Kansas Wesleyan University

Bruce Palmbaum has been the men's soccer coach at Kansas Wesleyan since January, 2023.

In 2023, Palmbaum led a resurgence of the KWU Men's Soccer team to the forefront of the KCAC. The team improved 11 wins over the 2022 season going from 2-14-1 and 1-11 in the KCAC to a 13-5-2 overall record and a 9-2-2 conference mark. KWU earned the No. 3 seed in the KCAC tournament and hosted a first round match against Tabor, winning 2-0 to advance to the tournament semifinals. KWU saw six student-athletes earn All-KCAC honors with four named to the second team and two honorable mention nods. KWU also had four Academic All-KCAC selections and one Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athlete. 

Palmbaum joined the Coyotes after a two-year stint as soccer coach at Stephens College in Columbia, Mo.

His 2022 Stephens squad finished fifth in the ultra-competitive American Midwest Conference, as the Stars recorded five shutouts in conference play, and a sixth against William Woods in the AMC Tournament. He coached five All-AMC selections in 2022, including a pair of first-team selections. Eight were named Academic All-AMC.

Palmbaum was the only coach in Stephens history to lead the soccer program to back-to-back conference tournament appearances in 2021 and 2022.

Prior to becoming the coach at Stephens College, Palmbaum was an assistant for the men’s program at Northern Michigan University, helping the Wildcats to a 12-5 conference record. He also volunteered with the women’s program.

Prior to NMU, Palmbaum spent 25 years working in the Sacramento, California area leading U19 boys and girls soccer teams; he also coached at the Vision Soccer Summer Camps from 2005-2010 and the Joe Champion Soccer Camps from 2012-2017.

Palmbaum spent three years as men’s soccer coach and two years as women’s soccer coach at the University of Tulsa, where he turned the programs around. He was 29-29-3 coaching the men from 1986 to 1988, that included a nine-win improvement between his second and third seasons.

He launched the Tulsa women’s program in 1987, and in the program’s second season, improved the win total by six matches over the programs inaugural season.

Before Tulsa, Palmbaum experienced high levels of success at the high school level in Eugene, Oregon. As the varsity boys soccer coach, Palmbaum led his team to an overall record of 54-4 in five years; finishing with four district championships and one state championship. 

Palmbaum played collegiately at the University of Oregon and UCLA before moving up to the professional level where he played for the Los Angeles Lazers (MISL), Fulham FC (Great Britain), AZ Alkmsaar (Netherlands), and SV Hoofddorp (Netherlands). 

Palmbaum earned a BS from the University of Oregon and an MA from the University of Tulsa.