CLAIM TO FAME: A fixture in Dade City athletics for 40 years, Willie Broner Jr. was a three-sport star at Mickens High in the days of segregation. In 1968, two years after his graduation, he was asked to fill in as baseball coach at Mickens during a teachers walkout and led the Wildcats to a state championship. That same year, he was drafted to service in Vietnam, where he was severely injured by shrapnel in 1969 and spent 15 months recuperating.
Returning home, he played baseball at Saint Leo College on the G.I. Bill, taking his first high school coaching job at South Sumter in 1981. A year later, he became the basketball coach, and he would go on to post a 305-200 record in 18 seasons before retiring in 2000.
During the 1994-95 season, the Pirates overcame tragedy, as 17-year-old Randy Bates collapsed during a game and died of complications from a heart defect. Playing the rest of the season in his honor, Pasco won 24 games and reached the state final four.
Broner has been Pasco's athletic director for 15 years and is active in the Dade City community, serving as a deacon at St. John's Baptist Church.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING: "We go way back. I've been knowing Willie many years, and I'll tell you one thing. Willie is probably one of the straightest guys I've ever known. He's the same guy, day in and day out. He'll do anything for anybody. He's fair, to everybody. It doesn't make a difference who you are." - longtime Pasco baseball coach Ricky Giles.
DID YOU KNOW?: Broner has twice been invited to Tallahassee to be congratulated by the state's House of Representatives, first as an assistant coach with Pasco's state championship football team in 1992, and again in 2000 after he won his 300th career game in his final year as the Pirates coach.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?: In his 15th year as Pasco's athletic director, Broner still is a fixture at Pirates sporting events. His son, Willie "Poncho" Broner III, coaches Pasco's basketball team, which won a share of the Sunshine Athletic Conference championship. He is in the school system's drop program, which has him scheduled to retire within the next two years.
WORDS TO LIVE BY: "My thing has always been "Give back.' Because somebody had to help you. Somebody helped me. Always try to give back to the community; give back to people less fortunate than you. Those are the words I live by."
