Jason Bryan is entering his 12th season as Catawba Head Men's and Women's Cross Country Coach and ninth as Head Men's and Women's Track and Field Coach in the fall of 2025, leading the track program since its origin.
In 2024, Bryan repeated as SAC Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year as Madi Clay earned her third consecutive SAC Runner of the Year honor, the first man or woman in league history to earn the Runner of the Year award in three consecutive seasons. Catawba’s women finished runner-up in the SAC and matched their highest finish at nationals in program history.
During track season, Win Porter finished as the national runner-up in the indoor 60-meter dash, setting the highest individual finish for any Catawba athlete in department history. Newcomer Miles Stephens also reached the championship final. Porter went on to take home the 100-meter dash title at the SAC Outdoor Championships, finishing fourth at the national meet.
In 2023, Bryan was named South Atlantic Conference Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year, the first Catawba coach to earn the honor in over 25 years. Bryan's team was headlined by two-time SAC Runner of the Year Madi Clay and Region Runner of the Year Mikayla Jones. Under Bryan's direction, both Catawba's men and women's cross country teams advance to the Division II National Championships, the first time both advanced as teams in program history. In the spring, Catawba sent three athletes to the Division II National Championships and added three more SAC champions.
With Bryan at the helm, Catawba has rostered over 30 All-Conference cross country runners and over 20 cross country All-Region runners, 20 track and field SAC champions, a two-time SAC cross country runner of the year, two cross country region runners of the year and four All-Americans.
During his time, Bryan has grown the program to a roster of 65-70 athletes and established the annual Catawba Fleet XC Invitational that host more than 30 collegiate and HS teams at Salisbury Community Park.
Bryan has also served on the NCAA Committee as the Southeast Rep since 2021.
In his tenure with Catawba, he has led the men's cross country team to a third place finish in the NCAA Southeast Regional and a berth to the Division II National Championship meet in 2021. Bryan has also helped coach the track and field program's first-ever All-American, Brien Pittman, after he finished fourth in the 400-meters final at the national event in 2022.
Bryan came to Catawba in 2014 from the College of Charleston where he has served as an assistant coach for the men’s cross country team since August of 2012.
Bryan was a key recruiter for the College of Charleston and worked with all aspects of the program. During his tenure the Cougars produced their first all-conference runner in a decade and set school records for 800m, 1500m and 5k distances. The teams also earned several academic all-conference selections.
Prior to his stint at the College of Charleston, Bryan was an assistant for both the men’s and women’s cross country and track teams at Anderson University. In 2011, he was named the USTFCCCA Women’s Division II Southeast Assistant Coach of the Year for track.
Bryan helped the Trojans to a pair of Conference Carolinas Championships in women’s cross country with three runners advancing as national qualifiers. He helped produced eight all-conference runners on both the men’s and women’s side with the men having a conference runner-up finish. In track, Anderson had three national qualifiers from the women’s team and one from the men’s squad.
Bryan earned a degree in business management from Anderson in 2008. He was an assistant at Erskine for the 2008 season before returning to Anderson where he earned a master’s degree in business administration in 2010.
A four-year student-athlete for the Trojans in cross country and track & field, Bryan was a team captain his junior and senior years. He was named all-conference as a junior, a year in which Anderson won the Carolinas Virginias Athletic Conference Championship.
Bryan is a native of Greenville, S.C. Bryan and his wife, Melissa, were married in December of 2013. They have a daughter, Hadley, and a son, Welles.
