Initially, this thread was entitled "UCLA track coach, Sean Brosnan, Fired for NCAA violations" but we changed it as Brosnan told us he was simply not renewed for next year.
UCLA we haven’t heard from you. Here is what it looks like from the outside:
- You should have expected this behavior from Brosnan. - He has a history of being aggressive,highly successful with an ego that is crudely concealed. - Limited scholarships & weak distance talent but high expectations, at least by him.
In the interest of the University, coach and especially the athletes wasn’t there oversight from the beginning?
Guy "builds" a HS powerhouse off of two incredibly talented families. That somehow qualifies him for a PAC12 job. He then allegedly commits recruiting violations and is not renewed. Now he says he wants to coach sub 4:00 women and 3:30 men? Yeah, you and everyone else in the profession.
Anyway if Kiplimo miss 5k in Budapest it doesn't change that much for Jakob since the guys who are really strong in the 5k are still all in: this year the competition has incredibily high quality with Gebrhiwet, Kejelcha, Aregawi, Cheptegei, Krop and Chelimo all in the game, with many of them focusing on the 5.000m only. Kiplimo wasn't that much a factor in this year race.
Guy "builds" a HS powerhouse off of two incredibly talented families. That somehow qualifies him for a PAC12 job. He then allegedly commits recruiting violations and is not renewed. Now he says he wants to coach sub 4:00 women and 3:30 men? Yeah, you and everyone else in the profession.
That is what I am saying.
I genuinely acknowledge what he built in HS and also argue that at current, his resume really isn't amazing.
As more programs encourage young athletes to train like professionals, female runners report problems with restrictive eating, irregular menstrual cycles, and long-term bone damage.
The above article is behind a paywall and discusses two coaches of powerhouses Fayetteville-Manlius among them. In it, former athletes describe controlling and intense recruiting and training tactics. I also read Amazing Racers which is basically Fayetteville propaganda, but if you read between the lines, I believe the F-M coaches fostered a cult like atmosphere, exploiting teenage girls' need to please, controlling what they ate, what they did with their free time, in some cases, what they wore and training them with the intensity of pros. The girls felt like they had to follow along because they created a sense of fear in "letting down your teammates" if they did not. They had these girls running way higher mileage than most and what was healthy. The two athletes talk of long term physical and mental effects of overboard high school training.
The media loves to wax poetic over powerhouse programs like F-M and Newbury Park. My god, how many message boards about Newbury Park have there been in the last two years? and, as another poster mentioned, this has been in large part because of two families of talented kids.
At the end of the day its perfectly possible Brosnan just got lucky, was in the right place at the right time. It's also possible he overtrained these kids, dragging them to the mountains all summer to train like pros when they could have gotten summer jobs, worked on their drivers licenses, or had other interests. But one thing is for sure, there's no secret sauce. THere's no thing he's doing differently. He's either driving them too hard or he's lucky with the talent at the right time.
The Vin stories are bad but not surprising. No doubt Brosnan stepped in it with his massive ego.
What’s interesting is I remember that in the Newbury Park vs Great Oak documentary, Jace mentions that seans coaching style doesn’t work for everyone and many had dropped out due to that at Newbury.
I don’t think there is a major conspiracy here. Some other coaches may have complained but that happens ALL OF THE TIME.
These little recruiting violations are nothing really, deals are done behind closed doors for almost every kid. Talk to the parents, the HS coach, heck have a kid on your team tell another athlete (hey if you go on the portal coach says we got a full for you).
He has a BIG ego. UCLA in general is a dysfunctional athletic department (varsity blues enrollment scandal, not being competitive in the greatest recruiting area globally at the most applied to university in America).
I coach DI for a while and the wise tennis coach pointed out to me “in modern athletic departments there are more Athletic directors than coaches. They are all power hungry and you advance two ways: Raising money, hiring a new coach. You can’t please them all so stay out of the way and do your paperwork on time.”
I think he made some waves and a new young AD wants to add a new hire to their resume is all.
What’s interesting is I remember that in the Newbury Park vs Great Oak documentary, Jace mentions that seans coaching style doesn’t work for everyone and many had dropped out due to that at Newbury.
That's what is so unfortunate and also worth remembering about programs like this. For so many runners, and even pros, high school was an introduction to the sport not an all out bloodbath. For every Nico Young there are kids who turn away from it, and those kids could have had potential too.
Emma Coburn used to talk about how she would get bad anxiety and cry before races. She ran 20 miles a week tops and played volleyball and basketball alongside it. Does that sound like someone who could have handled a top program like this? But wait, Emma has Olympic and world championship medals in her house, but none of the kids who came from these programs can say the same.
I'm not saying high school programs shouldn't be challenging. But if they are over the top controlling, maybe they shouldn't be lionized as much from the media.
Or maybe vin lananna is a psycho that likes to make hell for a girl who just wanted to go home after a someone was vandalizing her house in Charlottesville. Listen to her podcast for peet sake.
This, in my eyes, is a problem. Im sure I’ll get some blow back on this, but isn’t high school cross country supposed to be for everyone?
When I was in high school, 8ish years ago, everyone who wanted to be on the team, could be. No cuts/no weeding people out.
You can have a really successful, competitive team and also cater to the kids who can’t break 25-30 mins in the 5k. A good HIGH SCHOOL coach can and should do both imo. High school is participation. And you can cultivate a winning environment that includes the kids who are not talented enough to compete on the national level.
Seems to me like Bronson wants the next best thing though. Now he claims he can coach women to sub 4/3:30 min 1500s. Maybe he can only coach people that are already massively talented. Maybe if that’s the case, he should be coaching pros? Runners already developed.
Correct me if I’m wrong, Barnett ran about 4:15 1500 equivalent in high school to 4:11 at uva and then Bronson is responsible for another 3 seconds?
Youngs and Salhmans are obviously some of the most talented high schoolers we’ve seen.
Problem is, what high level post-college athlete is taking a chance on this guy whose resume includes hs coaching and one year at a college? Maybe some of the ones who can’t quite get a big contract yet? But they are not the ones he wants?
Genuine question because I’m not sure how the transfer portal works, could he have told the 3 girls to wait a couple days before officially committing so it didn’t look suspicious? Like even if he 100% played by the rules and did it fairly? Would that also be tampering?
All 3 were in and out of the portal immediately which does create skepticism.
Pretty sure Sam has been dating Colin Sahlman for a couple years so I’m sure word of mouth got back the Bronson that she wanted out pretty quickly considering Aaron was being coached by his wife. And I think people would’ve been like ok whatever with this one considering he was her hs coach. The other 2 is where it gets messy.
And maybe it is public record but I DOUBT Vin complained about SB to the NCAA. Vin at Oregon and Stanford was the master of recruiting back channels. What’s the whole glass houses saying
The idea Vin would do anything vindictive towards an athlete is absolutely ludicrous. The idea Vin would scorch the earth with Sean Brosnan’s coaching career because he was wholly unprofessional is absolutely believable.
You're assuming the transfer portal thing was the only issue. If the dude got fired after one year, he was obviously a pain to deal with and caused enough of a problem that he wasn't worth the hassle. Everyone should stop portraying him as some sort of victim. UCLA wasn't wanting to fire him. He made his bed. It's not UCLA's fault (other than hiring him in the first place). Sean is the one that left his team in this situation by his behavior.
The most entertaining part of the story is his quote in the Letsrun piece.
“I just want – I want people to run fast. I want to help them run fast and reach their goals and do great things. I want to – I want women to run under four minutes [in the 1500]. I want guys to run close to 3:30. Those are the people I want to coach. That’s what I want to do.”
Of course you want to coach the best. He sounds like such a dummy. "I want to coach people way faster than anyone I've ever coached". What makes him think he's earned that or people that fast want to be coached by some sleaze bag that has never coached anyone at their level. This guy's ego is so far out of control.
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