BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – Monday the Mountain Brook community said goodbye to a man many say will be remembered for the impact he had. Mountain Brook high school football announced on social media, the passing of longtime Assistant Football Coach Michael Thorsen. During Monday night’s memorial there was plenty of love to go around for the marine veteran. Head Coach Chris Yeager calls him a man for the ages.
For the community, there’s no shortage of words for the late Thorsen.
“He always considered himself blessed. Because he got to do exactly what he wanted to do up until the very end. He was a coach and he enjoyed every single day of it from what he told me,” says Yeager. “
For players like Tucker Crawford, Thorsen was a coach who’s lessons and tough love went beyond the field.
“He was just stern with us to get his point across and teach us lessons and life lessons. I’d say for me, the way he taught me was the way I wanted to be taught and it helped me become a man,” said Crawford.
Thorsen was a career assistant coach of 25 years. During that time he would help mold the next generation of adults in Mountain Brook. Yeager says what Thorsen, a Vietnam veteran, brought to the table was leadership even if he never had the title.
“A lot of people think that you’ve got to have a position or title to lead. He was such a great leader. We’ve had four or five defensive coordinators and I’d always approach him about being the coordinator but he was very content with coaching our secondary and just taking orders and doing a great job at whatever was his responsibility,” he says. “The influence came without it. It didn’t take a title. It just took a guy that was willing to get in the middle of other people’s lives and love them up and demand the best of them and as a result of that, many many lives have been changed.”
Now as the community says goodbye to a man some would describe as being bigger than life, the memories and lessons he leaves behind live on forever.
“How to teach someone with being stern but also loving and caring for them at the same time, that’ll stick with me for the rest of my life,” says Crawford.
A private family graveside service will be held on Tuesday at Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo. Coach Thorsen died last Tuesday at the age of 77 shortly after retiring.
Get news alerts in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store or subscribe to our email newsletter here.
Copyright 2024 WBRC. All rights reserved.