Bruce Bronsdon - Head Coach - Women's Swimming & Diving Coaches

Bruce Bronsdon

Title:
Head Coach

Bruce Bronsdon enters his 16th year as the head coach of the men’s and women’s swimming and diving program. Last season, Bronsdon led the men’s team to a seventh-place finish at the Colonial Athletic Association Championship and a 3-6 record on the season. At the CAA Championship the men’s squad notched four top-seven finishes under Bronsdon’s instruction. On the women’s side, Bronsdon led the squad that posted top marks in the Drexel record books. One of his top newcomers last year, freshman Kaitlin Slowey garnered a CAA Swimmer of the Week award after posting top times in the 200 butterfly and 400 IM. Another one of his freshmen, Sarah Keeley, had a top-ten finish at the CAA Championship in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:06.39, the second fastest time in Drexel history.

The 2004-05 Dragon swim team completed a successful season under Bronsdon’s instruction as well. The men swam to a fourth-place finish at the CAA Championship and a 5-4 record as Drexel’s Cem Pasaoglu led the team with a CAA individual title in the 200-yard freestyle event and the team of Pasaoglu, Chris Backhaus, Gokhan Hulagu and Michael Mierkowski notched a victory in the 800-yard freestyle relay. In 2003-04, the men’s team finished seventh in the league and tallied a competitive 7-1 record. In 2002-03, the men’s team finished fourth in the league and compiled a 6-3 record. While at the NCAA Championships the team scored points for the second consecutive year. In 2001-02, Drexel’s inaugural season in the Colonial Athletic Association, the men’s team posted a 6-1 record and 12th-place Division I mid-major ranking. The Dragons also scored two points and garnered a 35th place finish at the NCAA Championships, which entered the Drexel record books as the first time a team had scored points in NCAA Championship competition.

Bronsdon also led the women to success in the 2004-05 season. The women's team was honored by the College Swim Coaches Association of America as one of the top academic teams in the nation. With a team average GPA of 3.56, the Dragons earned a fourth-place national ranking among Division I programs. The team’s mark was also ninth-best among all women's swimming programs in Divisions I, II and III for the 2004-05 season. In 2003-04 the team earned a team average GPA of 3.268, which ranked them 31st among Division I swimming programs.

Bronsdon’s recent successes are among a lengthening list of accolades that have yielded outstanding results. Under Bronsdon, the 2000-01 America East Conference Coach of the Year, the Drexel men captured the 2001 AEC Championship Title as well as back-to-back North Atlantic Conference Titles in 1992 and 1993. His first Drexel team swam to a 9-0 mark while setting nine conference records and eight school standards as first-year competitors in the NAC. In 1992-93, the Dragons posted a 7-3 overall mark and dominated at the NAC Championships by winning 11 of 20 events. That team set five NAC records, one school mark, and won all five relays.

Bronsdon inherited control of the women’s program at the start of the 1993-94 season and has steadily improved its direction by increasing both the pool of its talent and the talent in its pool. Increased athleticism and Bronsdon’s tutelage have resulted in a number of individual accolades for the Drexel women in addition to a conference fourth-place team finish in 1993-94.

Among his successes, Bronsdon has coached 38 Drexel student-athletes to America East or CAA Champion status. Fourteen of those 33 have claimed multiple crowns.

Prior to his arrival at Drexel, Bronsdon completed a two-year stint as the head coach at Carnegie Mellon University, where he directed both the men’s and women’s teams. In his final season at CMU, Bronsdon coached the Tartans’ first NCAA Division III National Champion who also claimed the NCAA Division III Swimmer of the Year award. His swimmers posted 16 wins during his two-year tenure while earning 11 All-America honors and two Presidential Athletic Conference titles. Bronsdon’s efforts at CMU earned him the Certificate of Excellence from the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) for outstanding coaching achievement in 1990 and 1991.

Bronsdon graduated to the head-coaching ranks at Carnegie Mellon after serving as an assistant coach at Penn State for 10 years. At State College, Bronsdon coached 20 All-Americans, four Academic All-Americans and two Olympic trial qualifiers.

A native of Philadelphia, Bronsdon earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Penn State in 1974. He received his master’s in physical education from the school in 1987.

Bruce and his wife, Cathy, are the parents of three children: Ali, who swam on the women’s team from 2002-06, Scott and Todd. The Bronsdon family resides in Harleysville, Pa.