A former PSAC Champion, Brady Wert enters his sixth season as an assistant coach with the California (PA) track & field teams in 2024.
Wert has mentored seven league champions and a combined 24 All-PSAC honorees over six different events while with the Vulcans. Additionally, Cal has broken a combined seven school records over the last two seasons while Beyoncé Kelly has earned All-America status in the high jump three times during that span.
Kelly became the program’s first All-American in the high jump in over 35 years in 2022. Last spring, she placed third at the NCAA Championships after sweeping the league titles in the high jump. Kelly has earned All-PSAC laurels in the event five times in her career and reset the indoor school record in the high jump last year at 1.76 meters (5-9.25 feet).
In 2022, Jalen Cloud became the first individual selected as PSAC Track Athlete of the Year in school history. He accomplished the feat during the indoor campaign when he captured the league title in the triple jump. Logan Pfister won the conference crown in the high jump at the 2022 indoor championships and swept the league titles in the event as a sophomore last season. Additionally, Daniel Munro broke a pair of school records in 2023 while capturing the outdoor league title in the pole vault.
Wert played a pivotal role in the development of multi-event standout Anna Ebersole, who was selected a 2022 Second-Team Academic All-American. She earned All-PSAC status and USTFCCCA all-region laurels in both the pentathlon and heptathlon, plus the high jump.
Prior to his time at Cal, Wert spent two years as an assistant coach at both Kutztown and Saint Francis (Pa.). He started his coaching career as an assistant at Slippery Rock after being a standout for The Rock from 2007-11.
Wert was responsible for sprints, hurdles, jumps and multi-events at Kutztown, while also assisting in recruiting. He was instrumental in the development of standout McKenzie Fagan, who was selected an Academic All-American as a senior. Under Wert, Fagan captured the league title in the high jump during both the 2017 indoor season and the 2018 outdoor campaign. Additionally, Kelly Groth broke a 35-year old school record during the preliminaries of the 100-meter dash at the 2018 PSAC Championships. Jhaloni Johnson eclipsed the indoor school mark in the 200-meter dash after the previous record stood for 18 years and Anthony Bullaro established a school record in the 60-meter hurdles at the league championships in 2017.
A native of New York, Wert previously served as a volunteer assistant for the Vulcans during the Fall 2016 semester when he worked with throwers before being named an assistant coach at Kutztown.
Wert gained NCAA Division I experience while being responsible for sprints, hurdles and jumps at Saint Francis from 2014-16. He helped mentor a trio of Northeast Conference (NEC) Champions with the Red Flash claiming multiple league titles in the men's high jump during the 2016 season. Additionally, Wert coached the league champion in the men's pole vault during the winter of 2015.
As a college athlete, Wert was a three-time PSAC Champion at Slippery Rock and held the school record in the heptathlon with 5,016 points. He repeated as the league champion in the decathlon in 2010 and 2011 and also captured the conference title in heptathlon in 2011. As a junior, Wert claimed his first conference title by winning the decathlon with a score of 6,444 points. The following year, he won the heptathlon during the indoor campaign before recording the third-highest decathlon performance in the nation during the spring with 6,785 points while also repeating as the league champion in the event.
Wert served as an assistant coach with The Rock from 2011-14 and worked with vertical jumps and multi-events. Slippery Rock captured the women's team title at the 2014 PSAC Indoor Championships while the program won league titles in the heptathlon and men's and women's pole vault.
He earned his bachelor's degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing from Slippery Rock in 2011. He later completed a master's degree from Saint Francis in business administration with a concentration in organizational communication in 2016.
He and his wife Sandy, an assistant coach for the Vulcans, reside in California.
