University of Georgia Athletics
Brooks 'Ready To Lead' Georgia Athletics
January 26, 2021 | Football, General, Track & Field, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Josh Brooks is an idea man. The mind of Georgia's new J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics is always buzzing with new possibilities, new ways to do things, whether it's improving the fan experience at Sanford Stadium or addressing the many challenges that have come amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Between his phone and a leather-bound journal he uses, Brooks spends a lot of time jotting down notes and digging into ideas.
"It's 9:30 at night and I need to be winding down, but I'll write this idea in my calendar and I'll attack it tomorrow morning," Brooks said. "If I didn't have this mechanism, if I didn't have that process of knowing I'm going to get to it tomorrow morning, I may lay awake for three hours just brainstorming on the idea because I can't just shut my brain off."
On Jan. 6, Brooks was promoted to Director of Athletics, replacing Greg McGarity who retired after 10 years at the helm of the UGA Athletic Association at the end of 2020. Brooks originally came to Georgia in 2008, when he was working in football operations for several years before moving into athletics administration in 2011.
In 2014, Brooks, from Hammond, La., was hired as the Director of Athletics at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., where he worked before being named Deputy Athletics Director at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He returned to Athens in 2016 as the Executive Associate Director of Athletics and a year ago was promoted to Senior Deputy Director of Athletics.
"When he wasn't here, we really missed his enthusiasm — he was like a pied piper," McGarity said back in December. "He had a lot of followers. Great leaders have a lot of followers and he was able to cultivate a large group of student workers and others that just enjoyed being around him. His personality was contagious and we really missed that. He's brought that back to our program and is very popular among the staff. He's just wired the right way."
Brooks, who briefly served as the interim Director of Athletics before being promoted by UGA President Jere W. Morehead, said he knew he was prepared to lead Georgia athletics after going through all the challenges that were presented when the pandemic hit.
"Coming back here in 2016, I didn't have that immediate confidence that I was ready for this job," Brooks said, "but over the course of the past four years, getting closer to Greg and him providing more opportunities for me, it nurtured me along the path to where I finally felt this summer, in the midst of the pandemic, as we were taking on some of these challenges, I felt ready for the challenges and opportunities ahead of us."
The 40-year-old Brooks is the youngest athletic director in the SEC, and he's already achieved a lot in his career in a short amount of time. A big reason for that is he brings great energy, passion and enthusiasm to everything he does, and from all that comes a flood of ideas
"I think the root of that approach is the fact that he listens," said Georgia track and field coach Petros Kyprianou. "When we talk, he listens and thinks about that idea and really takes it to a whole different level. He makes you feel really good because he has listened to your concern or idea or whatever it might be, and he forms it into a better idea.
"He's an athletic director/artist — he'll come up with those ideas and he won't stop until he makes it happen."
Brooks said that his time at Millsaps, a small Division III school, was invaluable because its small athletic department staff required him to be very involved in everything. Now that he's leading a Georgia athletics staff of around 300, with a talented and experienced executive team around him, he gets to implement plans and initiatives with the help of a large team.
"Here, I have an idea and I have a team that I can assign an idea to and say, 'You take this idea and run with it.' It's an amazing feeling to be able to do that," he said. "It also encourages you to come up with ideas because what can be difficult at a smaller school like Millsaps is that for every idea you have, you have to find a way to execute it with minimal staff."
"Now, as I have these ideas, we have great people that just can run with it. I can give them expectations, give them the concepts and let them go, and they report back when it's done. Then you see this finished product that you may want to tweak a little bit but it allows everyone to go and really feel like you're making a difference."
Since being promoted and moving into the corner office at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall that overlooks Spec Towns Track and the expanded football facilities that are still under construction, Brooks said he has tried to keep the same routine from before. Several mornings a week, he exercises at 5:30, and then he's in the office by 7:30.
It's in those early hours of his day, before the nonstop meetings begin, that he opens up his journal and tries to bring all those ideas he has to life.
"I keep a running list," he said. "It looks like a to-do list but it's usually general topics. It's not just check it off when it's done, it leads to several other bullet points."
One of the first things Brooks did after taking over as Director of Athletics was pledge $100,000 to create a need-based scholarship to support University of Georgia students from Athens-Clarke County. The scholarship will be named the Marlise O. Harrell Georgia Commitment Scholarship, in honor of his late mother-in-law.
Sports have been a huge part of Brooks' life since he was a boy. He was the kid on the playground, he said, that would organize the games, pick the teams and keep score.
"Whatever we were doing, I wanted to make it a competition," he said during a Quick Chat back in April. "I always knew that I wanted to do something in sports. Obviously, when you're little you have dreams of playing professional sports, and then as you get older and you realize that's not a possibility, my dreams shifted to becoming a coach."
Brooks attended LSU, where he worked as an equipment manager and student assistant coach with the football team, and then he went to ULM as a graduate assistant. It was at ULM that he found his calling. The coach at the time, Charlie Weatherbie, offered him a job in football operations.
"That's when I gave up the coaching dream and moved into the administrative side," Brooks said.
In the years since, Brooks has moved up quickly and now risen to the top spot at one of the top athletic departments in the country.
"Over time, I expect Josh will not only lead the UGA athletic department but will also become a leading contributor to the national conversation shaping the future of intercollegiate athletics," Morehead said earlier this month. "I am confident that Josh will do all of his responsibilities very, very well."
Brooks knows he's young and knows he's going to continue to learn and grow. He embraces those opportunities for growth and development.
"I know that I'm an unfinished product and I'm not perfect, I'm going to make mistakes, but I'm ready to lead," he said. "And that goes back to the people we have here. The executive team that we have and the 300 staff members that we have across the board."
In everything he does and in everything Georgia does, the goal is to be better tomorrow than you were today.
"The challenge is every day finding a way to get better," he said, "finding ways to improve everyone's experience, from our student-athletes to our staff and our coaches, fans, donors, everyone."
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Staff Writer
Josh Brooks is an idea man. The mind of Georgia's new J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics is always buzzing with new possibilities, new ways to do things, whether it's improving the fan experience at Sanford Stadium or addressing the many challenges that have come amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Between his phone and a leather-bound journal he uses, Brooks spends a lot of time jotting down notes and digging into ideas.
"It's 9:30 at night and I need to be winding down, but I'll write this idea in my calendar and I'll attack it tomorrow morning," Brooks said. "If I didn't have this mechanism, if I didn't have that process of knowing I'm going to get to it tomorrow morning, I may lay awake for three hours just brainstorming on the idea because I can't just shut my brain off."
On Jan. 6, Brooks was promoted to Director of Athletics, replacing Greg McGarity who retired after 10 years at the helm of the UGA Athletic Association at the end of 2020. Brooks originally came to Georgia in 2008, when he was working in football operations for several years before moving into athletics administration in 2011.
In 2014, Brooks, from Hammond, La., was hired as the Director of Athletics at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., where he worked before being named Deputy Athletics Director at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He returned to Athens in 2016 as the Executive Associate Director of Athletics and a year ago was promoted to Senior Deputy Director of Athletics.
"When he wasn't here, we really missed his enthusiasm — he was like a pied piper," McGarity said back in December. "He had a lot of followers. Great leaders have a lot of followers and he was able to cultivate a large group of student workers and others that just enjoyed being around him. His personality was contagious and we really missed that. He's brought that back to our program and is very popular among the staff. He's just wired the right way."
Brooks, who briefly served as the interim Director of Athletics before being promoted by UGA President Jere W. Morehead, said he knew he was prepared to lead Georgia athletics after going through all the challenges that were presented when the pandemic hit.
"Coming back here in 2016, I didn't have that immediate confidence that I was ready for this job," Brooks said, "but over the course of the past four years, getting closer to Greg and him providing more opportunities for me, it nurtured me along the path to where I finally felt this summer, in the midst of the pandemic, as we were taking on some of these challenges, I felt ready for the challenges and opportunities ahead of us."
The 40-year-old Brooks is the youngest athletic director in the SEC, and he's already achieved a lot in his career in a short amount of time. A big reason for that is he brings great energy, passion and enthusiasm to everything he does, and from all that comes a flood of ideas
"I think the root of that approach is the fact that he listens," said Georgia track and field coach Petros Kyprianou. "When we talk, he listens and thinks about that idea and really takes it to a whole different level. He makes you feel really good because he has listened to your concern or idea or whatever it might be, and he forms it into a better idea.
"He's an athletic director/artist — he'll come up with those ideas and he won't stop until he makes it happen."
Brooks said that his time at Millsaps, a small Division III school, was invaluable because its small athletic department staff required him to be very involved in everything. Now that he's leading a Georgia athletics staff of around 300, with a talented and experienced executive team around him, he gets to implement plans and initiatives with the help of a large team.
"Here, I have an idea and I have a team that I can assign an idea to and say, 'You take this idea and run with it.' It's an amazing feeling to be able to do that," he said. "It also encourages you to come up with ideas because what can be difficult at a smaller school like Millsaps is that for every idea you have, you have to find a way to execute it with minimal staff."
"Now, as I have these ideas, we have great people that just can run with it. I can give them expectations, give them the concepts and let them go, and they report back when it's done. Then you see this finished product that you may want to tweak a little bit but it allows everyone to go and really feel like you're making a difference."
Since being promoted and moving into the corner office at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall that overlooks Spec Towns Track and the expanded football facilities that are still under construction, Brooks said he has tried to keep the same routine from before. Several mornings a week, he exercises at 5:30, and then he's in the office by 7:30.
It's in those early hours of his day, before the nonstop meetings begin, that he opens up his journal and tries to bring all those ideas he has to life.
"I keep a running list," he said. "It looks like a to-do list but it's usually general topics. It's not just check it off when it's done, it leads to several other bullet points."
One of the first things Brooks did after taking over as Director of Athletics was pledge $100,000 to create a need-based scholarship to support University of Georgia students from Athens-Clarke County. The scholarship will be named the Marlise O. Harrell Georgia Commitment Scholarship, in honor of his late mother-in-law.
Sports have been a huge part of Brooks' life since he was a boy. He was the kid on the playground, he said, that would organize the games, pick the teams and keep score.
"Whatever we were doing, I wanted to make it a competition," he said during a Quick Chat back in April. "I always knew that I wanted to do something in sports. Obviously, when you're little you have dreams of playing professional sports, and then as you get older and you realize that's not a possibility, my dreams shifted to becoming a coach."
Brooks attended LSU, where he worked as an equipment manager and student assistant coach with the football team, and then he went to ULM as a graduate assistant. It was at ULM that he found his calling. The coach at the time, Charlie Weatherbie, offered him a job in football operations.
"That's when I gave up the coaching dream and moved into the administrative side," Brooks said.
In the years since, Brooks has moved up quickly and now risen to the top spot at one of the top athletic departments in the country.
"Over time, I expect Josh will not only lead the UGA athletic department but will also become a leading contributor to the national conversation shaping the future of intercollegiate athletics," Morehead said earlier this month. "I am confident that Josh will do all of his responsibilities very, very well."
Brooks knows he's young and knows he's going to continue to learn and grow. He embraces those opportunities for growth and development.
"I know that I'm an unfinished product and I'm not perfect, I'm going to make mistakes, but I'm ready to lead," he said. "And that goes back to the people we have here. The executive team that we have and the 300 staff members that we have across the board."
In everything he does and in everything Georgia does, the goal is to be better tomorrow than you were today.
"The challenge is every day finding a way to get better," he said, "finding ways to improve everyone's experience, from our student-athletes to our staff and our coaches, fans, donors, everyone."
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Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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