Bellarmine Class of 2025 graduate Braden Griffin is helping keep the FIFA World Cup 2026 running smoothly as a Transportation Coordinator, managing travel logistics for national team delegations. We caught up with him to learn more about his role and the Bellarmine experience that helped prepare him for it.

What are your main responsibilities as a Transportation Coordinator, and what has been the most rewarding or memorable part of the experience? 

As a Transport Coordinator for the FIFA World Cup 2026, I'm responsible for managing ground logistics for the Brazilian National Team's delegation and teams visiting New York/New Jersey, including the English and German National Teams. That means coordinating travel between the team hotel, FBO, training site, and stadium venue for a 72-person delegation, while overseeing an 8-vehicle fleet that moves with police escort. I work closely with national team staff, state police, and FIFA team services staff to make sure every vehicle is set up correctly for the players and staff traveling in it, and I stay in constant communication with FIFA Miami so we can respond quickly to any issues that arise.

The most rewarding part of this experience has been the sense of pride that comes with the responsibility I've been given. Being trusted to move a national team delegation safely for the largest sports tournament in history is an honor, and it means a lot to know that people are counting on me to get the job done. Watching diverse cultures unite and celebrate the beautiful game adds to this sense of pride. After 15 years of playing and coaching the game, being entrusted with a role this significant has been an incredible full-circle moment, and it's a responsibility I cherish every day. 

What does being a Bellarmine graduate mean to you?

Being a Bellarmine graduate means carrying a foundation of curiosity, discipline, and care for others into everything I do. Bellarmine pushed me to think critically about complex systems through my studies in political science and the people within them. That mindset has followed me from campaign work to Capitol Hill to coaching soccer to coordinating logistics for the World Cup. Wherever I go, I carry that same drive to analyze the bigger picture and serve the people around me well, and I'm proud to represent Bellarmine in every one of those spaces.

Looking back, what skills or lessons from Bellarmine have helped you most in your career so far?

The biggest gift Bellarmine gave me was intellectual curiosity, the habit of always asking why. In my current role coordinating transportation for the World Cup, you can't just know your piece of the logistical chain; you have to understand the entire transportation life cycle, from how vehicles are dispatched out of the depot to how a delegation moves through the airport. Bellarmine taught me how to break down complicated systems and how to learn quickly when I'm dropped into a fast-paced and high-stakes environment, which describes every day at the World Cup. That ability to dig into the "why" behind a process, rather than just following steps, was the most valuable lesson I took from my time at Bellarmine.