In a time where successful coaches are constantly sought after and rarely stay at one school for long, George Bruce defies the odds. In 1968, when Bruce was hired on to coach football at Dugway, no one knew that he would still be coaching the Mustangs 41 years later.

Due mainly to the 90-minute one-way commute from Salt Lake City to Dugway, the George Bruce coaching era for the Mustangs is coming to an end at the end of the 2008-09 school year.

Even though he has a small garden at his house, don’t expect Bruce to be spending all of his post-Dugway time there. Mainly because he has found a coaching opportunity closer to home at West Ridge Academy. Bruce will be the boys basketball coach and athletic director at the West Jordan school.

His contributions to Dugway are nearly innumerable. Starting at football in 1968, Bruce has been a jack-of-all-trades for the Mustangs. As a coach, Bruce has been responsible for 10 state championships, seven of those coming in cross country (five for the boys and two for the girls), one tennis and two boys basketball championships.

Along with coaching hundreds of Dugway High School athletes, Bruce has also had the opportunity to coach three of his four kids (Steve, Scott and Heidi) while Kristi stuck with cheerleading at the school.

“My kids wouldn’t let me leave Dugway,” Bruce said. The coach also mentioned that he grew fond of Dugway because of the fact he has never had to cut anybody in all his years of coaching.

“Most of the time, the hardest workers on the team would be the players that might get cut at a larger school,” Bruce said. “They normally don’t have as much athletic talent as the stars but they sure show everyone how to put full effort into everything they try.”

Coach Bruce will be the first to admit there are two sides to him: a coaching side and then everything else. No matter how much coach Bruce screams and yells at his team to get their act together, the players know what kind of person he is after the game.

“No matter how intense the game gets it is all hand shakes after,” Bruce said. “It is the only way I know how to coach.”

With a record of 615 wins and only 220 losses, changing his coaching style would be unwise. Along with 27 region champions, coach Bruce also mentioned that in 41 years of coaching that only two kids have quit his team over a disagreement with playing time.

When it comes to his favorite memories, two big basketball moments come to mind for coach Bruce. Recalling the basketball state championship of 1982 in St. George and the big play that helped the Mustangs win.

“I remember John Witkowski asking for the ball with only 6 seconds left and nailing the shot to win the championship,” said Bruce. “My second favorite memory came when I was sitting with coach Carl Roberts in the Marriot Center in Provo and thinking we could win the whole thing.”

Dugway did just that, by beating Beaver in 1984, the Mustangs brought home their second state championship.

Coach Bruce kept his promise to this graduating class that he would stay on for this season and has even accepted the invitation to speak at graduation for Dugway for the first time in his 41 years at the school.

In taking the West Ridge Academy job, coach Bruce not only cuts down his personal travel time from home but will have a region that is more bunched together, instead of the very spread out Region 18.

The one trend that coach Bruce has seen that he wishes would change is the lack of interest in local sports. “In my first years of coaching football we would pack the stadium,” he said. “Since then, kids have been receiving less and less support in the communities for their sports programs.”

No matter the number of wins and losses piled up by coach George Bruce, the impact that he has had on lives of teenagers in the small town of Dugway is impossible to measure.

Jake Gordon: jgordon@tooeletranscript.com