with kids and he really liked it. He knows the Boys and Girls Club here in Front Royal needs help. He loves working with kids and wants to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew admits to still struggling and still needing the kind of mentoring Dean has provided. \u201cI do what I have to do. I don\u2019t want to let my parents down. I\u2019m doing this for me but also for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Andrew Thorne was fresh from high school and needed a lifeline in August 2009, two weeks before college move-in day, basketball coach Kirby Dean threw him one. Dean first ... read more about Andrew Thorne: From succeeding at basketball to wanting to help at-risk boys and girls, like he’s been helped<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":18763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4515,4516,5597,4522,14139,5730],"tags":[13936,5674],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-18759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-athletics","category-liberal-arts","category-mens-basketball","category-student-profiles","category-undergraduate-programs","tag-andrew-thorne","tag-kirby-dean"],"yoast_head":"\nAndrew Thorne: From succeeding at basketball to wanting to help at-risk boys and girls, like he's been helped - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2013\/andrew-thorne-from-succeeding-at-basketball-to-wanting-to-help-at-risk-boys-and-girls-like-hes-been-helped\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Andrew Thorne: From succeeding at basketball to wanting to help at-risk boys and girls, like he's been helped - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Andrew Thorne was fresh from high school and needed a lifeline in August 2009, two weeks before college move-in day, basketball coach Kirby Dean threw him one. 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