Colorado State University Athletics
Thorson Added To Men's Basketball Coaching Staff
4/6/2018 9:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Veteran coach rounds out the assistant coaches for head coach Niko Medved
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Colorado State men's basketball has completed the coaching part of the staff with the addition of assistant coach Dave Thorson, head coach Niko Medved announced today. Thorson spent the 2017-18 season on Medved's staff at Drake after 23 extremely successful years as the head coach at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis, Minn.
"Dave is a person I have known and admired for a long time," Medved commented. "He is a tremendous coach and person and was one of the most successful coaches in Minnesota high school basketball. He brings that wealth of knowledge and character to our program here and I am excited to have him here at Colorado State as he will be a key part of achieving our goals."
"The opportunity to work for Niko and with a fantastic staff, representing a university like Colorado State, is basketball nirvana for me," Thorson said. "Rita, Ella Ray, and I are ecstatic to be a part of the Ram family. We look forward to calling Fort Collins home."
At DeLaSalle, Thorson won nine state championships, including the program's sixth-straight title in 2017, and amassed a 527-130 record in his 23 seasons. The nine state championships are the most by a coach in state history while the six-year championship streak is also a state record. His teams also finished as state runners-up twice, third once and fourth once.
Thorson's teams captured 20 Tri-Metro Conference championships and won a conference record 72-straight games from 1998-02. He was named the Minnesota Class 3A Coach of the Year four times (2005, 2006, 2016 and 2017) and was a 12-time Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association Region Coach of the Year.
He began his coaching career as an assistant at South Dakota in 1989 and Minnesota from 1990-94, a span in which Medved was a part of the Golden Gophers' program. In addition to his legendary career at DeLaSalle, he also served as the Islanders' Vice President of Development and secured more than $29 million in funds for DeLaSalle, including the largest single and planned gifts in school history.
Thorson joins former Drake assistants JR Blount and Ali Farokhmanesh on the Colorado State staff.
"Dave is a person I have known and admired for a long time," Medved commented. "He is a tremendous coach and person and was one of the most successful coaches in Minnesota high school basketball. He brings that wealth of knowledge and character to our program here and I am excited to have him here at Colorado State as he will be a key part of achieving our goals."
"The opportunity to work for Niko and with a fantastic staff, representing a university like Colorado State, is basketball nirvana for me," Thorson said. "Rita, Ella Ray, and I are ecstatic to be a part of the Ram family. We look forward to calling Fort Collins home."
At DeLaSalle, Thorson won nine state championships, including the program's sixth-straight title in 2017, and amassed a 527-130 record in his 23 seasons. The nine state championships are the most by a coach in state history while the six-year championship streak is also a state record. His teams also finished as state runners-up twice, third once and fourth once.
Thorson's teams captured 20 Tri-Metro Conference championships and won a conference record 72-straight games from 1998-02. He was named the Minnesota Class 3A Coach of the Year four times (2005, 2006, 2016 and 2017) and was a 12-time Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association Region Coach of the Year.
He began his coaching career as an assistant at South Dakota in 1989 and Minnesota from 1990-94, a span in which Medved was a part of the Golden Gophers' program. In addition to his legendary career at DeLaSalle, he also served as the Islanders' Vice President of Development and secured more than $29 million in funds for DeLaSalle, including the largest single and planned gifts in school history.
Thorson joins former Drake assistants JR Blount and Ali Farokhmanesh on the Colorado State staff.
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