WILDCAT SPOTLIGHT

A Meaningful Journey

After losing his father to cancer as a teenager, the inspiration of Braden Thorn’s high school coach helped point him toward a career helping student-athletes

by marissa dolson ’24

Wearing the prominent Linfield University purple baseball jersey hits close to home for senior Braden Thorn. For Thorn, the color purple is much more than his baseball uniform, Linfield apparel, or simply a color. Thorn wears purple proudly every day in honor of his late father, Jason.

“My dad passed away in the fall of 2018 after an 18-month battle with pancreatic cancer,” says the Sherwood, Oregon, native. “I wear the color purple proudly at Linfield since the color represents pancreatic cancer awareness.”

Thorn’s father was one of his biggest role models as he was growing up and remains so to this day. Says Braden: “The older I get, the more respect I gain for my father, and the more I wish he was still here. My dad was someone who woke up and went to work every day even while he was battling cancer. He was always there for our family even when I couldn’t even imagine what he was going through. He showed us all how much he loved us by how he carried himself and how he took care of my family.”

Losing a loved one is arguably one of the hardest challenges to overcome in life. The endless support from not only his family but also Thorn’s high school basketball coach, Rahim Tufts.

“Coach Tufts has been an incredible support system to not only me, but also my whole family. While my dad was battling cancer, Coach was there for me any time of the day. If I was at school and needed a classroom to decompress in, I could just head over to his room. If it was late at night and I needed someone to talk to, I would just walk down to his house a block away from mine.”

Through it all, Braden Thorn drew closer to his mother, Holli, and his sister, Courtney.

“I am very close with my mom and sister after growing up in a very tight family and losing our father. We are all there for each other now and always will be. My family taught me what it means to be there for the people you love. I wouldn’t be the driven and passionate person I am today without going through the things I’ve gone through with my family.”

At Sherwood High School, Thorn’s extracurricular activities have included serving as the school’s strength and conditioning coach, working side-by-side with Coach Tufts.

“Today, I am still very close to Coach Tufts and still very involved with the Sherwood High School basketball program. I have spent most of this year being their strength and conditioning coach and supporting their teams through their season. Coach Tufts is a role model to me. He’s taken me in as family and supported me through all of my highs and lows,” says Thorn. “I want to be the coach that he was to me and to the athletes that I coach someday.”

Strength and conditioning align closely with Thorn’s career goals. As he wraps up his final semester at Linfield this spring, Thorn will walk away from Linfield University with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and a minor in psychology. He plans to begin a new journey at Louisiana Tech where he’ll work toward a master’s degree in kinesiology with an emphasis on sports performance.

“I want to spend my life working with athletes as a performance coach or a baseball pitching coach or something along those lines. I would love to do this at a big university one day and build a culture that my athletes love to be a part of and build lifelong relationships with them as well.

“I enjoy building relationships with the athletes that I work with, and I want to be able to mentor them and always be available for them to help them navigate their own lives, whether that be in sport, school, or any other parts of their lives.”

Thorn uses his passions to help guide his own recovery day by day. After suffering a UCL injury to his pitching arm, Thorn spent time rehabbing and absorbing the knowledge throughout the long journey. Explains Thorn: “I tore my UCL my senior year of high school and tried to rehab my freshman and sophomore year (at Linfield) but ended up having my first surgery in May of 2021. I had some complications in the healing process and had to go back in for a second surgery in October of 2021. It has been an incredibly long and difficult three years of rehabbing, but I am back and healthy now.”

Thorn is eager to finish out his final baseball season strong and compete with his teammates before hanging up his cleats and taking on his new quest.

“I hope I can step on the field and have fun playing my last year of baseball with my guys. I want to continue to get better and throw harder and scrap to be the best pitcher and teammate I can until the very last pitch that I throw.”

ETHAN RHOADS | 0

5-11 | Sophomore | INF Seattle, Washington