2016-17 will be Garrett Brickner's fourth season as Associate Head Track and Field Coach at his alma mater, following five seasons as an assistant coach. Brickner will continue to work with the multi event athletes, sprinters and hurdlers.
Brickner has coached his athletes to seven school records over the aforementioned nine years, and last season, coached Greg Henderson to a sweep of the 100 and 200-meters at the conference outdoor meet. Henderson became the first Keydet since 2004 to accomplish that feat. He also tutored Levi Whitt, who finished fourth at the conference meet in the decathlon and earned all-freshman honors, and Davon Guerrier, the conference champion in the 110-meter hurdles.
2014-15 saw Aron Long deliver the best performance by a VMI sprinter in over a decade, as he won the 200-meters and finished second in the 100. Quincy Murphy, meanwhile, swept the multi events, winning both the heptathlon and the decathlon and qualifying for the IC4A meet in both under Brickner's tutelage, while Kerisha Goode set a new school record in the women's 200-meters.
During his seasons at his Alma Mater, which began in September of 2008, Brickner has been responsible for the development of a quartet of jumpers in Ademola Titcombe, Dennis James, Antonio Wood and Terrance Green, in addition to Murphy, Henderson and Long. Wood broke Brickner's school record in the heptathlon during the 2011-12 indoor season, while also earned podium finishes at the IC4A Championships in both the heptathlon (indoor) and decathlon (outdoor). James had an outstanding 2010-11 year, becoming just the third high jumper in Keydet history to clear the 7-foot mark, when he accomplished that feat at the Big South Indoor Championships. He also won the indoor conference title, finished second outdoors, fourth at the outdoor IC4A meet and earned his first career trip to the NCAA Preliminary Round.
Titcombe led VMI to a third-place finish at the 2010 Big South Indoor Championships, posting 24 individual points that included a win in the long jump. In that event, the then-sophomore leapt 7.24 M (23'9") to post the longest indoor long jump in the Big South since 2005. Green was a three-time scorer in the long jump at the conference's outdoor meet, and also notched points in both the triple jump and the long jump at the 2009 indoor championships.
Brickner also mentored Zipporah McCann, who showed drastic improvement throughout the 2009-10 season and went on to set the school's heptathlon record at the Big South Outdoor Championships.
Brickner is a 2006 graduate of VMI, where he earned a degree in psychology in addition to his role on the Track and Field squad. He comes to VMI after spending one season at Washington & Lee, where he acted as an assistant coach. While there, he helped lead the Generals to numerous all-conference honors, as well as helping mentor a pair of All-Americans, Washington and Lee’s first since 1993.
Prior to working in Lexington, Brickner spent a year in Washington, D.C., working at Dulles Airport under the employ of the Department of Homeland Security.
He competed in many events during his career, including the jumps, the multi’s, the pole vault and hurdling disciplines, and was a qualifier to the 2005 NCAA National Championships, thanks to a second-place finish in the high jump at the East Regional meet. Finally, he is the current Big South high jump record holder, and was the three-time Big South Field Event Performer of the Meet at various conference championships.
Brickner currently resides in Buena Vista, and is a native of Fairfax Station, Va. He married the former Kristen LaLuna on Sept. 26, 2015.
