How 'Coach of the Year' Sean Brosnan Revolutionized Newbury Park's Cross Country Team
The Strength Running Podcast
Jason Fitzgerald
4.7 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Coach Sean Brosnan turned around a struggling Newbury Park high school cross country team that hadn't qualified for a State Championship in 25 years. Soon, they had won three consecutive National Championships. How did he do it?
Sean shares the psychological and physical strategies he used to instill belief, develop fitness, and build the bond between teammates. His all-in, often unorthodox approach, raised eyebrows but undeniably got incredible results.
Himself a distinguished endurance runner, Sean was a collegiate All-American in both cross country and track and holds a personal best of 3:44.33 in the 1500m. He's now coaching for the UCLA track team.
His new book is now available: Beyond Fast: How a Renegade Coach and His Unlikely High School Team Revolutionized Distance Running.
If you have a young runner in your life - or you're a cross country athlete yourself - buy this book. Like Running with the Buffaloes did for me in college, Sean's work is powerful and may help another generation of young runners fall in love with the sport.
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They're also common in physical therapy offices. Because you can run with less body weight, you can gain fitness and practice good technique without risking your recovery.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ready, set, go! This is episode 423 with two-time National High School Coach of the Year, the coach who led his teams to four state cross-country titles in California, and author of the new book, Beyond Fast, Sean Brosnan. |
| 0:29.8 | Welcome to the Strength Running podcast. |
| 0:32.7 | We surround you with the same experts as pro runners. |
| 0:39.1 | So keep listening to hear coaches, physical therapists, strength experts, dieticians, sports psychologists, |
| 0:44.4 | and other thought leaders give you the best guidance possible to take your running to the next level. I'm your host, coach Jason Fitzgerald. I'm a former cross-country and track athlete for |
| 0:49.6 | Connecticut College. I've been coaching runners since 2010, and I'm a former columnist for Trail Runner |
| 0:55.3 | magazine. Today, I'm the head coach of Strength Running, host of this podcast, and author of the |
| 1:00.4 | Performance Training Journal, now available on Amazon. You can learn more about me and strength |
| 1:05.6 | running at strengthrunning.com. And a big thanks to our brand partners who help make the podcast possible. |
| 1:12.6 | If you get any value from the show, if we have helped you improve your training, please |
| 1:17.5 | consider supporting them so I can keep publishing episodes. We are supported by Lever, a body weight |
| 1:23.9 | support system that helps you return to running after an injury or increase your |
| 1:28.8 | mileage with less injury risk. |
| 1:31.3 | You've probably seen pro runners use lever. |
| 1:34.3 | It attaches to any treadmill and you hook into it like a harness. |
| 1:37.4 | It effectively makes you lighter, enabling you to run more volume than you normally could |
| 1:42.5 | with reduced injury risk or helping you return |
| 1:45.9 | to running after any injury. Just like an Alter G treadmill, Lever allows you to do more running |
| 1:51.7 | with less risk. So maybe you want to build more mileage than ever or introduce higher intensity |
| 1:57.4 | running a little bit more slowly because of injury concerns. |
| 2:06.0 | Lever is your system. The pros have been using Lever for years, letting them get the advantage of more training with fewer injuries. They're also really common in physical therapy offices |
| 2:11.0 | because they allow you to run with less body weight, allowing you to gain fitness and practice |
... |
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