Sean Brosnan, a two-time national team cross country champion coach for Newbury Park High School, is heading to college.
On Monday, the Panthers' head cross country and track and field coach announced his decision to join the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as the program's new assistant coach of track and field and cross country.
UCLA confirmed the hiring on its athletic site.
While Brosnan will work under UCLA Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Avery Anderson, he told a reporter today that the role will see him oversee the entire distance program.
"I wanted a job where I would be the coach," he told the reporter. "I was willing to wait for the right opportunity."
It's a stunning move for one of the best high school distance coaches in the United States, to leave a high school program who returns two of the fastest high school cross country athletes of all-time and a third with similar credentials who could give the Panthers unparalleled success in 2022-2023.
The New York native, who coaches business at the high school and began coaching the cross country and track and field program in 2016, has said in recent years that coaching at the college level would have to be the right situation and the right moment.
But there are many who follow the Newbury Park program who believe that Brosnan is an elite coach capable of leading a team at the collegiate level. He's won two national team titles and four state titles over the last four seasons.
Brosnan's seven-year coaching span with the program saw him develop some of the best athletes in modern high school cross country and track and field history. In 2021, he led Newbury Park to the Garmin RunningLane Cross Country National Championship. A year earlier, during the pandemic, his team was widely considered the best in the country, too.
While Newbury Park featured the likes of Nico Young and Colin Sahlman, who developed into all-time greats, there are current athletes like Leo and Lex Young and Aaron Sahlman who are in the pipeline of that same success.
Both Nico Young and Colin Sahlman won MileSplit50 National Runner of the Year awards in 2019 and 2022. They also won National Gatorade Athlete of the Year honors in 2019 and 2022.
In cross country in 2021, Brosnan led the Panthers to the fastest 5K average of all-time, 14:14, along with the fastest 3-mile average ever in 13:54.
Brosnan has been named a national coach of the year twice and he has seen his boys capture high school national records in the indoor 3,000m, the outdoor 3,200m and the indoor 4xmile. He's led two athletes under 4-minutes and two more under 14 minutes for 5K outdoors.
