Utah State University Athletics

Brent Beerends is in his first year with Utah State Athletics in 2024-25, serving as the senior associate athletics director for strategic communications since January 2025.

Beerends will provide strategic communications direction to the department, its staff members and student-athletes, and serve as the primary communications contact for USU Athletics. 

Before joining the Aggies, he spent three years at the University of Oklahoma, serving in multiple roles and concluding his time with the Sooners as the director of communications and digital strategy. Beerends was the primary contact for the nationally ranked Oklahoma men’s basketball team and assisted the department with digital strategy, including graphic design, photography and social media assistance.

In addition to his daily responsibilities, he twice served as the local media coordinator for the Women’s College World Series. In 2023, the Oklahoma athletics communications staff received recognition for outstanding media relations efforts from the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), earning the prestigious FWAA Super 11 award.

Following the 2022-23 winter slate, Beerends’ men’s basketball game notes were selected as the second-best winter game notes in the nation by College Sports Communicators (CSC), marking the second time in as many seasons his game notes were nationally recognized by the association. He also captured images at the 2022 Men’s College World Series and moderated press conferences for the first and second rounds of the 2022 Women's NCAA Tournament in Norman. Beerends assisted with communications coverage for baseball, volleyball and women’s golf. 

Before his time in Norman, Beerends spent three years at the University of Kansas, working with various sports and developing relationships with local and national media. In addition to his communications responsibilities, he assisted with photography, graphic design and the website, helping KU transition from SIDEARM to WMT. In 2019-20, Beerends assisted in the creation of Kansas’ brand guide and designed various print and digital templates. 

After two years as a graduate assistant at St. Ambrose University, Beerends spent five years at Middle Tennessee State University and worked as a communications contact and social media coordinator. He was responsible for day-to-day social media, photography, graphic design and communications for various sports. Beerends assisted with digital and communications efforts for multiple bowl games and two NCAA Tournament upsets, including Middle Tennessee's upset of No. 2-seeded Michigan State in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. 

Beerends graduated from St. Ambrose in 2013 with an MBA in marketing and William Penn University in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in sports administration.