Newbury Park's Sean Brosnan Named CA XC Coach of the Year


Sean Brosnan, who coached the Newbury Park High School cross county teams to CIF-Southern Section, CIF-State and Nike Cross National championships, has been recognized by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association as the California Coach of the Year for both boys and girls.

This is the fourth year the USTFCCCA has honored high school cross country coaches in all 50 states. The announcement was made Friday. Here's the release. 

The winners from each state are in consideration for the association's National High School Cross Country Coach of the Year award. One boys coach and one girls coach from among all the states will be selected by a panel of experts and be announced later this month as the national winners.

Brosnan's boys team, led by seniors Nico Young and Jace Aschbrenner and a strong group of elite underclass runners, had a season for the ages, winning all but one time they took the line, including defending titles in the CIF-SS Division 2 and CIF-State Division II, and culminating with a victory at NXN. 

Young, headed to Northern Arizona, concluded his season with the individual title at NXN following a near-record defense of his State D-II title, and a course-record obliterating performance to defend his Southern Section D2 championship. 

At State, the Panthers shattered the course team time record (75:28, averaging under 15:06 per scorer), and at NXN, they held off state rival and pre-race favorite Great Oak by four points to earn the title on the wet, muddy course in Portland, Oregon.

Brosnan's girls team, led by sophomore Sam McDonnell, senior transfer Hailey Golmon, junior Fiona Hawkins, and senior Archana Mohandas, won CIF-SS D2 and CIF-State D-II titles and qualified for NXN. The Panthers ladies ran an impressive 90:52 team time at State to warrant the NXN bid.


Check out our pre-season interview with Brosnan, as part of a video series on the NP boys team:


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Photos by Jeffrey Parenti and Raymond Tran