PEORIA, Ill. – Peoria High School will need to find a new football coach.
Current coach Tim Thornton announced on his Facebook page Monday that he will be leaving to work with a former assistant coach in Naples, Florida at the start of the next semester.
Thornton was coach of the Lions for 14 years, and for six years at Woodruff prior to that.
As Peoria High coach, Thornton made the playoffs eight times, winning the Class 5A state championship in 2016 and finishing runner-up in 2022. He made the playoffs three times at Woodruff.
In his post, Thornton says what he’s most proud of while working with his players is “the opportunities we’ve created by helping so many of them become men.” He continued to say that his motto of “Win the city” was about striving to be a program anyone wanted to be involved in.
The move comes a few weeks after Peoria High forfeited seven wins from the 2023 season for usage of an ineligible player.
