Columbia International University Athletics

 Judson "Jud" Brooker came to Columbia International University from Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio, where he served as the assistant cross country coach from 2009-2011. Brooker is the longest-tenured coach in the CIU Athletic Department as he enters 9th year at the helm of the Rams and his 10th year as an employee of CIU. 

Brooker was hired by then CIU Athletic Director Kim Abbott in 2011 to start a cross country and track & field program at CIU. Brooker led the Rams as they competed in the NCCAA for the better part of the decade and then successfully helped his program transition to the NAIA in 2019. 

CIU enters into their 9th season of cross country and their 5th season of track & field. Brooker has seen success of late, most notably during the 2019-20 cross country and indoor track & field seasons. During the 2019 fall season, the Rams women's cross country team took home their first NCCAA South Region title. On that championship squad, the Rams had four runners named First Team All-South Region.  

Brooker then led the Rams to a record indoor track & field season during the winter of 2020. In only their second year in NAIA competition, CIU had five athletes qualify for the NAIA National Championships. Even rarer the Rams walked away from the Championships with a National Champion in the pole vault by way of freshman John Hunter James. Under the tutelage of Brooker and assistant Coach Rusty Shealy, James was not only the best pole vaulter in the NAIA but one of the best pole vaulters in the country at any collegiate level. 

Due to James' success in his freshman season, Brooker has the distinct honor of being the first coach at Columbia International to produce an NAIA All-American.

Brooker's team would build on that success as he would produce three more NAIA Indoor All-Americans in 2021 as John Hunter James once again captured the NAIA Men's Indoor Track & Field National Championship in the pole vault. The Ram's other two NAIA All-Americans came in the form of race walkers Brandon Bacon and Nathaniel Wilburn, both of whom had outstanding races at the NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championships. Wilburn would go on to become the Ram's first-ever NAIA Outdoor Track & Field All-American achieving the feat at the 2021 NAIA  Outdoor Track & Field Championships. 

2021 also saw Brooker's squads compete at the NCCAA Outdoor Track Field National Championship, where CIU would have 13 NCCAA All-Americans between both the men's and women's teams. The Rams also picked up two NCCAA National Champions as Daneen Hazelwood took home the top spot in the women's 100-meter hurdles, and John Hunter James finished first in the men's pole vault. 

Aside from his regular coaching duties, Brooker was the primary catalyst in CIU hosting the 2021 Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Outdoor Track and Field Championships. At the event, Brooker's women's team finished 4th overall in the conference, one spot away from where they finished at the AAC Indoor Track & Field Championship, where they came in 3rd. 

Perhaps Brooker's team's most impressive feat of 2021 was despite falling from the NAIA's top 25 midway through the indoor season, Brooker's men's team would finish the indoor season ranked No. 17 in the country by the NAIA and USTFCCCA. The men's indoor track & field team is the first CIU team in any sport to finish the season in the top 25 in the NAIA. 

Brooker was a track and cross country standout as a student at Cedarville University, where he majored in Physical Education. Brooker was a two-year captain of the track and cross country team, NCCAA Champion and multiple times All-American, an American Mideastern Conference Champion in Track as well as First Team performer in cross country and track, and qualified nine times for the NAIA championships in cross country and track earning All-American honors in 2008.

Brooker holds an undergraduate degree from Cedarville University and a Masters of Education from CIU.

Coach Brooker resides in Irmo with his wife Nicole and son Myles.