As a robust competitor within the NAIA, qualifying a slew of athletes to the nationwide championship, Mates College observe and discipline is on the upswing. Led by head coach Henry Brun, the group has developed a components for achievement. In solely his second full yr as director of this system, Coach Brun led his males’s group to second on the 2024 KCAC Out of doors Monitor and Subject Championships. This mixed with an indoor championship win on the lads’s aspect has confirmed the group is able to make the leap in direction of changing into an elite group within the NAIA.

“Our males’s group specifically has discovered their id of being fairly ruthless rivals in terms of the convention degree. We’re actually establishing that id and I feel we will proceed to construct on it. We received the indoor convention championships, which was nice,” says Coach Brun, “[At the outdoor conference championships] we had a few issues not go our means. We simply weren’t as sharp as we had been on the indoor convention championships going into the out of doors convention championships.”
The ladies’s program at Mates College has additionally proven loads of promise, ending third on the indoor championships and just lately fourth on the out of doors convention championships.
“On the ladies’s aspect, it’s nonetheless rising. We had an enormous group of heavy hitters the final couple of years that every one graduated out. So we’ve bought a extremely younger group there,” says Brun. “We now have a category of about 20 girls coming on this fall. And so the ladies’s group will in all probability have about 50 athletes on it coming August, which is unbelievable…We’re rising, we’re shifting in the suitable route.”
The group reveals heaps of potential for the long run, with a lot of its finest athletes being underclassmen.
“We solely have eight seniors on a group that has 87 athletes. So yeah, it’s a younger group,” says Brun. “Plenty of freshmen, a variety of sophomores, an honest quantity of juniors, however only a few seniors.”
Because the years go on, Coach Brun seems to be to domesticate a profitable group tradition with athletes who all share the identical targets for the group and for themselves. With an emphasis on having nicely rounded athletes who’re good athletes, good college students, and good folks, Coach Brun seems to be to set his athletes up for athletic success and success in life: “Our program is constructed on the muse of three issues that I discuss with each recruit via the recruiting course of and that we reinforce each day a technique or one other — and people are honesty, integrity, and accountability. These are the three issues that we would like inside our program daily with everybody on our group. That can be a two-way road. I am holding them accountable and so they’re holding me and my workers accountable to be sure that they attain the targets that they need to on the observe and within the classroom.”
The group is tightly knit, typically partaking in group bonding workouts to make sure cohesive unity. The group’s dedication to excellence additionally extends past themselves with athletes serving to out in neighborhood cleanups and volunteering as officers for the native center college observe and discipline meets.
“We proceed to evolve and develop the tradition in our group,” says Brun. “Plenty of the student-athletes convey these concepts to the desk saying, ‘Hey coach I’d love to include this,’ or ‘Hey coach I really feel like we want this,’ and I’m all for it. That is their alternative. That is their neighborhood and I’m right here to offer all of them the sources possible for them to really feel protected right here, for them to really feel like they will go to warfare with their teammates to win championships, however then additionally construct high quality relationships that final a lifetime.”
Part of the group’s tradition additionally consists of involvement with the Christian religion and creating it each as a person and as a group. “With us being a smaller Christian college, one thing that’s inspired is determining a approach to discover, domesticate your religion,” says Brun. “On daily basis, our group circles up and we do a prayer circle…we go across the circle and we ask for reward stories and prayer requests…you actually begin studying about one another, what’s occurring of their lives and their households at residence.”

The Mates Falcons just lately capped off their season on the NAIA Out of doors Monitor and Subject Championships with some very sturdy performances, highlighted by junior Pablo Sanz-Rillo incomes his third All-American honor within the 5000m race stroll. The remainder of the group carried out admirably with six extra female and male athletes ending within the prime 20 of their respective occasions.
Get recruited to Mates College
Mates College Falcons Monitor & Subject and Cross-Nation Recruiting Requirements
The next requirements for Coach Brun’s recruiting are topic to alter, however function indicator of whether or not or not you’ll be on Mates College’s radar as soon as your Streamline Athletes profile is full.
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