Napier hires Wade as director of on-campus recruiting and football events

Bri Wade has joined the Gators’ staff as the director of on-campus recruiting and football events, head coach Billy Napier announced on Tuesday.

She previously worked for Napier as the director of on-campus recruiting at Louisiana since February 2020. She was responsible for supervising, planning, coordinating and executing all official and unofficial visits. She also supervised and coordinated the rest of the recruiting staff on game days, junior days and official visits.

Wade helped the Ragin’ Cajuns sign the Sun Belt’s highest-ranked recruiting class in 2021, and their 2022 class ranked second in the conference prior to Napier’s exit.

She began her career at Mississippi State, where she worked for former Florida coach Dan Mullen. She was a student recruiting assistant from 2014-18 and a recruiting assistant in 2019. She also served as a graduate assistant in the Office of Institutional Diversity & Inclusion from 2018-19.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a master’s degree in Sport Administration.

As a recruiting assistant at MSU, she helped plan and facilitate visits, worked with the assistant coaches with daily operations and input data for Recruiting Radar and Whistle Recruiting.

In her role with the Office of Institutional Diversity & Inclusion, she helped develop diversity training programs to aid in the hiring and retention of minority and female staff members.

Wade has attended several leadership conferences, including Women Leaders in College Sports, the NFL Women’s Careers in Football Forum, the NCAA Emerging Leaders Seminar and the Women Leaders/NCAA Women’s Leadership Symposium.

She becomes the second female member of Napier’s staff after Katie Turner was hired as the assistant athletic director of recruiting strategy two weeks ago.

Ethan Hughes
Ethan was born in Gainesville and has lived in the Starke, Florida, area his entire life. He played basketball for five years and knew he wanted to be a sportswriter when he was in middle school. He’s attended countless Gators athletic events since his early childhood, with baseball being his favorite sport to attend. He’s a proud 2019 graduate of the University of Florida and a 2017 graduate of Santa Fe College. He interned with the University Athletic Association’s communications department for 1 ½ years as a student and also wrote for InsideTheGators.com for two years before joining Gator Country in 2021. He is a long-suffering fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars. You can follow him on Twitter @ethanhughes97.