Bio

Brad Brooks was named the head coach of Penn State Altoona's men's and women's swimming program in July 2018. He is the fifth head coach in the NCAA Division III era of the swimming program. In addition to his coaching duties, Brooks is also Penn State Altoona's Assistant Director of Recreation and Facilities.

Brooks’ resume is highlighted by a standout collegiate swimming career at Division III McDaniel College, as well as coaching experience at both the club and college levels.

In his collegiate swimming career at McDaniel that ranged from 2012-16, Brooks was a highly decorated star and two-year captain for the Green Terror men’s team. Specializing in the freestyle and individual medley swims, Brooks was a four-time NCAA Division III All-American and claimed 10 Centennial Conference individual championships.

Brooks’ career as a student-athlete at McDaniel was also littered with high profile academic honors. In 2016, he was an NCAA Elite 90 Academic Recognition Award recipient for having the highest cumulative grade-point average among all of the participants at that season’s Division III men’s swimming championships. Brooks was also a three-time NCAA Academic All-American and three-time Capital One Academic All-America Division III At-Large third team selection. He was the Centennial Conference’s 2015-16 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and he graduated as the valedictorian of McDaniel’s class of 2016.

Brooks’ previous coaching experience consists of stints with several club programs, as well as time spent as an assistant at his alma mater of McDaniel. From parts of 2011-18, he spent time as a head coach for the Persimmon Creek Swim Club (Newark, Del.), the Green Terror Aquatic Club (Westminster, Md.), Cardinal and Gold Aquatics (Towson, Md.), and the Westminster Stingrays Swim Club (Westminster, Md.). From June 2016 through July 2017, Brooks served as an assistant coach for McDaniel’s men’s and women’s swim teams. There, he handled duties such as the development and implementation of workouts and the recruiting of prospective student-athletes from the Mid-Atlantic region.