Steve Jones
Assistant Coach/Pitching Coach
Coach Jones is entering his 22rd year of coaching baseball which has given him the opportunity to impact the lives of his players at all levels of the game. Numerous players who have been developed under his guidance have gone on to play baseball at NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA and JUCO educational institutions. He has also coached, and has been instrumental in the development of, numerous pitchers who have been selected in the MLB First Year Player Draft, including several who have progressed to the Major League level. Other pitchers who have trained under his guidance have gone on to play Independent Professional Baseball as well as European and Australian Professional Baseball.
Most recently, from the fall of 2019 until summer 2024, Coach Jones served as the Varsity Pitching Coach and Head of Pitching Operations for the Denver Christian School Baseball program. During this tenure the Denver Christian Baseball Program posted a 76-22 win/loss record and made four straight Elite 8 post season appearances, including back-to-back State Championships in 2023 and 2024. In the 2023 season, the DC Pitching Staff posted 4 no-hitters, 13 shut outs and a 1.33 team ERA. Also, in that year, two pitchers on that DC Pitching Staff posted the two lowest ERAs in the State of Colorado, 0.40 ERA (Evangel Baseball Commit-Brayden Epperhart) and 0.48 ERA (Mason Reilly). In the 2024 season, the DC Staff posted a 1.86 team ERA while tossing 10 shut outs and four, one hitters. Coach Jones also received an Assistant Coach of the Year Award for his contributions to the Thunder Baseball Program for the 2023 season (one of four awarded by the Colorado Dugout Club/Colorado Baseball Coaches Association).
From the fall of 2017 to the end of the spring season in 2019, Coach Jones served as the Pitching Coach for the Colorado Class 5A Ralston Valley Mustangs. Under his guidance, the Mustang pitching staff led the Jeffco 5A Conference in ERA and strikeouts while tossing 2 no-hitters and achieving a Jeffco 5A Conference Championship title. He left that position to join the coaching staff of Denver Christian School where his son, Sam had been named Head Baseball Coach.
Coach Jones served as Head Baseball Coach at Evergreen High School from 2015-2017, leading the EHS Cougars, along with his son, Sam, to an Elite 8 appearance in 2015 and 2017 and a State 4-A Championship Runner-Up result in 2017. While at Evergreen, Coach Jones was named 2015 Jeffco 4A Coach Of The Year and 2017 Colorado 4A Coach Of The Year. In each year of his head baseball coach tenure, the Evergreen Cougars were awarded the Jeffco 4A Baseball Paul Davis Sportsmanship Award.
Prior to that, Coach Jones served as a Pitching Coach at Colorado Christian University (NCAA Division II- Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) from 2011-2014. During his 4 year tenure at Colorado Christian, the CCU pitching staff made steady progress in various key performance areas, including the lowest single season staff ERA and the highest staff strikeout per 9 inning ratio at that point in program history.
Coach Jones has also served as a Pitching Coach in various summer baseball programs, including the Colorado Collegiate Baseball League and the Mile High Collegiate Baseball League, where he guided a pitching staff that set a league record by recording 19 consecutive scoreless innings.
Coach Jones has also conducted numerous coaching clinics and youth/prep baseball camps in the State of Colorado. While at CCU, he also was privileged to participate in a baseball mission trip to Costa Rica where he conducted pitching clinics at the Coronado Baseball Club in Coronado, Costa Rica (San Jose area). While in Costa Rica, Coach Jones also worked with pitchers from the 19U Costa Rican National Team in the National Baseball Stadium in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Michael Thorne
Assistant Coach/Outfielders & Catchers
Michael Thorne is entering his first season as an assistant baseball coach for Evangel University. His old-school approach to baseball and competitive nature will provide his players with the tools they need to grow and develop as ball players and as young men. Coach Thorne was born and raised in Denver, Colorado and attended high school at Faith Christian Academy.
In his freshman year of high school in 2016, Michael’s team won the Colorado 3A State Championship. As a sophomore and junior, his teams finished in the final four. Tragically, Michael missed his senior baseball season after having ankle surgery in early March of 2019. In his three active high school seasons, he played under coaches Jim Polson and Jeremy Lustik, compiling a career pitching record of 13-2 with a 1.74 ERA. He finished with 157 strikeouts and only 28 walks in 108 2/3 innings. As a junior in 2018, he went 7-0 with a 1.27 ERA and 86 strikeouts in 55 innings.
After high school, Coach Thorne pitched two seasons at Garden City Community College in 2020 and 2021, compiling 56 strikeouts in 48 innings.
Following his 2021 season with the Garden City Broncbusters, he transferred to Metropolitan State University (Denver). In both 2022 and 2023, Michael pitched in relief and his MSU Roadrunners teams made it to the NCAA Division II Tournament in back-to-back seasons.
Coach Thorne first joined forces with Sam Jones in the summers of 2022 and 2023 as a starting pitcher for the Denver Generals in the Mile High Collegiate Baseball League. Michael finished his baseball career as an MHCBL All Star in 2023. Michael would then join Sam Jones once again in 2024 at Denver Christian High School as a Varsity assistant and JV Baseball Head Coach. Denver Christian would go on to win the 2A State Championship in the spring of 2024.