Glenn Thornton admits it is a dream come true after returning to Hunslet Club to become their new manager.
Thornton’s coaching journey began several years at the highly-regarded West Yorkshire League Premier Division community club.
Thornton – also a former Hunslet player – now runs his own coaching business GT Sports and coaches Rotherham United’s under 9s – and that is largely down to Hunslet.
“I started my coaching career at Hunslet back in 2014 as a volunteer,” Thornton told Non League Yorkshire.
“It has come full circle and it is good to go back there.
“I was working in a printers doing shifts and I wasn’t happy with my work (in 2014) and I wanted to do a job I enjoyed so I looked at careers you could do and I thought ‘I’ve always enjoyed football and liked sport, I’d like to get into coaching’.
“One of my good friends Shane Telford, who sadly died a couple of years ago, said to me ‘come help my under 10s team’.
“Now there’s three or four players (Kieran Telford, Keenan Mannings and Tom Crowther to name three) who were in that team who are in the first team which is nice.
“But I did it originally as a volunteer with aspirations to do it full-time.
“I passed my Level Two (in coaching football) and I got made redundant which in hindsight allowed me to follow my dream and I’ve built up my company in the last five years.
“I’m going to be really proud when I’m in the dugout for the first league game as it is something I probably never thought I’d get to.
“I never thought I’d be coaching or running my own team at 40.”
Thornton has brought the curtain on his playing career to replace brothers Dave and Kev Burke in the Hunslet hot-seat.
He had been playing for Rothwell Juniors when the call from Hunslet came.
“Adam (Hartley) who was part of the management before messaged me in March asking if I’d like to get involved in the first team with them,” he said.
“I said ‘not really’ because if I was going to go into management at open age level I would want to do it on my own and do it my own way.
“Adam rang me towards the end of May, a week after I’d agreed to take over Rothwell’s second team because I was going to be playing there.
“He said the management from last season were going on a committee and he offered me the chance to take over as manager.
“I spoke to my wife and decided that I wanted to take it.
“Coaching in the (West Yorkshire League) Prem is where I wanted to go.
“It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.
“I played for Hunslet for eight years and I loved it there and I probably regretted leaving.”
Thornton – who has appointed former Frickley Athletic under 21s coach and fitness guru Chris Chapman at his side as his assistant – is preparing for a 14th August start for the new Premier Division campaign.
The Hunslet side may be a bit different to recent years as some players have left, but Thornton has promoted several from the reserve team and made a few signings.
Sam McDonnell and Rhys Walker have arrived from Whitkirk, while ex-Carlton Athletic and Robin Hood Athletic hot-shot Ashley Beck has returned from a sabbatical from the game.
Thornton hopes his squad will become a force in the league.
“Hunslet have always been top five or six or mid-table, but for me I want to be pushing as high as we can,” he said.
“The aim has got to be to challenge for the title and try and win a cup, based on the players we have got.
“From what I have seen so far I would want us to be challenging up there.
“You have to got to have that aim and target to go for.
“I’m trying to get that across to the players.
“It is a tough league and Beeston are the top side and obviously Field are up there so they are the teams we need to aim for and catch.
“We’re hoping after pre-season we can get off to a flyer and get a bit of momentum behind us and be hard to beat and get a winning mentality behind us.”
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams.
Our work is playing an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.
You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.