Brian Nill is a full-time assistant men's and women's cross country and track and field coach at Southern Connecticut State, working with distance runners and serving as recruiting coordinator.
Nill graduated from Southern Connecticut in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in environmental earth science and in 2022 with a master's degree in sports management — athletic administration.
He competed for the Owls from 2011-15, earning NCAA Division II first-team All-America honors in the men's 800 meters in outdoor track in 2013 and serving as captain of men's cross country in fall 2012 and men's track and field in spring 2015.
Nill began coaching at Southern as a volunteer assistant from February 2014 to December 2014, part-time assistant from July 2015 to August 2018 and full-time assistant since August 2018.
He is a seven-time U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association East Region Assistant Coach of the Year, earning indoor honors in 2019 (men), 2024 (men) and 2026 (women) and outdoor honors in 2022 (men), 2023 (men), 2024 (women) and 2025 (women).
Since 2015, athletes he has coached have earned 317 All-Northeast 10 selections (67 cross country, 250 track), 206 All-USTFCCCA East Region selections, 133 All-New England selections, 100 top-10 marks in program history, 40 NE10 individual championships, 37 NCAA qualifying marks, 15 program records, four NCAA East Region men's cross country team titles (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) and two women's titles (2023, 2025).
He has directly coached six All-Americans, including two first-team selections. His athletes include Jonathan Volpe, the 2023 USTFCCCA East Region Indoor Athlete of the Year and NE10 Indoor Track Athlete of the Year and current NE10 championship meet record-holder in the indoor 800 (1:51.87) and outdoor 1,500 (3:45.81); Sean Barkasy, 2023 NE10 Outdoor Rookie of the Year; Jeremy Rivera, 2023 NE10 Cross Country Rookie of the Year; Owen Gagne, 2024 NE10 Cross Country Runner of the Year; John Glidden, 2024 NE10 Cross Country Rookie of the Year; Colton Sallum, 2025 NE10 Cross Country Rookie of the Year and 2026 NE10 Indoor Co-MVP and Rookie of the Year and Outdoor Rookie of the Year; and Courtney Henchcliffe, 2025 NE10 Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Year.
The men's cross country team has qualified for six NCAA national championships since 2015 (2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) and the women's team has qualified for three (2023, 2024, 2025).
Nill is from Ridge, New York.
