Kenny Brooks, who was chosen as the 2025 Sporting News National Coach of the Year, was named the ninth head coach of the University of Kentucky women’s basketball program on March 26, 2024. He enters his second season as the Wildcats’ women’s basketball head coach in 2025-26, while he enters his 24th season overall as a head coach.

Boasting a 540-212 (.718) career record through 23 seasons as a head coach across his times at James Madison, Virginia Tech and Kentucky, Brooks has compiled five Colonial Athletic Association Tournament titles, four CAA regular-season titles, one ACC Tournament title, one ACC regular-season title, 11 NCAA Tournament appearances and one Final Four.

Brooks’ first season at the helm of the Kentucky Wildcats was nothing short of sensational, as evident by being named the 2025 Sporting News’ National Coach of the Year.

He hit the ground running in Spring 2024, recruiting 11 players and hiring 11 coaches and staffers that would end up being competitive in a conference that was new to almost all of them. That collection would go on to earn a 23-8 overall record in 2024-25, including an 11-5 mark in the Southeastern Conference to finish in fourth place in the loaded league. In the process, Brooks tied the late Terry Hall as the quickest head coaches in program history to reach their first 20 wins at UK (24 games). Brooks also joined Hall as just the second head coach in program history to begin their first season at UK undefeated through seven games.

The Wildcats, who earned five ranked triumphs, ranked as high as No. 8 in the Associated Press poll on the season, while they went on to earn the four seed and double bye at the SEC Tournament and the four seed and hosting privileges in the NCAA Tournament. The Cats broke or tied 12 school records before ending the season as the nation’s leader in blocks per game (7.0). Meanwhile, star-studded point guard Georgia Amoore – who he affectionally refers to as his mini-me – went on to earn consensus All-America, Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year Top Five Finalist, ESPN Newcomer of the Year, SEC Newcomer of the Year and All-SEC First Team – among others – before being picked No. 6 overall in the 2025 WNBA Draft by the Washington Mystics, while his sophomore center Clara Strack earned Lisa Leslie Center of the Year Top 10 Finalist, SEC Defensive Player of the Year, All-SEC Second Team and SEC All-Defensive Team.

The excitement abounded for the program Brooks built off the court, too, with reserved season tickets selling out prior to the season, and four home games, including its final three home games, selling out in advance of the tip times. Also off the court, Brooks’ team assembled a 3.59 GPA in Fall 2024, the program’s highest GPA in 10 years (outside of the Covid-affected semester in Spring 2020).

Brooks arrived in Lexington after serving eight seasons as the head coach at Virginia Tech. Under his guidance, the Hokies enjoyed eight consecutive winning seasons (2017-24) and made four straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament (2021-24). He also produced a record amount of ACC win totals, ranked wins and postseason accolades in that time.

Most recently, Virginia Tech is coming off the program’s first ACC regular-season championship and a four seed in the NCAA Tournament in 2024. Just a season before that, he led Tech to the program’s first ACC Tournament title and earned a one seed in the NCAA Tournament. That same season, the Hokies defeated Chattanooga, South Dakota State, Tennessee and Ohio State to advance to the program’s first Final Four.

Student-athletes have thrived under Brooks’ leadership.

Elizabeth Kitley, an All-America center at Virginia Tech (2020-24), became the program’s first 2,000-point scorer, while she also ranks first in program history in field goals, blocks and double-doubles. She was a three-time ACC Player of the Year, three-time Kay Yow Scholar-Athlete of the Year and three-time Associated Press All-American. Kitley was the first Hokie to hold those titles, in addition to being a four-time All-ACC First Team selection and two-time All-Defensive Team selection.

In addition, Amoore, previously an All-ACC point guard at Virginia Tech (2021-24), won the 2023 ACC Tournament Most Valuable Player honor and went on to become the NCAA Tournament’s Seattle Region Most Outstanding Player. Altogether, she was a two-time All-ACC First Team selection and earned two All-America honorable mentions. In 2022-23, Amoore set a single-season program record for 3-point field goals (116), which ranked second in the nation at the time.

In 2022-23, Brooks’ seventh season at Virginia Tech, there were numerous milestones and program bests. The Hokies went 14-4 in ACC action to earn a coveted double bye in the ACC Tournament. That season, Virginia Tech went 16-1 at home with the lone loss coming to a top-five team, while Tech defeated eight ranked teams, a single-season program record.

Brooks, a Waynesboro, Virginia, native, was a finalist for the 2023 Werner Ladder Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year honor after achieving a slew of program firsts, including the first 30-win season (31).

In 2021-22, the Hokies set a program record with 13 ACC wins and five ranked wins. The squad also advanced to the ACC Tournament semifinals for the first time ever. During the season, Brooks won his 450th career game at No. 16 Duke, 65-54, earning a sweep of the Blue Devils for the first time in program history.

Brooks recruited and developed All-ACC guard Aisha Sheppard, who graduated as the program’s all-time leader in points at the time (1,883) and the ACC’s leader in career 3-point field goals (402) in 2022. She earned three All-ACC awards and earned Associated Press All-America honorable mention accolades in 2021. At the time, she owned the top three single-season 3-point field goal totals in program history and played in the most games and most minutes of any player in program history.

To begin his tenure, Brooks and the Hokies reeled off 15 straight wins to open the season in 2016-17, Virginia Tech’s strongest start to a season in 18 years. Behind that strong start, Tech climbed to as high as No. 15 in the Associated Press Top 25.

Brooks ushered in a new era of up-tempo basketball at Virginia Tech, as his Hokies reset the team scoring record in each of his first two seasons in Blacksburg, as well as reset the mark for 3-point field goals made in each of those seasons.

Brooks’ tenure has seen numerous players score 1,000 career points, including forward Regan Magarity who also became the program’s all-time leading rebounder at the time during the 2018 WNIT run. Magarity set the ACC record with 1,299 career rebounds.

Brooks joined Virginia Tech after an impressive 14-season stint as head coach at James Madison University, where he compiled a record of 337-122 (.756), which made him the winningest coach in school history. Brooks guided the Dukes to 11 consecutive postseason appearances, including six NCAA bids and five trips to the WNIT. During his final three seasons in Harrisonburg, Virginia, Brooks and the Dukes compiled an impressive 60-3 record in conference action.

He was named CAA Coach of the Year for a fourth time in 2015-16, while his student-athletes also garnered CAA Player and Rookie of the Year honors.

Brooks registered winning campaigns in 13 of his 14 seasons in Harrisonburg, ascending to No. 23 in the AP Poll and No. 21 in the USA Today Coaches Poll in 2014-15, as his squad tied a school record with 29 wins. In 2013-14, he led the Dukes to their first NCAA Tournament victory since 1991, when his 11th-seeded Dukes knocked off sixth-seeded Gonzaga, 72-63, in the first round. In 2007, the Dukes earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, marking only the second time a CAA team had received an at-large berth.

The Waynesboro, Virginia, native has coached nine WNBA Draft picks in his tenure; first-rounders Georgia Amoore (sixth overall) and  Tamera Young (eighth overall), as well as Liz Kitley, Lauren Okafor, Jazmon Gwathmey, Regan Magarity, Aisha Sheppard, Kayana Traylor and Taylor Soule. Sheppard and Traylor were selected 23rd in consecutive drafts, the highest picks ever in Virginia Tech program history and Traylor and Soule became the first two Hokies student-athletes to be selected in the same WNBA Draft.

A 1992 graduate of James Madison, Brooks played for three seasons under coach Lefty Driesell and made two NIT appearances, while also earning a degree in business management. He began his coaching career as a part-time assistant for the 1993-94 JMU men’s squad that won the CAA Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Then, after four seasons as an assistant for the men’s program at Virginia Military Institute (1994-98), he moved back to his alma mater as a men’s assistant from 1998-2002. He was named interim women’s head coach on Dec. 6, 2002 before taking over those duties on a full-time basis on March 21, 2003.

Brooks and his wife, Chrissy, have four children, Kendyl, Chloe, Gabby and Nicholas.