GRAND RAPIDS, Mich -- Aquinas College announced on Wednesday that long time coach and Athletic Director, Terry Bocian, will retire at the end of the school year after 43 years with the college.
'Bo' has been talking about retiring for three years but the school need to finish building it's new facilities and add a couple sports first.
"A lot of those things have now been finalized not that we don't have some other challenges a head but it's a variety of things and sometimes you just kind of say to yourself, maybe the time is right" Bocian said.
When he arrived at Aquinas in 1972 as a baseball and basketball coach the Saints had no women's sports and in 1978, his first as AD, they had only nine total sports.
"I knew everyone by first name, I knew all the kids and there was a lot of pluses to that but just as in many fields we needed to have growth and we have had tremendous growth this is a first class college academically our kids graduate they are champions of character, do we strive to win championships, yes we do but we always done it in the right way" Bocian said.
Today they have 26 sports and state of the art facilities. Bocian was the head baseball coach for 30 years and won 1,079 games. When he looks back on his days at Aquinas, 'Bo' said it is the people that he will remember most.
"I'm going to remember great people that I worked with, great student athletes. Being able to try to make things better tomorrow than they were today and those memories will stay with me and it isn't because of what I've done, it is because of what we have done" Bocian said.
Bocian said he will be staying in West Michigan and spending a lot more time with his grand children.
