McKendree University Athletics

McKendree University Athletics Director Anthony Francis has announced the hiring of Brydon Groves-Scott as the school’s head men’s and women’s cross country coach and assistant men’s and women’s track and field coach. Groves-Scott began his duties at McKendree on Jan. 24.

Groves-Scott, who is a native of Edwardsville, Ill., comes to McKendree after serving as an English teacher and Head Cross Country and Track & Field Coach at Blackman Middle School in Murfreesboro, Tenn., since the beginning of the 2020-21 school year.

In his time at Blackman, he helped lead the school to a 2021 Tennessee Boys State Championship.

Prior to working at Blackman Middle School, he spent the 2019-20 school year as an English teacher and Head Cross Country and Track & Field Coach at Page High School in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

“I am so excited to be back in Southern Illinois working with McKendree University. I consider this area my home and to be able to coach here at this level is truly amazing,” Groves-Scott said. “I am ready to help grow our program and continue to find success for which McKendree is known.”

Before getting into teaching and coaching, Groves-Scott was a standout in both cross country and track & field as a collegiate student-athlete at the University of Alabama in Huntsville from 2015-19. UAH is an NCAA Division II school and is a member of the Gulf South Conference.

As a cross country student-athlete for the Chargers, Scott-Groves was a four-time All-GSC selection in cross country, including earning first teams honors as a sophomore in 2016 and as a senior in 2018. He was a second-team honoree in 2015 and 2018.

He was also a two-time USTFCCCA All-Region honoree in cross country, a GSC Runner of the Week in 2017, a three-time member of the GSC All-Academic Team and a four-time member of the GSC Academic Honor Roll. Additionally, he was named a 2018 CoSIDA Google Cloud Cross Country and Track & Field Third Team Academic All-American and was a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District selection in 2018 and 2019.

As a junior in 2017, he was 11th at the GSC Cross Country Championship and 15th at the NCAA Division II South Regional Championships and in 2016, he was ninth at the GSC Championships and eighth at the NCAA South Regionals. As a freshman in 2015, he was a four-time GSC Freshman of the Week and finished 10th and 11th respectively at the NCAA South Regional and GSC Championships.

In track and field, Groves-Scott was the runner-up in the 10K and third in the 5K at the 2018 GSC Track & Field Championships. He also earned All-Region honors in the 10K.

As a high school student-athlete at Edwardsville Senior High School, Groves-Scott was a four-year lettermen in cross country and track. Was a Class 3A All-Region honoree in cross country all four years of high school and was an All-Conference selection as a sophomore and earned Class 3A All-Section honors as a junior and senior.

Groves-Scott graduated from UAH in 2019 with a degree in English Secondary Education and Communication Arts in Rhetoric. He carried a perfect 4.0 cumulative GPA while in college at UAH and was a member of the Dean’s List every semester and earned UAH’s Outstanding Secondary Teacher Education Award in 2019 and was a member of UAH’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) in 2017-18.