Learning This is Where He Belongs

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Trey Brokaw, who grew up on a farm in west-central Illinois and ran track at Division II Emporia State, had dreams of doing big things and going places. Brokaw enters his second year as assistant track and field coach and recruiting coordinator for a surging Kansas State program that is quickly becoming a major player in the world of NCAA track and field.

"We feel like we can be one of the very best track programs in the NCAA, and we feel like we'll be in the mix to win a national title, which is huge for Kansas State and the community of Manhattan," Brokaw says. "It's almost a race between which program here can be the first one to get it done, and we're pretty excited about our prospects to win a national title in March or in June of 2026."

After growing up stepping foot in just three states — Illinois, Iowa and Missouri — Brokaw's journey has taken him to 43 states and 15 different countries, as he tirelessly works to lead efforts to land elite student-athletes for the Wildcats.

Brokaw's professional journey began 14 years ago at Emporia State (2012-13), Northern Iowa (2013-16), Nebraska (2017-18), Akron (2018-21) and Western Illinois (2021-24) before Director of Track and Field/Cross Country Travis Geopfert hired him on staff in Manhattan on August 2, 2024.

Now Brokaw is proud to announce that through his efforts and the efforts of the rest of the coaching staff that K-State boasts the largest and arguably the most talented recruiting class in the country.

What did Brokaw learn during his first year at the Power 4 level, at K-State, and in the Manhattan community?

He belongs.

Trey Brokaw spoke with K-State Sports Extra's D. Scott Fritchen about the intricacies of his role on the K-State track and field staff and exactly why he carries high hopes for this Wildcats in 2025-26:

D. Scott Fritchen: Describe the past two months for you since the completion of the NCAA Championships? What has been on your agenda these past two months?

Trey Brokaw: This morning, we had a functional movement analysis with our sprints, jumps, multis and middle-distance athletes. We went through their movement patterns to determine their deficiencies in mobility to strength. Then we used that analysis to formulate some prehabilitation exercises for each athlete to help them improve upon their deficiencies, which should help them stay healthy. Those exercises will then get worked into their strength and conditioning program, and it will be a part of their warm-up. The whole group participated in that this morning.

Then I came to the office and went through e-mails for an hour, much of which was about team travel or travel for Coach Geopfert, as he returns from the Diamond League Final in Switzerland for our team meeting Friday afternoon. Then I planned team travel for our cross country team as it heads to Notre Dame in five weeks. Then I ordered some new equipment and nutritional supplements that our program is going to utilize this year. One of the big changes in middle-distance training and racing in the last couple years has been the use of sodium bicarbonate, which is basically baking soda. In the 1990s, athletes experimented with taking baking soda for practice and for races, and the research shows it works. A company in the last couple years developed a new state-of-the-art product that has dramatically improved a lot of performances at the elite level in middle-distance running, especially the 800 meters. We're going to invest in that supplement. That's been my morning.

Fritchen: What have these past two months been like for you personally? Where all have you traveled? Do you get any time off?

Brokaw: The past two months have been pretty busy. Technically, our coaching staff has been here one full year. In some ways, it feels like it's been five years, and in some ways, it feels like it's been five minutes just because we've been so busy. Since the NCAA Championships last June, our staff has been locked in on finalizing our recruiting class. We have 46 newcomers on our team and about half of those are international students. We have roughly 25% from the state of Kansas. It's definitely the largest recruiting class in the NCAA, but it's extremely talented. We think it's the best recruiting class in the NCAA as well. Our student-athletes have been trickling in through the summer. Some of them came from junior colleges and some came from overseas. So, we've been trying to get them settled in at their new home in Manhattan. That's been the biggest thing on the agenda. We've also begun recruiting for the Class of 2026. Because of the changes to the NCAA landscape with recruiting limitations, our recruiting is going to look a lot different going forward. So, this last recruiting class we brought in 46, and this year it's going to be a recruiting class of 10, give or take. So, it's going to look a lot different. Nonetheless, we've started on that, and we're excited about the next group of prospects we have coming in.

Fritchen: You said sometimes it feels like you've been here five minutes and other times it feels like you've been here five years, but exactly how would you describe your first year at K-State?

Brokaw: It's been a huge success for our new coaching staff, and it's been a lot of fun. Our coaching staff, many of us knew each other before we came to K-State together, so we're close friends, and it's been very enjoyable to have those close friendships with your co-workers. K-State as a campus community and Manhattan as a community has been great as well. It starts from the top down with President Richard Linton, who is incredibly supportive of athletics, and Gene Taylor is incredibly supportive of our cross country and track programs. It's a great culture, and that really helps starting a new chapter in a new place. I'm pretty familiar with the Flint Hills as I ran track down the street at Emporia State, so the Flint Hills has been home away from home for me for a long time, and it's been really good to get back here.

Fritchen: In the first season, this program had 10 national qualifiers. Just how impressive is that feat when you go back and think about it, and what kind of foundation has been built for this program?

Brokaw: It's an incredibly impressive feat […] to now 10 this past outdoor track and field season. It's going to be just as much or more of an improvement this year. It goes back to the recruiting class we've brought in. We feel like we can be one of the very best track programs in the NCAA, and we feel like we'll be in the mix to win a national title, which is huge for Kansas State and the community of Manhattan. It's almost a race between which program here can be the first one to get it done, and we're pretty excited about our prospects to win a national title in March or in June of 2026.

Fritchen: I know this first track and field year has opened the eyes of many K-State fans. Can you run through some of the stars of this past track team and their accomplishments in 2024-25 and what made each so good at their craft?

Brokaw: We have a well-balanced program, which is very nice. The strength of our team is on the field event side because of Coach Geopfert and Coach John Newell and Coach Kip Janvrin, who are experienced and incredibly successful coaches at previous stops. Thinking back to this last year, Emil Uhlin finished third at the NCAA outdoor championships. He's going to be returning this time with a really, really good multis group around him. We have five decathletes and three of those could be in the mix to win a NCAA individual title next year. Dorian Charles will be a freshman and could score close to 8,000 points. Emil should be over 8,000 points. We brought in Abraham Vogelsang, an Iowa transfer, who was First Team All-American, which is top eight in the country. Abraham did that last year in the decathlon. Emil has a really nice group to help push him to that next level.

We also have Selva Prabhu, a freshman from India, who finished fifth at the NCAA outdoor championships. Instead of being lone wolf on the international stage in horizontal jumps, Selva has going to have an army of elite horizonal jumpers around him. We've brought in a lot of successful athletes from all over the world. We signed a couple guys that are over 8.00 meters, or 26-feet plus, in the men's long jump, which is phenomenal, and which puts you in the mix to make the Olympic team for your country.

Aaliyah Foster will be a junior for us, a transfer from Texas, who is originally from Jamaica. She jumped 6.75 meters in the long jump, or just over 22 feet, and finished seventh at the NCAA Championships. She has all the potential in the world to be a NCAA national champion and will help lead our women's horizontal jump group.

We have a really good group in the men's triple jump as well with two or three guys that have the potential to jump 17.0 meters, which is well over 54 feet. Last year, we had some really good individuals. This year, we have a whole group of people around those stars, which creates not only a competitive culture at a track meet, but one in practice, which benefits those student-athletes to be pushed to reach their fullest potential.

Fritchen: How many countries have you visited since you were hired at K-State last December? What is your most unique recruiting story since you arrived at K-State?

Brokaw: I've been to 15 different countries. Before I left for Emporia State for college, I'd only been to three states. I grew up on a cattle farm in west-central Illinois, and I lived 30 miles away from Iowa and 40 miles from Missouri. When you farm livestock, you can't leave, and you have to be home to do chores and be around in case there's an issue. Now in 14 years in college coaching, I've been to 43 different states and 15 different countries. Each recruiting trip is its own monster. When I started international recruiting, I had no idea what I was doing, but I booked the tickets and went overseas. My first trip I was gone for about three weeks. I went to Germany for 10 days and then flew to Kenya for 10 more days, and then I finished that trip in Italy at the under-20 championships in 2017. It was quite the experience and extremely fun and I made a lot of connections on those trips and those connections still help me to this day on the recruiting front.

As for my most unique recruiting story at K-State, that's a great question. I don't know if there's a specific unique story. I'll say this: Every staff I've ever been a part of, I've been the main recruiter. Many NCAA coaches do not enjoy recruiting, but on our staff, even though I have the title of recruiting coordinator, most of our staff are elite recruiters. So, it's been extremely fun and rewarding for me to be a part of a staff where everybody loves recruiting and works hard at recruiting. It's energized me because as a competitive person, I see Clive Pullen working hard, Christopher Goodwin working hard, and it energizes me to work even harder. I've always had a passion for recruiting because when I was a high school senior, I didn't have a lot of help navigating the recruiting process, and I made a lot of mistakes.

My heart behind recruiting is I want to help these young men and women at a critical part in their lives where many of them are making the biggest decision of their lives. It's also a motivating factor for me to be a part of a staff that's getting after it. In my opinion, Travis is the best recruiter in the NCAA, and I thought that before I got to K-State. To work under his direction and guidance has been fantastic, and he's taught me a lot in one year about recruiting, coaching, and interacting with people.

I think the most unique recruiting story here at K-State so far is getting into Russia. Because of the war between Russia and Ukraine, many Russian athletes aren't being taken care of by the Russian Federation financially or otherwise like they were in the past, so they are looking for an opportunity elsewhere. The NCAA system is great because it provides a unique opportunity for international students to balance elite academics with elite athletics. I've actually tried to recruit in Russia for 10 years with not much success. But this year, we've signed two student-athletes from Russia. Anastasia Kretova is a freshman and in the 400 meters she ran a 52.90 and was the No. 1-ranked under-20 Russian 400 sprinter this past year. I also recruited Anna Pozdeeva, a very talented 800-meter runner. I'm excited to work with those two. Russia is unique, the U.S. Embassy is closed so those student-athletes have to fly to different countries to get their visa to come here. So, they eventually got their visa so they could study in the U.S.A. It's a pretty significant development on the recruiting front that Russians are starting to come to the United States.

We want to balance our recruiting. The state of Kansas is full of talent. Some of the athletes coming out of the state of Kansas might not have the best opportunities or the best facilities, especially if they're coming from a smaller school, but we still recognize and appreciate that talent, and we want to recruit the state of Kansas just as hard as we recruit some of these elite international students.

Fritchen: As a recruiter, you probably need to have something to sell a recruit on why he or she should come to K-State. What are some bullet points you share with them as to why they should come to K-State?

Brokaw: Our president and administration have made it really easy for us to sell K-State. We have a brand new indoor track facility and a new Olympic Training Center with our weight room and athletic training room — any recruit that sees that immediately recognize that we're serious. Even our international recruits who can't visit Manhattan, I sent pictures and videos of our facilities, and it instantly creates a buzz around our program that's distinct from a lot of other programs across the country. First and foremost, you have to have the facilities to have the success.

Secondly, our staff is full of accomplished coaches at the Olympic, World Championship, and NCAA level, but they're also really good people. Recruits can feel that, and their parents can feel that. That's a big reason why we've had so much success. It's because of the opportunities our administration has provided and the people that we have within our program.

One of the biggest components to recruiting success is current student-athletes, and we were lucky to inherit a great group of young men and women when we got here last summer, and they hosted all the student-athletes we've brought in. That tradition will continue. We'll bring in more recruits and our student-athletes hosting them is going to be a reason for our success on the recruiting front in 2026 and beyond.

Fritchen: And now we're here. Do you particularly enjoy this time of year, getting to sink your teeth into everything?

Brokaw: Oh yeah. This is absolutely the best time of the year when all of these newcomers arrive, helping them to get settled in, and the energy in meetings is really high, and the excitement level is really high, and we can feel that energy in the community, too. People around here know that the K-State track and field program is on the up and up. Practice is the favorite part of my day by far.

Fritchen: What have you learned most about yourself during your time at K-State?

Brokaw: What I've learned most about myself is that I belong at this level. In 14 years of college coaching, most of that time has been spent at the mid-major level. I was an average Division II runner at Emporia State, so it's taken me a significant amount of time to climb the ladder. I spent significant time at Northern Iowa, which is my original connection to Travis, and then Akron and Western Illinois, which is 20 minutes from my family farm where I grew up. Kansas State at the Power 4 level is totally different from those mid-major schools. I always felt like I could recruit at an elite level and always felt like I could coach at an elite level, and I always wanted to be at a school like Kansas State. Being here with this staff this first year has just confirmed that this where I belong.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Dorian Charles

Selva Prabhu

Emil Uhlin

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