MILES CITY, MONTANA: Upon completion of the 2022-2023 baseball season, Miles Community College Head Coach Jeff Brabant will be retiring. After being with the MCC Men’s Pioneer Baseball team for over twenty years, Coach Brabant will be stepping away with some impressive numbers, including 352 career wins, six Conference Championships, and a .768 overall winning percentage.
Brabant has been a part of the Pioneers since the fall of 2002 when he began his long coaching career at MCC as an assistant to Head Coach and recent MCC Athletic Hall of Fame member, Rob Bishop. In 2010, Brabant moved into the Head Coach position where he continued to build Pioneer Baseball into the successful program it is today and cited that he owes much of that success to Bishop’s tutelage.
“You develop relationships and mentors,” stated Brabant. “Then it flips, and you do the mentoring. The ups and downs, the good and the bad. Honestly, it is like a marriage, and I just hope I have been a good spouse to the college and the community.”
With a total of 31 years of coaching and 26 years of teaching under his belt, Brabant will have spent more than two-thirds of them at the college, where he has also taught information technology and computer courses. “You have to love it; the hours and the grind, the time away from your family,” said Brabant. “You give your life to it. You are molding them (student-athletes) at a critical period. You give them a pathway to success by keeping them responsible for it, and you must walk a higher line than that pathway, by leading from in from behind and not in front. You don’t do it for the paycheck, you do it for when you see alumni years later and listen to their successes.”
“The tremendous success that the MCC Baseball Program has been able to achieve during Coach Brabant’s amazing tenure is just part of the story,” commented Miles Community College President, Ron Slinger. “He built a program based on high integrity, strong character, and personal responsibility and has always led by example. Our student-athletes are better human beings for being part of the MCC Baseball Program.”
Brabant recalls many memorable moments throughout his coaching career, including winning Super Regionals and traveling to Tennessee for the College World Series in 2007 (as Assistant Coach). He also references qualifying for post-season in 2016 as a Division 1 team and consistently qualifying for Super Regionals, after taking second in Regionals, as a highlight of his career. “Seeing the dogpiles (of players) after Mon-Dak and Regional Championships…it’s the epitome of our hard work.”
As a family man, he also holds special memories of his family during his time as a coach. “My wife and son surprised me with their attendance at regionals in Bismarck in 2019. They watched us win and dogpile!”
Current MCC Athletic Director Jerry Olson thanks Brabant for his dedication and time spent at the college. “I want to congratulate Coach on a remarkable career,” said Olson. “I can’t thank Coach Brabant enough for what he has done and what he has meant to Pioneer baseball. I’m always impressed with his countless championships and records, but I’m especially impressed by what his teams have accomplished in the classroom. They are consistently ranked in the top 10th Nationally in team GPA, and those young men put in countless hours of community service.”
p>“We are so grateful for Coach Brabant’s leadership and know that because of his efforts, the program will continue to be successful both on and off the diamond for years to come,” stated President Slinger. p>“This school has had a huge impact on whom I have become,” Brabant states as he reminisces on his time at MCC, “but it is time to do something different while I still have my mind and health, and I want to be able to finish watching my kiddos grow up. It is humbling to know the effect I’ve had; it is emotional and what I will miss the most.”
