Coach Bronzan set to retire after 32 seasons

COS head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach David Bronzan is set to retire at the end of the 2018 school year. Coach Bronzan has been on the COS coaching staff since the fall of 1986 when he took over the cross country program from then long time head coach Joe Barba.

"It saddens me to know that Coach Bronzan is not going to be around on a daily basis" said COS athletic director Brent Davis. "Coach Bronzan is the model for what we strive for here at COS. He cares deeply about his student-athletes, he is an expert in his field, and he has embraced the entire running community in the central valley. There is no one more respected as a coach than Coach Bronzan."

Since taking over the program in 1986 Coach Bronzan has been named Northern California Coach of the Year six times and has been the state coach of the year four times. He has also been honored as the state coach of the year two times for women's track and field once as an assistant and once as a head coach. In the fall of 2013 Bronzan was inducted into the California Community College Cross Country and Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame.

"COS has been a tremendous place to work and it has been a thrill of a lifetime" said Coach Bronzan. "COS gave me the opportunity to compete after high school because I wasn't good enough to go to a four-year out of Mt. Whitney. After going to COS I was ready to go to Cal Poly."

Coach Bronzan graduated from Mt. Whitney High School in 1965 and enrolled at COS and decided to run for the Cross Country Coach at the time Joe Barba. "I ran for Coach Barba from 65' until 67' and he turned me into a runner. I was able to earn the school record in the mile. I improved so much under Coach Barba" said Bronzan. Coach Barba was the distance coach at COS from 1962 until 1986 when Coach Bronzan took over the program.  "Coach Barba and I still talk. He had a big impression on me as a student-athlete at COS" said Bronzan.

"I want to thank my wife Donna who encouraged me to take the coaching job at COS even though I had never coached before, she was a coach at Reedley High and Mt. Whitney and told me I should try it" said Coach Bronzan. "I fell in love with it and enjoyed working with the kids so much. I appreciate my athletic director at the time, Dave Adams for approaching me and asking me to be the coach. I've had the opportunity to coach so many wonderful kids."

Juan Vasquez ran for Coach Bronzan from 2000-2002 and is currently the Director of Student Success at College of the Sequoias. "He has impacted 100's if not thousands of student's lives. He is a father figure to so many of us student-athletes that came through his program. He teaches life skills and his encouragement helped a lot of us grow up. I'm not sure if I would be where I am today without his influence" said Vasquez.  

Coach Bronzan has been thinking about retirement from coaching for the past few years and said "I would have retired earlier but I just couldn't walk away from this group. People keep asking me why are you retiring but I think the better question is why did I stay so long? I just tell them I was just proud to be associated with these kids and this college."