Brian Bedard Position: Head Coach

Contact information: (970) 491-7651/brian.bedard@colostate.edu

Coach Brian Bedard is entering his seventh year as the Rams Head Coach, and his 24th season as a track coach for Colorado State University. During his coaching tenure, Colorado State track and field athletes have won many honors, including the history-making women's victory at the 2008 Mountain West (MW) outdoor championships, the first ever outdoor title in school history. The Rams nearly repeated the effort in the 2012 MW outdoor championships leading the meet until the final event taking second to TCU.

Bedard has been on the Rams coaching staff since the fall of 1988 when he began his career as the throwing events coach. He was honored as the Mountain Region and NCAA Division I Assistant Coach of the Year in 2005. He has coached two Olympians, a 2 x USA National discus champion, two NCAA Champions, 32 All-American performances, and 51 conference champions. All of Colorado State's school records in the throwing events have been set during Bedard's tenure. In 2005, Bedard was inducted into the Colorado State University Hall of Honor for his accomplishments as a coach.

The CSU track and cross country teams have a tradition of academic success under Bedard's leadership. Last season the Ram's earned USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors in men's and women's cross country and track and field. Both teams had a 3.1 cumulative GPA or better to qualify for team selection. Bedard supports and strives for high academic standards with his teams and celebrates those academic achievements equally with athletic achievement.

Coach Bedard's expertise extends well beyond the throwing events. For three seasons he coached the long jump and triple jump events at CSU and was also the heptathlon/decathlon coordinator for 10 seasons. He coached Liz Toman to a school record, conference championship, and NCAA qualifying mark in the high jump. In the multi-events Bedard coached conference champions in the decathlon, and CSU records in the heptathlon and women's triple jump.

One of Coach Bedard's most successful athletes is Casey Malone, a discus thrower he originally recruited from Colorado's Arvada West High School. Bedard and Malone have worked together for over fifteen years and in 2010 Casey won his second discus title at the USA Championships. In 2009 Casey also won the discus title earning a spot on the US team competing at the World Championships placing 5th. In 2008 Casey placed third at the Olympic Trials, securing a spot on the United States Olympic Team that competed in Beijing. Malone also made the U.S. Olympic Team in 2004 and placed sixth in the discus competition at the Athens Olympics. In 1996, when Malone was a freshman at Colorado State, Bedard coached him to a Junior National title and a Junior World Championship gold medal. In all during his collegiate career, Malone garnered four All-American certificates and an NCAA title in the discus. He currently owns the Colorado State University school record in the discus at 211 feet, 6 inches.

Another of Bedard's standout throwers is Loree Smith, the 2005 NCAA National Champion hammer thrower, who was also the runner-up in the indoor weight throw and a five-time All-American. Loree set the American collegiate record in the indoor weight throw with a mark of 74-3 during the 2005 indoor season. Loree also set an NCAA collegiate record in the hammer throw at the MWC Championships with a throw of 229-9 (70.02 meters). Smith earned a spot on the United States Olympic Team in 2008 and competed in the hammer throw in the Beijing Olympics.

Many other athletes have enjoyed tremendous success under Coach Bedard's guidance. He coached Shelly Borrman, a Fort Collins native and five-time All-American and 1999 NCAA discus runner-up, who still owns the Colorado State school record and Western Athletic Conference (WAC) record in the discus with a throw of 198-8. Another discus thrower, Liz Toman, placed second in the 2001 NCAA National Championships. Drew Loftin was the 2003 NCAA indoor runner-up in the weight throw and outdoor runner-up in the hammer. Loftin threw 71-1.5 in the weight throw and 232-0 in the hammer while competing for the Rams. Bedard recently began working with Drew Loftin again after a five year lay-off from throwing and Loftin placed third in the hammer at the 2010 USA Championships throwing 247-0.

Bedard's most recent standout is 2011-12 freshman Kiah Hicks who re-wrote the CSU freshman records in the throwing events. Kiah broke the frosh record in the 20-lbs. weight throw with a mark of 61-4. She also broke the frosh outdoor shot record with a mark of 50-2 and the frosh hammer record with a mark of 190-7. Outstanding marks considering Kiah had never thrown the hammer or weight before.

Coach Bedard has shared his coaching expertise as a featured speaker at numerous conferences and clinics across the country. He has also developed two instructional DVD's on discus throwing technique, which are available through championship books and videos. Before he began his coaching career, Bedard was a student-athlete in track and field at Colorado State University from 1983-88. He finished as the Western Athletic Conference runner-up in the discus and placed eighth in the shot put. Bedard is married to Jill Bedard (formerly Johnson) a volleyball standout for Colorado State University from 1987-90. They have two daughters, 16-year-old Kelcey and 14-year-old Baylee.

Bedard Quotes:
Our staff is working hard to recruit athletes that can score in more than one event area, have outstanding character and exceptional work ethic. The coaching staff is looking for the best athletes in the region that fit our program's philosophy. In the 2012 season we had a young team and it showed early in the season. The staff was patient and stayed positive with the young squad and they just got better and better as the season wore on. By the time we got to our conference meet our athletes were ready to compete and make a jump in performance.

The staff is very excited to help this team grow and learn and get better while teaching a process oriented approach to training. I am excited to see this young team develop over the next few years. The number of athletes that qualified for the Junior Nationals and NCAA West meet gives us a really good indication of the potential of this group. Our staff believes we can challenge for the MW titles this season.