Reno native Brendon Bray displays on a decade main the Nevada swimming and diving workforce

Brendon Bray’s Northern Nevada ties run deep, from his time as a three-time state champion athlete at Reno High School to working the Wolf Pack swimming and diving program for the final decade.

“It’s really special to me,” Bray stated. “Growing up in the community, it’s not just about being a part of the program you grew up in, I’m trying to do a lot of things that I think could have been part of this program that I was looking for as a youth.”

After a lot success as a swimmer at Reno High, Bray appeared to compete in school. But Nevada would not sponsor a males’s swim and dive program, so Bray discovered himself different faculties to pursue his dream.

“We still to this day don’t sponsor a men’s program, so as a male, you’re looking out elsewhere,” Bray stated. “And I wasn’t going to go to UNLV.”

He initially dedicated to swim on the University of Washington. But earlier than he arrived, the Huskies discontinued its swim program. Instead, he started his school on the University of Utah. After only one yr there, Washington reinstatement its swim program, so transferred to swim for the Huskies for his last three school seasons.

Bray’s teaching profession kicked off in Seattle, the place he served as an undergraduate assistant from 2004-05 earlier than being promoted to a males’s and girls’s assistant head coach from 2005-07.

In 2007, Bray turned San Diego State’s assistant coach the place he would keep for six seasons, serving to the Aztecs swim and dive program change into a regional powerhouse.

“I think it really taught me the type of culture that leads to elite performance and championship mindset,” Bray stated.

After his time at SDSU, Bray was named head coach for North Texas ladies’s swim and dive program. After a number of seasons there, he got here again residence after being employed because the Wolf Pack’s swim and dive head coach in July 2016.

In the final 9 seasons, Bray’s groups have completed prime three on the Mountain West Championship six instances and scored on the NCAA Championships thrice.

Nevada has gone three straight seasons with no top-three end on the convention championship however appears primed to make a run for the league title subsequent month. The Wolf Pack completed second within the MW yearly from 2019-22, with Bray hoping to steer his program to the highest of the mountain earlier than his time at Nevada is over.

“I’m very competitive,” Bray stated. “I want to win. I want badly for us to experience what it’s like to win a Mountain West championship and be in the Top 25. Those things are obviously something that’s important. But ingraining our program into the community, that’s something that lasts beyond my time. That’s the sort of thing that creates value and people can hitch their wagon and their cart to.”

You can watch the total interview with Nevada swim and dive coach Brendon Bray on the prime of this web page.