Dennis Tronson Wins State Coaches Award for Boys Soccer

Wenatchee High School teacher and coach Dennis Tronson has been awarded the 2016 NFHS Coaches Association State Coaches Award in the sport of Boys Soccer. NFHS is the National Federation of State High School Associations. Tronson was also named Large School Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association in the fall of 2016.

Tronson humbly gives credit for the award to the students he’s coached for 27 years at WHS. “It's a reflection of the players I've had. I give all the credit to them,” he says. “Yes, they honored me, but without the group of athletes and the support of our athletic department, it wouldn't have happened.”

He says one of the highlights of his coaching career was winning the State Soccer Championship in 2016—a first for WHS. Tronson has coached boys and girls basketball, along with middle school football, basketball and soccer. He’s also been a ski instructor on the weekends for 36 years.

Tronson points out that the community should be proud of the kids being raised here. “These kids don't just arrive with me from somewhere else. A lot of them born, raised, and will continue to live here,” he says. “It's a reflection of our overall school system and what we're developing—quality kids who work hard. And when you work hard sometimes you have great success on the field.” 

The true measure of success, according to Tronson, is what the athletes are doing off the field as they go through life. “To see the success that my former players are having in life,” he says. “Kids who struggled in high school just to be eligible to play soccer, and you find out they graduated from the University of Washington, they have their masters, they're raising their family. A lot of them are going into coaching. Those are the really beneficial things that coaching gives.”

PHOTO: Dennis Tronson, right, with his Championship Soccer Team in 2016.