Brad Rootes enters his first year as the new Head Coach of the Brock Badgers men's basketball program. 

At 26, Rootes is the youngest full-time head coach in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) and one of the youngest in North America. He is the sixth head coach in the program’s 43-year history.

Rootes, a native of Niagara Falls, has been with the Brock coaching staff since 2008-09 as an assistant coach and this past season was the interim head coach leading the Badgers to a 14-16 overall record, highlighted by victories over Ottawa, Western, Windsor and Laurier.

He also spent two seasons coaching for the Ontario Basketball Association. In 2009, Rootes led the U15 Team Ontario Boys to a gold medal at the national championships in Kamloops, BC and in 2010 was named head coach of the U17 Team Ontario Boys.  

In 2008 as the captain of Brock’s CIS National Championship team, Rootes was named an OUA first team all-star for his fifth consecutive season. He became the first player at the University to be named a conference all-star all five seasons. He was also selected as the OUA West Player of the Year and a second team all-Canadian for his second straight season.

In the Brock record books, Rootes is the all-time leader in career free throws made (732-for-922) and steals (327). He also finished his university career ranked 2nd all-time in scoring (2790), assists (1173) and three-pointers made (376-for-1059).

After graduating, Rootes played one season professionally in Ukraine for Politekhnika Halychyna of the Ukrainian Super League.

At the first annual Brock Basketball Gala in 2008, Rootes became the fourth Brock basketball player to have his jersey retired. In 2010, he was inducted into both the Niagara Falls Sports Hall of Fame and the A. N. Myer Sports Hall of Fame.