Bio

Brendan Heller began his assistant coaching role at Carnegie Mellon University in August 2019. Heller joined the Tartan staff after serving as head swim coach at Sacred Heart Greenwich in Greenwich, Connecticut, for four years.

In Heller's first season with the Tartans he helped 13 men and 11 women earn placement at the 2020 NCAA Championships. Both were school-record numbers for competitors for the national meet. All 24 athletes were awarded All-America status including honors for four men's relays and two women's relays.

A former Division I swimmer at Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I., Heller has been involved in the swimming coaching community since 2014. His coaching start came at Rye YMCA in Rye, N.Y., where he worked with the senior team. Heller was also employed by Pace University as an assistant swim coach for a year and at Iona Preparatory School as the varsity head coach for two years where he was named the NY CHSAA Division II Coach of the Year.

Most recently, Heller served dual roles at Manhattan College as a volunteer assistant coach for the fall semester and at Sacred Heart Greenwich where he was the head swim coach, assistant water polo coach, and athletic operations manager since 2016.

An Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Distinguished Graduate at Bryant, Heller served in the Rhode Island Army National Guard from December 2010 through January 2017, finishing his time in the Army as a First Lieutenant.

Heller also earned his graduate certificate in sports management with a concentration in sports leadership from Lasell College in 2016 and is pursuing his master's in education, specifically coaching education and athlete development, from Xavier University.