San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
SAYING GOODBYE
PREPS
Longtime RB Athletic Director Peggy Brose is retiring, plus football highlights.
Her first assignment as the athletic director-in-training back in 2004 was to fill the boys volleyball vacancy at Rancho Bernardo High.
Peggy Brose, who had resigned as the first girls basketball coach in school history just two years earlier, dug into her new challenge by advertising the opening, set up interviews, conducted the interviews and selected the best candidate before submitting the name to outgoing AD Mark Ochsner.
Now 19 years later, Brose is the one on the way out after announcing her retirement as the athletic director during a run filled with CIF championships that elevated the program to elite status.
Unlike previous years when a shuffling administration caused Brose to opt to stay on the job, this time it was more of a feeling that drove her decision to retire.
“It wasn’t any one thing, like it wasn’t COVID that’s been hanging over everyone,” said Brose, who will turn 70 in May. “There was a little voice inside that I’ve always trusted and that voice seemed to get louder this time.
“Plus, I’m tired. Little things seem to bother me more and more.
“I never wanted to be that person that stayed in a job a year or two too long.”
Brose’s introduction to the Poway School District came in 1976 as a teacher-coach at Mt. Carmel, landing eventually as the girls basketball coach.
Her Sundevils won CIF San Diego Section Division I championships in 1988 and again in ’90 before moving over to coach basketball at Rancho Bernardo when it opened in ’90.
Brose won back-to-back CIF Division I titles in ’96 and ’97.
Now, after 31 years at Rancho Bernardo, Brose is heading to a new life of early-morning swims, reading books, maybe some traveling and a little gardening.
She admitted she will never forget the place where she happily spent long hours the last three decades.
“I love this school,” she said. “I love these kids, I love these coaches and I can’t live with maybe letting them down because maybe I feel a little tired one day.
“It’s with a sense of sorrow and relief that I leave. I knew I had to make this decision eventually.
“I will live and die the rest of my life as a Bronco.”
Brose admitted the lockdown that began in March 2020 opened her eyes as to what retirement for her would look like.
The retirement test, it turned out, was nice.
“I didn’t wake up one day and decide to retire,” said Brose, the second of four siblings and the only one not already retired. “What I will do after my morning swim is a good question.
“Everything in my life that I can remember revolved around athletics. I never had a Christmas vacation until I quit coaching and now I’ll be able to do anything I want.
“There’s no doubt I will still bleed Bronco blue. Our athletic program is among the best in this section, and I feel like a proud parent about what RB has become.”
Now all Brose needs to do is finish filling out all of her retirement paperwork to open the door to her new life.
Her last day is June 23.