About Ron

Assorted Boards

Projects

Here are a smattering of projects I’ve worked on the past few years that I feel like talking about…(we’re not talking about the tea brand & the shoe line)

Indianapolis Design Week
In 2017, I launched the first Indiana Design Week, which was a decentralized event that allowed anyone working in design around the state to add their events to a central calendar, as an opportunity to grow design awareness statewide. After the first success of the first extremely DIY event, we centralized it and turned the event into Indianapolis Design Week, a year later. I left the state in 2018, but Indy Design Week continues to operate under inspired leadership and a vibrant board.

Pensulo Cards
In 2016, I made a deck of 54 creative-block breaking cards that I’ve reprinted a few times since then. I sold them online briefly, but these days I just give them away to friends.

Aggregate Conference
I launched a tech conference in Louisville in 2014 called Aggregate (#GGRGT) which attracted folks — and sponsors — from around the country. After the initial event, ran a series of much smaller fireside events & a holiday party under the banner.

Tennis Polo (Toccer)
In 2004, it rained too much at summer camp rendering our outdoor courts mostly useless for parts of the summer. It led to the accidental invention of a field sport that involves scoring goals with a tennis-sized ball on a grass field called Toccer (Tennis Polo), mostly because it was legitimately the most popular thing at camp that summer. A revival of the sport in Vermont seven years later led to the revamp of the original rules, and affirmed its sucess for athletic & non-athletics kids alike.

Nearly two decades later, the sport has been played in a number of countries around the world as a pickup game or in more formal settings like gym classes, and I’ve worked with teachers at times to develop lesson plans to teach the sport.

National Government Simulation Back in the mid-90s, the first online community I started a live-action government simulation that began on Prodigy before it moved to AOL. After a few successful years on AOL, we rebooted again using our own message forum, expanding to a sim that included players writing legislation, running for elected office quarterly and replete with scandals and such. Even in those nascent days of the web, we had all sorts of low-level trolls and assorted fun, but it was truly a unique era and a fun project for my younger self.

Coaching

The 2023 season is Coach Ron Bronson’s 4th season at Head Varsity Girls Tennis Coach at Catlin Gabel where he led the Eagles to a state championship in 2022, the first time the event had been staged in 3 years.

Beginning his tenure during the COVID-cancelled season of 2020, Coach Bronson’s squad reeled off 22 dual match wins in a row and claimed back-to-back District & Conference Championships; claiming both the individual singles & doubles district titles in both seasons. Since taking over, 12 players have been named All-District and qualified a school-record 7 players for State in 2022. He was also named District 1 Coach of the Year in 2022.

While at Cheyenne Central (WY) HS, his girls team won Regional & Conference championships, en route to a 3rd place finish at state. He also coached boys tennis at Oregon City HS, where the team earned Academic All-State honors.

Across his head coaching career (43-18-1), Ron’s players achievements include:

He was a team captain & played singles & doubles at Monmouth College, after an enlistment in the US Air Force. He was 4-year letter winner & team captain at Plainfield (NJ) HS, where he was part of 3x state playoff teams & the school’s first-ever tennis conference championship his senior year playing under the tutelage of Hall of Famer & former State Coach of the Year Donald Van Blake.

Later, he spent a season as an assistant coach at Aurora University. Ron also spent eight years leading tennis programs for players of all ability levels at elite summer camps throughout New England from 2002-2011, and began his high school coaching career in Colorado at two Denver-area high schools in 2009.

Early Years

I was born & raised in New Jersey. I first picked up a tennis racquet when I was 9, and was a 4-time varsity letter winner in HS., and also did debate. I played flugelhorn in the concert & marching bands for six years and even did choir my senior year to mix things up. I’m a scholastic alum of both Odyssey of the Mind (elementary school) & Junior State of America, where I ran for governor my junior year (but lost…)

After high school, I spent nearly four years on active duty in the U.S. Air Force, deployed in support of Operation Southern Watch in the Persian Gulf in 2000 and attended college after my enlistment was up. I built my first website in 1993 and have worked in tech since 1996, but never assumed I’d do it for a living back then. Beyond tennis, I also debated collegiately and was a 2x time participant at Nationals and later coached debate and I’m also responsible for ghostwriting at least one student government constitution.