PARIS - In the search for a person who embodies strong, silent leadership, look no further than Team USA at the 2003 World Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

You’d find that person in men’s head coach Bubba Thornton.

After 30 years of coaching, Thornton has an innate skill to rally a team that few coaches in the world possess. And he does so with as much passion to win, and passion for the athletes, as he ever has.

At the U.S. delegation’s team meeting Thursday night at the Athlete Village in Paris, Thornton addressed both the men’s and women’s teams. He spoke slowly, in clear, short sentences, letting the pauses between sentences – and the determined look on his face – to get his point across. His point was clear: Go out there, support each other, remember why you’re here, remember what you did to get yourselves here, and come back winners.

The team got the point.

“I want to beat you, but I don’t have to go around beating my chest all day,” said Thornton, the men’s head coach at the University of Texas for the past seven seasons. “As a head coach, you have to pick your moments, and distribute energy to the team when necessary. When you talk about something too much, sometimes you lose the moment.”

Thornton’s amiable, Texan nature belies the fact that “inside I’m going 100 miles an hour.” His athletes certainly seem to run nearly that fast. At Texas he has led the Longhorns to three top-five finishes, producing nine NCAA individual champions and 59 All-America honors. For the 14 years before he arrived at Texas, he guided Texas Christian to five NCAA top-10 finishes and five 4x400m relay championships.

His success in coaching Team USA also speaks for itself. He was an assistant coach for the Americans at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, where he oversaw the men’s 400m (gold, silver medals), 400m hurdles (gold) and 4x400m relay (gold). He also was head coach at the 1996 World Junior Championships.

Thornton says his approach to coaching, whether it be for a World Championship meet or a collegiate dual meet, is the same. “It’s exactly the same – you can’t be somebody you’re not,” Thornton said. “It’s important for the staff to maintain a balance so everyone feels and knows they are being treated fairly. It should be the same for the people who get the headlines as it is for the people who don’t.”

Plenty of Thornton’s athletes have gotten there share of headlines. NCAA championships have a way of making that happen. But the event that Thornton cites as his coaching highlight occurred far from the track.

“One of my best coaching moments was when I introduced Jon Drummond into the TCU Hall of Fame,” Thornton said. “It wasn’t about his accomplishments at TCU or his gold medals and other championships. It was how Jon addressed the crowd that night. He absolutely electrified everyone in the audience. His acceptance speech was from the heart.” It occurs to his interviewer that Drummond might have learned more than relay skills from his former mentor.

When asked what is most rewarding for him, both personally and professionally, when he is on a Team USA staff, Thornton’s response is vintage Bubba - to the point, crystal clear and heartfelt:

“Watching dreams come true.”