Brooks completed his first season at NKU  in 2018 as an assistant coach. He helped the team to a 10-7 record. The 10 wins were the most for the program in the Division I era. The team also achieved a No. 9 ranking in the United Soccer Coaches North Region poll earlier in the season. The North Region included all four teams that advanced to the Final Four of the 2018 NCAA College Cup.  Freshman Alex Willis was named the Horizon League Freshman of the Year and to the All-Horizon League First Team. He was also selected to the United Soccer Coaches All-North Region Second Team, the Top Drawer Soccer Freshmen Best XI First Team and the College Soccer News All-Freshman First Team. Willis finished the season ranked as the 11th-best freshman by Top Drawer Soccer. Sophomore Alex Grieve earned All-Horizon League Second Team honors, and freshman Stian Jørgensen was named to the All-Horizon League Freshman team. In Brooks' first season, Willis finished fourth in the NCAA in goals scored, Greive tied for fourth in total assists, and the team ranked ninth in the NCAA in scoring offense with 2.18 goals per match. The 2018 season also saw Rikard Lindqvist and Jim Barkei earn Horizon League All-Academic Team honors. Additionally, Lindqvist was named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District Team and the Google Cloud Academic All-America Third Team, as selected by CoSIDA. Prior to NKU, he served as an assistant coach at Centre College during the 2017 season. The Solihull, England, native helped the Colonels to a 12-5-2 record, with the team ranking in the top two of its conference in scoring offense and scoring defense. Brooks also has experience coaching at the club level, most recently with Lexington FC U-19 this past year. Brooks holds an FA Level 1 and 2 license, and he also has a USSF D license. He played collegiately for the University of the Cumberlands, before transferring to the University of Kentucky for his final two seasons.