Brett McNeal has done nearly everything there is to do in Minnesota sports. Mr. Basketball. College player. Coach. High school athletic director across multiple Minneapolis schools. Now he has the job he always wanted: college athletic director at North Central University in downtown Minneapolis.
McNeal joined hosts Charles Hallman and Dr. Mitchell Palmer McDonald on Blacklight on Sports to talk about the move to the college level, what he sees as the structural problems holding Minneapolis athletics back, and the message he wants every young athlete and family to hear.
The Move to North Central
McNeal said becoming a college athletic director had been the goal for years, but the timing never aligned until recently. He had opportunities earlier in his career when former assistant coaches moved into junior college positions and invited him to join them. He passed.
“I was just comfortable doing what I was doing,” he said.
He worked in politics, then human resources, before entering athletics. He served as athletic director at Edison, South and Henry, and spent two years in the Minneapolis Public Schools district office. When that district position was eliminated and he returned to the high school level, he knew it was time.
“I knew after putting in one year it was time to leave high school and pursue the college opportunity,” he said.
He had inquired about the North Central job two years before it became available. When it opened again, he was ready.
“If I didn’t make the decision to jump to college, I’m not sure the opportunity would present itself again,” he said.
Along the way he earned his master’s degree and a CMAA, a certified master athletic administrator credential.
What Makes North Central Different
North Central is a Division III, faith-based institution in downtown Minneapolis. For McNeal, that combination is the draw.
“When we talk about using athletics to develop the whole person, at this institution I can quote scriptures. I can pray for folks. I can pray before meetings,” he said. “I’m truly ministering to the whole person.”
Division III means no athletic scholarships, which creates its own recruiting challenge at a private institution charging $32,000 to $35,000 a year. McNeal frames it as an opportunity rather than a limitation.
“How do we put together a financial package that’s lucrative enough to attract inner-city kids or kids to the university?” he said.
The college also sits in a different landscape than the high school world he came from. The transfer portal is active even at his level.
“We’re not at the point yet where we’re dealing with NIL money, but you are dealing with the portal,” he said. “You are dealing with students that have the ability or feel like they’re operating in a free agency.”
He described the core metrics differently than most people expect.
“Your key performance indicators are based on getting the right students in, keeping those students in, and then those students graduating,” he said. “Then you look at how well you’re performing on the court or on the field.”
12 Sports and a Hidden Gem
North Central fields 12 sports: soccer, volleyball and cross country in the fall; men’s and women’s basketball in the winter; baseball, softball and track and field in the spring, along with golf programs.
The men’s basketball program has been dominant recently, winning back-to-back national championships. Before that, the men’s golf program had a similar run, and the women’s program before them.
McNeal has invested in building up the other programs, hiring a track coach who runs one of the premier programs in the state and bringing in Greg Curtis, a PGA pro, to lead women’s golf.
One advantage he emphasized is that students at his level can compete in multiple sports across seasons, something that becomes increasingly difficult at Division II and Division I.
He called the school an undiscovered asset.
“North Central University is a hidden little gem right in our backyard,” he said. “We’re graduating students and we’re putting them in jobs. People are either not graduating from school or they’re graduating and can’t find a job. That’s very different.”
Downtown as a Selling Point
Asked about the pros and cons of an urban campus, McNeal was straightforward.
“We really sell downtown,” he said. “The challenge is always people that don’t come downtown only know downtown from what they look at on TV and the news.”
He noted that the campus is connected to the skyway system and has strong security, and that students can access downtown on foot or stay entirely on campus if they prefer.
He also pushed back on the idea that suburban or rural campuses are inherently safer.
“I tell people I survived college,” he said. “When I went to college, everybody’s free and kids are trying to figure out who they are. I was exposed to all kinds of stuff. That’s real on any campus.”
On Leaving Minneapolis and Coming Back
McNeal left Minneapolis for college and did not look back, a decision he traces to his AAU experience. He played in the first African American AAU program at McRae Park and later in the first AAU program through the Jerry Gamble Boys Club. By the time he reached high school, he had traveled to nearly every state in the country.
“Once I realized basketball was bigger and better in my world in other states, I knew I was not staying here,” he said.
He graduated June 6 and was in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on June 8. He came home after his first semester, looked around, and made a decision.
“I came home and I looked around and I was like, man, they’re doing the same old. I’m trying to do something different. I never came back,” he said.
That experience shapes how he advises families now.
“Find the school that’s right for you and the coaching staff that’s right for you,” he said. “Don’t ride on the name of a school so you can post on your social media that you went there.”
He described recruiting as a skill set families need to learn: what questions to ask coaches, whether values are consistent, whether the program graduates its athletes.
“Sometimes parents listen to you and sometimes they don’t, and I can almost predict whether that kid’s coming back home,” he said.
The State of Minneapolis Athletics
The longest and most pointed stretch of the conversation came when Hallman asked McNeal to assess where Minneapolis sports stands now compared to years past. McNeal laid out four issues.
The talent gap is real. He used basketball as his example, describing a trip to Chicago where his state championship team played well in one tournament, then watched a different tournament that night.
“The smallest kid was 6-4 and everything went to 6-11,” he said. “Every coach across the country was wrapped around the gym. Everything was played above the rim. My kids said, ‘Coach, we don’t want to be in that tournament.’ That’s the difference in basketball from other states compared to Minnesota.”
He was careful to clarify the point.
“I’m not knocking Minnesota or our players, because you can be successful if you put in the work,” he said. “Most of our kids become better basketball players after high school anyway.”
Weightlifting is undervalued. McNeal said Minnesota athletes do not take strength training seriously enough, and the programs lack trained professionals to teach it properly.
“I came out as Mr. Basketball weighing 155 pounds. Had never lifted a weight in my life,” he said. “Once I learned how to lift, I fell in love with it, and then I could go by my guy and get my shot off.”
He noted that while facilities have improved, there are few licensed, trained staff in schools or park programs who can actually teach athletes how strength translates to their sport.
Coaching quality has slipped. McNeal was careful here but direct.
“We’re just not getting good coaching like we did when I was younger,” he said. “I’m talking about fundamentals. Understanding how to read the reads, understanding the play before it happens. They’re more talented, but they’re not getting the same level coaching.”
Resources do not match the rhetoric. This was the point he returned to most forcefully. McNeal said Minneapolis Public Schools athletics receives less than half of 1% of the district budget despite being one of the largest departments in the city.
He pointed to a moment years ago when then-athletic director Trent Tucker publicized that 98.8% of Minneapolis student athletes graduate. Rather than embracing the number, McNeal said district leadership took offense at the framing.
“They tried to pit Minneapolis athletics against Minneapolis Public Schools,” he said. “Instead of going after the newspaper, they went after Trent and athletics. I’m still salty about that.”
His argument is that the data is unambiguous and the response should have been different.
“The data is clear. Students that are in these activities are better students,” he said. “Instead of being divisive, Minneapolis Public Schools and other districts should really look at athletics differently. Provide different resources from a collaborative mindset.”
He also flagged coaching compensation as a structural problem, noting that Minneapolis coaches are paid through stipends built into the teachers’ contract rather than as standalone positions.
“What I love about my job now, I hire full-time coaches. I’m paying you full-time to be a full-time coach,” he said. “I can supervise, manage, hire the right coach.”
He contrasted Minnesota’s investment with what he has seen elsewhere, describing a $60 million high school football stadium outside Dallas.
“They put their money where their mouth is,” he said. “How many professionals come out of those states? Texas and Florida are the top two.”
Open Mic
McNeal closed with the message he says drives everything he does.
“Athletics for me, and my why for being a coach and athletic director, is I will use athletics, our fields and our courts, as a platform to teach life skills,” he said.
Then he turned to the young people directly.
“Whatever sport you’re participating in is not who you are,” he said. “Often times when that’s taken away from you, whether you graduate and can’t play anymore or you get an injury, a lot of our children are slipping into depression because they don’t know who they are.”
He wants families to separate the gift from the identity.
“That’s basketball. That’s football. That’s not who you are. That’s just a skill set that you’ve been gifted in,” he said. “Your education, your spiritual knowledge, that’s who you are. And school is to help you figure that out. Who am I? What is my purpose here?”
He credited Minneapolis with shaping him.
“Minneapolis has always been good to me. Minneapolis schools has been great to me as a student, as a player, and as an athletic director,” he said. “That community shaped and molded me. I met some phenomenal leaders that challenged me in so many ways to be who I am. And I try to honor them by doing the same thing in my capacity as a coach and as athletic director.”
He ended with an invitation.
“Come see North Central University,” he said. “We would not steer you wrong. You will be pleasantly surprised with what we can offer your family.”