Why I will be rooting for the Central Lions this fall
This is good news for fans of the Woodruff High School football team.
The Mid-State 6 Conference school hired Woodruff coach Tim Thornton as its newest head coach, notified when principal Randy Simmons called him hours ago.
“We put an emphasis on building a program and not a team at Woodruff,” Thornton said. “We’ll do the same thing at Peoria High.”
The Woodruff alumnus went 25-32 over six seasons with the Warriors, including three consecutive playoff berths from 2006-2008. The program had three total berths prior to that.
I fully expect the new Lions program to be a major power in the central Illinois area. Thornton is a proven leader, and with a much larger student body to work with, he should have no problem getting teams into the playoffs.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Just for the record, Woodruff JFL was I think 7 and 1 this year – 8 and 0 if a certain ref hadn’t gotten in the way of a play.
way to go Tim! Central is lucky to get you!
I can’t believe he named his kid Deuce. Why?