Vestavia Hills native Jarred Brookins is living his best life in Corvallis, Oregon, 2,500 miles away from his hometown. In March, Brookins was named head coach of the Oregon State men’s soccer team, one of the top collegiate soccer programs in the country.
Jared spent the last two years as an assistant under head coach Greg Dalby, who led the Beavers to their most successful season in program history, reaching the NCAA semifinals in 2023. In early 2025, Greg accepted the head coach position at Air Force, and—following an extensive search—Jared was tapped for the top job. During his tenure as an assistant coach, he found his coaching philosophy to be in sync with Greg’s, and he is looking forward to taking what they’ve built together to the next level.
“I was excited to work for Dalby,” Jared says. “Over the past few years, my love and appreciation for this place and how I identify with it has grown immensely, and I couldn’t be more honored to step into a new role here.”
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Photographs courtesy of Oregon State Athletics
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Photographs courtesy of Oregon State Athletics
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Photographs courtesy of Oregon State Athletics
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Photographs courtesy of Oregon State Athletics
Jared’s rise to the head coaching job at Oregon State wasn’t exactly scripted. He played soccer at Vestavia Hills High School (VHHS) and Vestavia Soccer Club before moving on to play collegiate soccer under head coach Preston Goldfarb at Birmingham-Southern. Jared got his first taste of coaching as an assistant at VHHS during college, working under legendary head coach Rick Grammer in 2014. He was on the sidelines for one of the best seasons in VHHS soccer history, as the Rebels finished 25-2-1 and captured their second consecutive state championship. After graduating from BSC, Jared accepted his first head coaching position, leading a youth team with Vestavia Soccer Club, primarily as a diversion from his full-time job as a chemical analyst for Alabama Power. “Coaching was never really the plan,” Jared admits. “I decided to pick up a club soccer team on the side, and, basically, at the end of year one, I realized that I really loved coaching. I really didn’t like working in a lab, and I had very little interest in going back to school.”
Jared spent the next five years coaching for Vestavia Soccer Club, winning seven USYS Youth Soccer State Championships between 2014 and 2018, before moving on to assistant coaching gigs at the collegiate level, first at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and then at Davidson University in North Carolina. Now fully committed to the world of coaching, Jared knew it was time to kick his career to the next level. He ended up in Corvallis, coaching under Greg at one of the nation’s top programs. In the last five years, Oregon State has been an overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, advanced to an Elite 8 and a Final Four, and is only one of nine teams to compete in the last five NCAA tournaments. As he prepares for his first collegiate head coaching job, Jared understands the goal is to score goals—lots of them.
“The expectation is to consistently compete nationally, and that’s obviously a lot of pressure, but at the same time, that’s why I wanted it,” Jared says. “That’s why great players come here. They expect to compete at the highest level.”
Jared grew up in Vestavia Hills and is the son of Kathy and Bart Brookins, family pastor and senior pastor, respectively, at Fullness Christian Fellowship. Jared and his wife, Sarah, have two children, Leo (7) and Sophie (5).