(Pam Wagner)
Josh Brenning has been selected as the new boys basketball coach at Monarch, athletic director Russ McKinstry said on Thursday morning.
Brenning was previously the boys coach at Vista PEAK and also led the Rangeview girls. He will replace Ken Niven, who retired following the 2015-16 season after an 18-year run at the school.
“(McKinstry) called me up on Tuesday, and he said there’s a lot of good candidates, but it’s exciting that they chose me,” Brenning said on Thursday morning.
“I’m really going into a situation where people want the program to do well. They’re already offering to help,” Brenning added. “Having a great football program (at Monarch), and a great basketball program — teams that have won state championships — hopefully I’ll be able to fit in.”
Brenning, who left Vista PEAK after the 2013-14 season, said he knows it’s going to be a tough act to follow in Niven, who won 510 games over his 37-year career, which included 19 seasons and four state championships at Alamosa.
“Following Ken is going to be tough, just because you’re the next guy,” Brenning said. “I told ‘Mac’ that I’ve coached with legends before, but following somebody is a little different. I’ll try my best to communicate and build relationships with people. I’m not going to go in there trying to be coach Niven. I’m just going to be who I am.
“But I’m going to try to keep everything good that they had, and try to bring my own flair to what they have, and hopefully that’ll be a good mix.”
Brenning went to school at Smoky Hill when McKinstry was the boys basketball coach, so the two have known each other for more than 20 years. He attended and played basketball at Arapahoe his first year years — the Warriors finished runner-up in Class 5A in 1995 as a sophomore — but then transferred to Smoky Hill for his junior and senior seasons.
An injury ended Brenning’s career, though, before his junior season and he never played for McKinstry. Even still, Brenning says McKinstry has been “a mentor throughout the years.”
Brenning moved to Dallas in January while pursing his master’s degree, and “I had stayed in contact with Russ, just trying to apply for some jobs out in Dallas,” Brenning said. “I’d send him my resume, and kind of bounce some stuff off him.”
Last month, Brenning asked McKinstry about Monarch’s open position. McKinstry told Brenning he should apply.
“Russ is a stand-up guy,” Brenning said. “I knew he was going to pick the best guy, whether it was me or somebody else. I knew he would find the best guy. … I told him, ‘If I’m not the guy, that’s OK. I trust that you’ll find the best guy.'”
Brenning had an interview two weeks ago with nine different people, including McKinstry, other coaches at the school, players, and parents. Two days later, he had further interviews with McKinstry, and Monarch’s principal and assistant principal.
New Monarch boys basketball coach Josh Brenning. (Courtesy of Josh Brenning)
“Then, Tuesday afternoon, they called me up and asked me if I wanted to be a Coyote,” Brenning said. “It’s been a long three weeks, but well worth it.”
Brenning started coaching when he was 20 with a job leading the sophomore team at Arapahoe. He also has sub-varsity and assistant experience at Lakewood, Smoky Hill (under Ken Shaw), and Aurora Central, and also spent a year helping the Denver Nuggets in the film room.
His first head coaching job was at Rangeview with the girls team in 2011-12, when he was named EMAC coach of the year following a 21-3 season that set the school record for wins.
Brenning then started the boys program at Vista PEAK, going 9-15 the first season and 19-6 the next, before moving on the Johnson & Wales, the NAIA college program in Denver, as an assistant.
He spent last season out of basketball, but Carlos Daniel, a friend of Brenning’s, is an assistant at SMU, and so Brenning spent a lot of time around that men’s college program, which is led by Larry Brown.
“That really got my basketball juices flowing a bit,” Brenning said.
Now back in Colorado, Brenning is already studying Monarch’s roster and watching game film from last season. The Coyotes finished 13-11 last season, and lost in the first round of the Class 5A tournament.
Three of Monarch’s four leading scorers graduate, but Tylor Trinh, who averaged 9.3 points per game, will be a junior next season.
“I know the program has a lot of good freshman and sophomores, and the know the incoming class is really good, too, so I’ll have to work hard to make sure those kids stay at Monarch,” Brenning said. “I know that the program is up-and-coming, but I know we do lose a lot of seniors that were major contributors.
“We’ll have some experience coming back, which will be good. But the main thing, as with anything, is if they buy into what we’re doing, and they believe in what we’re doing, we’ll be just fine.”
The Coyotes play in the Front Range League, which is one of the toughest in the state.
“There’s a lot of great coaches in the league,” Brenning said. “I know I’m not going to out-work those guys, but they’re not going to work any harder than me. I’ll try to build that kind of hard-work mentality throughout the program.”
With a foundation in place — thanks in large part to Niven, Brenning said — Monarch “really is a destination job,” the coach said. “It’s kind of a top job in the state.”
“I know it’s hard trying to build what Ken had for 18 years,” Brenning said. “People already know Monarch. When I was at Vista PEAK, I had to go in and build a brand. I had to go in and people would say, ‘Well who’s Vista PEAK? Where is Vista PEAK?’ I don’t have that same challenge this time around. I’m excited.”