The Moorpark College athletic department decided to shake things up with the hiring of Will Thurston as the new softball coach for the Raiders.

Thurston is in his 31st year of coaching at Moorpark, and most recently served as the head coach for the men’s golf team. As coach, he led the Raiders to the 2008 Southern California Championship. The golf team qualified for the CCCAA State Championships in three of the nine years he coached the squad.

Thurston is in his second stint as the softball coach for Moorpark, coaching the team for ten years. In his first stint with the Raiders, he won the Western State Conference Coach of the Year award seven times, and his team won nine WSC championships in ten years.

As a coach, he posted an astonishing 115-12 (.905) record, creating a true WSC dynasty under his ten-year tenure.

Thurston is excited to be coaching the Raider softball team again, and hopes to guide the team back to the success it had when he first coached the team.

“It is a real privilege for me to return to the Moorpark College softball program as head coach,” Thurston said in a press release. “My past experiences as their coach were incredible, and I want to help out the current and future student athletes to share the same type of success that I enjoyed.”

Last season, the Raiders won the WSC championship for the first time since 2002, and Thurston now has to guide Moorpark to consecutive WSC championships in the upcoming season.