Bob Macfarlane enters his third year in charge of both the men’s and women’s cross country teams in 2012. The St. Bonaventure graduate has made impressive strides in the past few years in recruiting top-level talent to join both rosters, and for the 2012 season he will not have a single senior on either squad.

He has also increased the staff so that both rosters now bolster an assistant head coach, two assistant coaches, a graduate assistant and a manager.

Before joining SBU in the summer of 2010, Macfarlane served as the head varsity girls cross country coach at Bradford Area School District for seven years. 

He led the cross country team to a 66-4 dual meet record as well as five Pennsylvania District IX AAA titles and coached four individual district champions. Macfarlane coached five state qualifying teams and one state medalist.

Macfarlane served as the Bradford Area head girls’ track and field coach in 2008-09, but was the assistant coach for the girls’ team for 13 years prior. During his time at Bradford, he assisted the team to eight Pennsylvania District IX AAA Championships including a Pennsylvania State title in 1996. Macfarlane was also the distance coach for the Bradford Indoor Track and Field team for eight years.

In 2003-04, Macfarlane had the chance to be the head coach for Team New York/Pennsylvania when they traveled to Australia for international meets. Under his direction, the 2003 team won the international title.

Macfarlane is retired from the Bradford, Pa. School District after teaching social studies for 34 years. He also retired from the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford after 10 years in which he taught World Regional Geography and Methods of Social Studies Teaching. Macfarlane took an early retirement from both positions to concentrate on his coaching duties at St. Bonaventure.

He graduated with a bachelor’s in elementary and secondary education with a concentration in history from St. Bonaventure in 1977 and received also his master’s of education from St. Bonaventure. Macfarlane’s daughter, Heather, resides in New York City and his son, Kyle, lives in Los Angeles.