Bruce Lehane


Bruce Lehane was the cross country, middle distance, and long distance track and field coach at Boston University from 1982 to 2017.

Early life and running career

Lehane grew up in South Boston, Massachusetts. He began his cross country and track career at Boston English High School and continued his career at Boston State College. There, he set school records in the 880 yard run and mile run and earned N.A.I.A. All-American honors under coach Bill Squires.

Coaching career

Lehane began coaching at Boston University in 1982. Since that time, he has coached 50 D.1 NCAA All-Americans, 7 national champions, 7 world champions, and 2 Olympians. Lehane has said of coaching that, "No one system works for all athletes. The key to successful training is to match the training loads to what the individual athlete benefits from".
World Championship appearances under Coach Lehane include:
Cross Country: Lesley Lehane, Rosemary Ryan, Matthew Smith, Karl Rasmussen, Are Nakkim, Eirik Hansen, Markku Kyyronen.
Individual National Champions under Coach Lehane include:
Lesley Lehane, Matthew Smith, Karl Rasmussen, Are Nakkim, Eirik Hansen, Jennifer Lanctot, Dean Crowe.
Olympic Appearances under Coach Lehane include:
Rosemary Ryan, Cathy O'Brien

Other works

Lehane also co-authored the book along with Bill Squires.

Personal

Bruce Lehane married wife Lesley in 1987. Lehane had three sons: Blaize, Elliot, and Aidan.
His son, Elliot, was in the class of 2012 at BU and ran on the cross-country and track and field teams. He was an assistant coach at BU for 2 seasons from 2015 to 2017.

Quotes

"Putting on the meets is a labor of love. We give thanks to all who participated and to all who came to spectate - except to the guy who threw up in the sink in the men's room. Like us, he has got to clean up his act."