Each year for the past 34 years, the head coach of the girls’ varsity soccer team at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School has met with the team captains to ask his players to outline their core values and expectations for the season. “I ask the players, ‘How do you want to be perceived?’” said Coach Jim Bruno, “then they set it, I hold them to it.”
These principles go beyond simply winning games as the team captains meet with players and decide on the seven or so goals – except for one. For the former Montgomery County police officer and combat medic who served in the Vietnam War, there is always one constant, an absolute rule for every team he leads – no whining allowed.
On Sept. 30 there was no whining when Good Counsel defeated Bishop Ireton, 4-0, at Witter Field in Alexandria, Virginia. The assistant coach, the parents on the sideline and all the players instead celebrated Coach Bruno – the school’s first and only girls’ soccer head coach – as he led the Falcons to his 500th career victory.
“This is your field of dreams – right here,” said Coach Bruno, all smiles after the win. He called the attention to his milestone victory “overblown. I wanted to come out and play a good game,” reluctantly adding that “500 is a big number.”
Despite the extra interest in his record, Coach Bruno said during the weeks leading up to his milestone win he found “all these players flashed into my mind. To actually get a chance to coach – you have an opportunity to influence young people’s lives.” His said his main priority, however, is always to teach his team how to be leaders, how to solve problems.
Our Lady of Good Counsel – a coeducational Catholic high school sponsored by the Xaverian Brothers – moved to a new campus in Olney, Maryland, in 2007 from its original location in Wheaton, where Bruno began coaching for the school.
In a statement Steve Howes, Good Counsel’s athletic director, described Coach Bruno as a school “treasure.”
“Winning 500 games is a tremendous accomplishment. Very few coaches ever reach that,” Howes said. In the same press release, Coach Bruno added, “I think about the people I have shared this with, particularly the players and coaches. What resonates with me is not only to have the chance to work with such incredible people but also to coach some terrific young ladies.”
Back on the field, Coach Bruno said his biggest influences were a pair of Hall of Fame basketball coaches – UCLA’s legendary coach John Wooden and DeMatha Catholic High School’s Morgan Wootten. Bruno said he found Wooden’s book “They Call Me Coach,” a powerful influence on his career. Additionally, Coach Bruno, who attended DeMatha for two years until the death of his father, said he was so impressed years later when the well-known Wootten remembered his former student while Bruno was dropping off his sons at Wootten’s basketball camp. Coach Bruno remembered Wootten’s warm welcome and later read his books on coaching as well.
A native of Bethesda, Bruno graduated from Walter Johnson High School in 1966 and was drafted into the Army that fall. He served one tour in Vietnam and returned home, taking a position with the Montgomery County Police. Bruno studied criminal justice at the University of Maryland and graduated in 1978. Bruno – who also holds the Premier Diploma and Advanced National Diploma from United Soccer Coaches – coaches two girls Potomac Soccer Club travel teams that play in the Club Champions League and served as the athletic director at St. Peter’s Parish in Olney from 1988 until 2006. He and his wife Maggie raised two sons and celebrated their 50th anniversary last June. Their two sons played soccer at Good Counsel, with James Bruno a member of the class of 1996 and Christopher Bruno graduating in 1999.
Hired in 1988 when the formerly all-boys Good Counsel began admitting girls, Coach Bruno had just retired from the police force due to a crushed vertebrae that forced him off patrol. Coach Bruno said he spent a little time serving in police outreach and working in local schools as “Officer Friendly,” but ultimately missed his other police work. “I loved being on the road,” Bruno said.
His new role would soon emerge – Coach Bruno has never had a losing season with the Falcons, winning 13 WCAC championships at Good Counsel. The coach said the title that ranks highest to him is his first WCAC championship, which came in 1995, two years after the league was formed. His team's best record came in 1998 (22-0-3), and United Soccer Coaches honored him as National Private School Girls Coach of the Year. In 2001 he was inducted into Good Counsel’s Hall of Fame.
“I’ve been really blessed with talent,” Coach Bruno said. Throughout the 34 years at Good Counsel he coached The Washington Post All-Met Player of the Year a record nine times: Corey Hewitt (1994), Katie Moore (1997), Valerie Lawrence (1998), Vicki Anagnostopoulos (2005), Crystal Koczot (2009), Midge Purce (2011, 2012), Imani Dorsey (2013) and Heather Hinz (2018). Additionally, the coach helped dozens of players earn college scholarships. Purce, Dorsey and Megan Hinz play professionally in the National Women's Soccer League for NJ/NY Gotham FC. Purce is also a member of the United States Women's National Team with a goal of playing in the 2023 World Cup.
Dorsey’s youngest sister, Trinity Dorsey is a senior on the 8-0, team that is currently ranked No. 2 in the area by The Washington Post and No. 13 in the nation, ranked by United Soccer Coaches. “This is one of the best teams I've ever had,” Bruno said.
That might raise some sibling rivalry in the Dorsey family, who in the past 10 years sent three girls to Good Counsel – all playing soccer for Coach Bruno. “He’s had such an immense impact on all three of us,” said Trinity Dorsey, who has committed to play soccer at the University of Arizona. Coach Bruno places the “focus on developing us as a whole player. He wants us to be the best players and the best people we can be.”
Trinity’s father Bruce Dorsey agreed noting that Coach Jim Bruno “is a soccer coach and a teacher.” Throughout the game, Bruce Dorsey photographed the team and helped record the milestone win. “He’s devoted to these young ladies and their success,” said Bruce Dorsey who added that the coach has not taken any other offer in over three decades. “In addition to establishing a legacy in soccer wins, he’s helped mold and develop these young women for years to come.”
For assistant coach Jesse Balsamo, leaving the boys’ team six years ago to join Coach Bruno on the sidelines was an easy decision as he would watch Coach Bruno’s level of professionalism and consistency in the program. “He always works on core values – grit, resistance, and team spirit,” Balsamo said. “We don’t allow any whining.”
Balsamo said the coach’s tradition of excellence has been a constant and Coach Bruno “remembers players from the beginning. For 34 years great, unbelievable women have come through the program.”
Anne Dougherty, a parent volunteer and the mother of senior Rachael Dougherty, said Coach Bruno expects the team captains to complete his leadership program before the season. “Any coach can stay on the sidelines and coach, but he takes another step further,” Dougherty said. “He wants to build not just a soccer player, but to build character and someone who will be successful in society.”
Aaron Kush’s daughter Paige Kush is a sophomore and in her first full season with the squad, but the soccer dad said he can tell it has already been a great experience with Coach Bruno. “Jim’s been a real positive influence on my daughter. He teaches girls about leadership and being a team player – I’ve really enjoyed watching him,” Aaron Kush said.
On Oct. 5, the Falcons defeated another WCAC team – Bishop O’Connell – adding to Coach Bruno’s record which then stood at 501-114-70.
