A team is not a team without their coach,, check out this spotlight as it shines on Agawam High School Field Hockey coach, Nina Bruno!
Becoming a coach takes a certain kind of grit. To become a great coach, it takes much more. Nina Bruno of Agawam, Massachusetts has the patience, experience, skill and overall personability to be a great coach.
As a player herself, Bruno made her mark in a variety of ways. Playing in-town sports started her legacy, which only grew with her. In high school, she played varsity field hockey all four years, while also competitively dancing at a local studio. During her freshman year she scored three goals and made two assists. Her sophomore year she scored a goal. But, in her junior year on varsity, she scored 12 goals and made five assists. To top it off, her senior year at Agawam High, she scored 20 goals and made 15 assists! Of course, scoring is not everything and only shows the tip of her skill based iceberg. Bruno was named All League and All Western Mass in her junior and senior years, representing her overall skill and sportsmanship. Those same years she was captain of both field hockey and lacrosse for her school, which expresses her leadership at a young age.
Throughout her collegiate career, Bruno played and studied at Keene State. She graduated in 2021 with a Bachelors in Exercise Science. Balancing her studies and her athleticism, Bruno played for the Keene State field hockey team and crushed it. She earned Little East Rookie of the Year, had four hat tricks and six game-winning goals in her first season with Keene. After just two seasons in a Keene State uniform, Bruno had 127 career points and became seventh on the KSC all-time list. Bruno was captain of the Keene State field hockey team in her senior year.
Bruno was not just a star-studded athlete, but an academic all star as well. In her time at KSC, she received NFHCA National Academic Award and was named to the 2019 LEC Fall Academic team and the Director of Athletics Honor Roll, as well as earning honor roll and making the dean’s list each year. After graduating from Keene, she studied at Springfield College, earning her M. Ed. with a focus in Strength and Conditioning, as well as a Master of Science in Sports Administration.
The values she developed as a student athlete are ones she has carried into her coaching career. Coaching the Bay State Games West was only the beginning for her. Nina Bruno became the head coach for the Agawam High School field hockey team in 2023, going back to her roots. In her first season as coach, the team held a 6-6-5 record. Her second year, the record was 9-8. Her third, and most recent year, her team held a 10-7-1 record. All three seasons, Bruno got her team into both the Western Mass tournament and the State tournament.
Coach Bruno has developed an understanding and respect for her players, giving them encouragement, critiques and confidence each practice and game. One of her players, Ema Bozak, describes her as “a welcoming and supportive coach who wants her players to succeed”. A past player, Sydney Frasier says, “She is an energetic and positive role model, who supports her players and makes strong connections with them.” The way players describe their coaches says more than anything else. Bruno is dedicated to teaching her teams year after year, and continues to give it her all. In years to come, Nina Bruno will continue to be a well-known name in town and across the Bay State!