For the Seminole High School track and field team, the season will start in January, like it would for any other team. Some of the school’s best athletes will train day after day and as hard as they can to reach their goals, be it a new personal record or a state championship.
However, the Seminole team will have an advantage that most other teams don’t—their coach happens to be of Olympic-caliber.
Coach Ken Brauman has been coaching track and field at Seminole High School for 29 years. In that span, he’s coached six state champion teams, three state runner-up teams, 33 individual high school All-American athletes, and 48 individual state champions. He is an 11-time Florida Athletic Coaches Association Coach of the Year, and was the National High School Track Coach of the Year in 1997.
Brauman has been inducted into the Florida Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame, the Florida USA Track and Field Hall of Fame, and the Seminole County Sports Hall of Fame. He has even written three books, and published 11 journal articles and a DVD about coaching track and field.
That unprecedented amount of success as a coach is what got Coach Brauman recognized by USA Track and Field, an organization which he has been associated with in coaching and managing capacities for 25 years. His journey culminated this summer with a trip to the Olympics as Head Manager of the entire USA Track and Field team.
His job involved him doing all the logistical work for the team. He organized rooms, transportation, and equipment, while making sure every athlete was ready for their event, wherever and whenever it was.
Even beyond all of his national recognition, he is widely liked and respected by his athletes as a coach and a person.
Junior Nathan Kelsey pointed out that “he [Coach Brauman] is a determined coach who wants to see everybody succeed.”
Sophomore Alexa Chen added that “he pushes me beyond what I think I can accomplish.”
Brauman began competing in track and field in junior high school. He developed into a decorated long and triple jumper, winning four statewide gold medals in high school and being named a collegiate All-American triple jumper his senior year.
He started coaching as a graduate assistant at Iowa State University, and then coached at Palatka High School in Florida for 11 years before arriving at Seminole.
Many of the members of the Seminole High School track and field team aren’t aware their coach has had so much success—all they know is that he is an excellent coach, always helping his athletes get better and better.
“He makes you understand that your practices, your training, and your performance are all under your control,” said senior hurdler Andreas Chai. “So when you perform sub-par at big meets, you can’t blame anyone else but yourself, and he’ll remind you of that. He makes me want to get back on the track everyday and strive to improve my times.”
If there is one thing that Coach Brauman appreciates more than anything, it’s greatness. He said that most memorable part of the Olympic Games for him was “living in the Olympic Village and seeing the greatest athletes in the world on a daily basis—not just track and field athletes.”
If anybody is in a position to know greatness when he sees it, it would be Coach Ken Brauman.