Track and field coach Paul Bryan recognized for decades of success at Pine Forest, Woodham

It’s not all too often that track and field coach Paul Bryan is at a loss for words.

He found himself in that scenario at the Escambia County track and field championships on Saturday at Booker T. Washington High School. Right before the bulk of the meet started, a special gathering was held at the infield of the track with a bunch of current and former track and field athletes from Pine Forest and Woodham.

There stood a surprised Bryan, surrounded by 50 or more of his athletes to recognize his years of accomplishments – all of which were permanently etched onto a golden plaque, presented to him at the meet.

It was a stoppage in a track meet that Bryan likely wouldn’t have wanted. He’s not one to boast or brag about his accomplishments. He would have much rather just focused on the track meet with his athletes. If there was going to be any sort of celebration, he’d want it after to be able to have a personal conversation with every person that showed up – including some of his family, some of whom he hadn’t seen since his mother passed.

What better place to recognize the man that everyone referred to as “Coach Bryan” than at a track meet?

“What better way to see Coach doing what he loves?” Pine Forest assistant track and field coach Richard Dix said. “All of the girls remember coach, seeing him run back and forth to events at track meets. What better way to see Coach than in his natural habitat? I think it was great.”

Even then, Bryan’s the type of person who wouldn’t have wanted the public recognition as it is.

“If he knew about it, he probably would’ve shut it down,” Pine Forest senior Katelyn Kidd said.

“I just wanted to stop. I didn’t want to have a track meet anymore,” Bryan said. “I loved every second of it. It was a complete shock.”

But for all the words Bryan didn’t have, his athletes – current and former – had the words to describe him.

Caring. Selfless. Humble. Honorable. Dedicated. Passionate. Impactful. Genuine.

There’s millions of other words that could be used, said Kori Arrington, who graduated from Pine Forest in 2020. She said she could fill a book with words to describe Bryan – and she’d still probably be missing a few.

“We’re his family down here. There’s not one word to describe the man,” Arrington said.

Most importantly? Every person that was asked to describe Coach Bryan said he was a “father figure.”

“When I see these girls, it means so much to me because I never had children of my own. That void that I have, they filled that void,” Bryan said. “That’s what’s kept me in coaching all these years.”

“He was just that person, even as our track coach, he was so much more than that. He was someone you could count on. He was someone you could depend on. Someone you could call late at night,” said Dacia Mays, who ran for Bryan at both Woodham and Pine Forest, and now coaches at Booker T. Washington. “He would’ve never asked for this – or even wanted this – but he deserves it. …

“I try to instill some of the same things that he taught me while I was in high school. … I yell some of the same things that he used to yell, or I want to do some of the same team functions, and I’m like, ‘Oh god, I’m becoming my old man,’” Mays said with a laugh. “I definitely have those moments where I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s Coach Bryan right there.’”

‘Not bad for a football coach’

Bryan’s legacy in the Panhandle goes back decades. He was a football coach, and that was his first love. He was asked to take over as track coach for the boys side. Eventually, he went to the girls and thought coaching track was “kind of fun,” Dix said.

Then began years of county championships, district titles, and numerous state championships – both individually and as a team among other accomplishments. He’s had two state championships at Pine Forest (2010 and 2011), two state runner-up finishes, with one at Woodham (2000) and one at Pine Forest (2009). There were six other top-10 finishes at state.

There are eight regional titles (1999, 2001-2004, 2008, 2010-11, 2013 and 2018). He’s won 20 district titles (2000-01, 2003-19, 2023). And he’s coached 24 individual state champions, his first being Shameika Johnson in 1998, and his most recently being Arrington in 2019.

Bryan’s been named the Florida Dairy Farmers Girls 3A Coach of the Year three times (2009-11) and the PNJ Track and Field Coach of the Year 14 times (2000-01, 2003-05, 2007-13, 2018, 2022).

“Not bad for a football coach, right?” Dix said with a laugh. “He’ll tell you that football is his first love. But track is his passion.”

Some athletes from Bryan’s first season at Woodham, the 1995-96 school year, were at Booker T. on Saturday. That included Kidd’s mother, Beth, who was a freshman for the Titans during the 1996 season.

Before that year, Beth said older athletes told her that coaching at Woodham had been “shoddy” at best. Bryan was a breath of fresh air for the Titans. And he turned the program around in just one season.

“Coach Bryan is genuine. You can tell he cares for his cares, even if you don’t win,” Beth said. “He’s had an impact on a lot of lives – a positive impact on a lot of lives. … Everybody here is just trying to show that we love coach. He’s created an awesome legacy.”

‘There’s no “I” in “Team”’

The sport of track and field can sometimes be counted as an individual sport. Each event – minus a relay – relies on a single runner, jumper or thrower to perform their best in order to gain the most points for their team in a meet.

That part seems obvious, right?

Bryan coached a lot of fast runners and a lot of long or high jumpers. His expertise is second to none around the state of Florida.

“He just really showed us the power of togetherness. Everyone wants to be fast. But there’s a difference when the entire team is fast,” Mays said. “State championships and state titles, you can do it individually, but it’s so much better when you do it as a team.”

“He makes sure you focus individually on your event, but make sure you work together as a team,” said Courtney Barge, who graduated from Woodham in 2001. “That’s what wins state championship – there’s no ‘I’ in ‘team.’”

Bryan wasn’t just focused on preparing his athletes to be the best and for the next level – whether that meant running in college, or whatever came next no matter what. Bryan also got the best coaching staffs possible.

That included coaches like Ken Rollins, Kevin Rollins and now Dix.

“Every year (in team pictures), it gets bigger as we kept coaching. Those are good years. Those are fun years,” Ken Rollins said. “I’m glad we had it while we did.”

“That was the thing with him, he wanted to put together the best staff possible. … That way he didn’t have to coach all 17 or 18 events,” Kevin Rollins said. “And that’s just impossible, especially if you want to have success. To put together a quality staff, he’s been able to do that since the Woodham days up until today with Richard Dix.”

Dix, who used to be a head coach at a different track and field program, said he’s learned a lot from Bryan over the last three years while serving as an assistant coach at Pine Forest. And now that Bryan is retiring, Kevin Rollins believes Dix is the heir apparent for Bryan’s successor.

“Now I’m ready for the next step if that day comes, because I got to work under Coach Bryan,” Dix said. “I can only hope that, moving forward, if I get the opportunity to be a head coach again, that I can take the knowledge that he gave me and instill it into my athletes. … If you’re going to learn from somebody, there’s no better in northwest Florida than Paul Bryan.”

The legacy Paul Bryan leaves

While talking with Katelyn and Beth, Bryan – from a distance – yelled out, “the beginning and the end,” referring to Beth being on his first official team, and Katelyn being on his last.

“With Katelyn, I’ll forget and call her Beth,” Bryan, who’s 63, said with a laugh. “Makes me feel old. They call me ‘Pops.’ … But it’s been a good run.”

Bryan may be retiring from being head coach, but, to be frank, he’s not going anywhere. All he’s doing is no longer holding the responsibility of a head coach. Bryan will be moving to a volunteer coaching role.

“As long as I’m able to walk, and as long as somebody wants me around, I’ll be around,” Bryan said. “If they need help with sprints or hurdles, I’ll be more than happy to do that.”

“Coach ain’t going nowhere,” Dix said with a smile. “He’s going to go to the beach during the day, and come to the track in the afternoons. Not a bad life. … He’s got unfinished business because he’s a hurdles and jumpers coach by trade. He just wants to show up and have somebody tell him what he needs to do for the day.”

That means Bryan will still be around for the new track and field facility that Pine Forest is in the middle of building. It’s been a process a few years in the making at this point, but the school started to make a lot of progress over the last year.

The school has let Bryan have a lot of input as to what the facility should look like as far as the design and layout of everything.

“When the girls I’ve got now have kids, I think it’s going to be a gamechanger for Pine Forest, Pensacola and track and field,” Bryan said.

Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on X (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Paul Bryan's success doesn't go unnoticed, surprised by former athletes