Two weeks after coach Oliver Weiss abruptly resigned as head men's soccer coach, former assistant Mike Brizendine has been promoted to the head coaching post at Virginia Tech.
Brizendine has been the top assistant and an instrumental part of the Hokies recruiting success for the past five years.
He has been the program's recruiting coordinator since arriving in 2004, and in 2007 was named the NSCAA's Atlantic Region Assistant Coach of the Year in 2007.
Brizendine joined the Hokie staff after four seasons at Bridgewater College. After assisting both the men's and women's programs there in 2000, he was the head men's coach from 2001 until 2003. Brizendine led Bridgewater to its two best single-season records, 12-6 and 11-7 in 2003 and 2002, respectively. In 2003, he was awarded the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. Before coming to Bridgewater, he was an assistant at Ferrum in 1999.
He has also been active in many travel youth programs, a key to recruiting and scouting success that hopefully he will only expand upon as the headman in the program at Tech.
Brizendine is taking over at an inauspicious time, with only 8 weeks remaining before pre-season training begins, although no recruiting commitments for this season have decided to go elsewhere.
As a player, he lettered four seasons at JMU from 1995-98 and wrapped up his career sixth in all-time scoring for the Dukes. He earned all-conference and all-region honors while a member of the Dukes' squad.