Brandt Nigro - Assistant Coach - Swimming Coaches

Brandt Nigro

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
btnigro@ncsu.edu

Brandt Nigro joined the NC State swimming and diving program as an assistant coach prior to the 2017-18 season. His primary responsibilities include working with the sprint freestyle and stroke events, and he also assists with recruiting.

Nigro came to Raleigh after three highly-successful seasons as a Division I assistant coach at Marshall and UMBC.

The 2016-17 season saw Nigro help Marshall to its most successful season in program history. The Thundering Herd women’s team scored a program-record 724 points at the Conference USA Championships to finish third. Nigro, who served as the primary coach for the sprint and backstroke groups, guided Sirena Rowe to the 2017 NCAA Championships. Rowe, the 2017 Conference USA Freshman of the Year, was the first Marshall swimmer to qualify for the NCAA Championships since 2005. In addition, Marshall swimmers set 11 new school records, six pool records, and 10 NCAA B standards. The Thundering Herd also set high marks in the classroom, earning the nation’s fifth-highest GPA.

Prior to Marshall, Nigro coached the UMBC men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams to back-to-back conference championships in his two seasons in Baltimore. He was a part of the 2015-16 CCSA Men’s Coaching Staff of the Year and the 2014-15 America East Women’s Coaching Staff of the Year. In those two seasons, 18 school records and eight conference records were set. The team was led by Emily Escobedo, who earned NCAA All-American honors in the 200 breaststroke.

While at UMBC, Nigro also served as the head senior coach of the Retriever Aquatic Club. At RAC, he guided the club through USA Swimming’s Club Recognition Program, helping it to achieve Level 4 Recognition, the highest level for USA swim clubs. He also coached multiple Junior National/Futures qualifiers, Academic All-Americans, and Maryland Swimming Senior Champions. From 2014 to 2016, he served on the staff of USA Swimming’s Eastern Zone Select Camp.

Nigro began his collegiate coaching career as a volunteer assistant on the staff at Wesleyan University. He also coached extensively at the high school and club levels in Connecticut. Nigro worked as an assistant coach with the Cheshire YMCA Sea Dog Swim Club and served as head coach of Brookfield High School Girls Swim and Dive team, winning a Southwest Conference championship in 2012. Nigro is an ASCA Level 4 certified coach. He was selected to the ASCA Fellows Class of 2016 and interned at the Sprint Salo Swim Camp at the University of Southern California.

A former student-athlete at the College of Charleston, Nigro was a member of the 2003 Southern States Conference Championship team. He graduated with honors in 2005 with a B.A. in Political Science. In 2009, he graduated with honors from the University of Hartford with an M.S. and Sixth-Year Certificate in School Psychology. While in Connecticut, he worked as a state and nationally-certified school psychologist.

A native of Bristol, Conn., Nigro now resides in Raleigh with his fiancé, Ginger Hoyt.