Brady Trenkle resigns as GCCC men’s basketball coach
Garden City, KS-After five seasons in Garden City, Head Coach Brady Trenkle resigned as the Broncbuster men’s basketball coach on Friday. He is taking an assistant job at a Division-I program.
“It was a really tough decision for me,” Trenkle said. “Obviously I know what kind of team that we are going to have this year. That didn’t make it any easier.”
Trenkle came to Garden City in 2012 after eight years in Dodge City; the final four as Head Coach. He served as an assistant under Rand Chappell for one season before taking over the head job on June 12, 2013.
In his first season in charge, Trenkle guided the Broncbuters to a 22-9 record, their first 20-win season since 2011. During the 2015-2016 campaign, Garden City won their first postseason game under Trenkle, blowing out rival Seward County 116-93. A few days later, the Broncbusters dropped a heartbreaker to Hutchinson in the Region VI quarterfinals. Then, in 2018, Trenkle pushed the Broncbusters within two games of the national tournament, beating Allen County in the opening round; then squashing Cowley in the Region VI quarterfinals when Kendale Hampton hit a game-winning, fadeaway 3-pointer from the right wing at the buzzer. Garden City’s postseason dreams ended two nights later when Coffeyville erased an early double-digit deficit to beat the Broncbusters 65-57.
“When I came here six years ago, we had to basically start from scratch,” Trenkle explained. “
In five years directing the Broncbuters, Trenkle compiled a 94-64 record (.595). He posted a 3-5 postseason mark and owns a career record of 164-115 (.588).
“One of the hardest things I had to do was tell our players,” Trenkle said. “But I looked at all of them and told them: if an opportunity like this came up, you would do the same thing. Your parents would have done the same thing.”
Trenkle accomplished plenty of milestones during his time in Garden City including his 100th career-victory as coach on Nov. 15, 2014 when the Broncbusters took down Clarendon.
“We’ve done great things here,” Trenkle said. “It’s said because I don’t get to see this thing through. But these jobs only come along so often.”
Trenkle comes from a basketball family. His father, Fred, is an NJCAA Hall of Fame coach, posting a 329-36 record in 10 years at the College of Southern Idaho. His two older brothers are also Junior-College coaches. Eddie is the head coach at Northeastern in Sterling, CO and Swede is the head man at Hill College in Hillsboro, TX.
Trenkle graduated from San Diego State in 1999. He was a four-year letter winner in basketball for the Aztecs and graduated with a degree in public administration. He grew up in Twin Falls, Id and graduated from Twin Falls High School in 1994.
A search for Trenkle’s replacement will begin immediately. Garden City opens the 2018-2019 season Nov. 2 at home against Redlands College.
