Brian Cruz begins his second season as an Assistant Coach for the Women’s Basketball Program. He brings over 11 years coaching experience to the Royals.
Cruz serves as the Recruiting Coordinator, and is responsible for bringing in a highly touted recruiting class this season, which includes three transfers (NCAA DI, DII, and JUCO), as well as, a 5-time State Champion freshman.
He is responsible for all scheduling related duties including game scheduling, official visits, practice, along with player development both in and out of season. Coach Cruz is also responsible for the hiring and training of student managers, and male practice players. He handles all scouting reports and video editing of opponents. Lastly, he oversees the team’s academic performance.
Cruz primarily works with the guards in practice and plays an instrumental role in player development. On top of that, he also helps coordinate and plan alumni weekend events for the program while assisting in running and coordinating camps.
Most recently, Cruz guided Cape Coral High School to a .748 winning percentage over 4 years (2017-2021), and an Elite 8 appearance in 2020. He solidified two Coach of the Year awards (District and Conference Coach of the Year 2018), and he was a Dairy Farmer’s Coach of the Year finalist in 2020.
He had 20+ wins in 3 of the 4 seasons he was the head coach, garnering District Championships in 2018 and 2020, a Conference Championship in 2019, as well as 4 consecutive District Championship game appearances and 4 consecutive Regional playoff appearances.
His coaching career began in 2011, as an assistant coach at the high school level. For two seasons, he was an Assistant Coach for Cape Coral High School Boys’ Varsity team (2015-2017). He helped guide the Seahawks to a 16-8 record, an 8-game improvement from the previous season. Cruz was instrumental in helping to lay the foundation for the boy’s program reaching the Final Four the following season.
Brian was born in Cleveland, OH before he moved to New York, NY at the age of 3 and then moved to Florida in 2010. He has an older brother, and a younger sister.
