York YMCA's national champ swim coach Brooks departs
A successful local swim coach will be leaving his post at York YMCA for a new opportunity in North Carolina.
Michael Brooks, who has won a number of national awards and coached many swimmers to national prominence, will be departing York to take over as head coach at North Carolina Aquatic Club (NCAC). Brooks' new job was announced by the NCAC in a press release.
According to the release, Brooks has been head coach of the York YMCA swimming team since October 2006. In that time, in addition to scoring at the major domestic meets, York Y swimmers have represented the USA internationally at meets ranging from Junior Worlds, Youth Olympics, Junior Pan Pacifics, Pan American Games and various World Cup meets. Four of his swimmers have been named to U.S. Swimming’s National Junior Team and two to the U.S. National Team.
The York Y was named a Gold Medal Club in both 2013 and 2015. In 2016, the York YMCA girls’ squad won the team title at the YMCA national championships. Hali Flickinger, a Spring Grove native who will be competing in the next month's Rio Olympics, has trained under Brooks at York YMCA. Another local swimmer who trains under Brooks at York YMCA, West York's Courtney Harnish, has been named the nation's top swimming recruit by the website Swimswam.com.
Brooks has been named Coach of the Meet at the YMCA National Championships four times, Middle Atlantic Senior Coach of the Year twice, and Maryland Age Group Coach of the Year twice. His swimmers have raced to 50-plus YMCA national titles and over 200 national Top-16 and Top-10 rankings.
Brooks takes over the reins of the nationally prominent and successful NCAC from Sean Quinn, who headed the club from 2010-16. Last week, Quinn was named a full-time assistant swimming coach position at the University of North Carolina.
Before coming to the York YMCA, he spent two years as the head age group coach of the Brophy East Swimming Team in Phoenix, Ariz., working closely with Dennis Pursley, now the head swimming coach at University of Alabama. Before that, he spent five years as head coach of the York site of the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, where he had the good fortune to work with and learn from coaches Murray Stephens and Bob Bowman.
Said NCAC President Rich DeSelm in the news release, “We are thrilled to have Michael joining our NCAC staff as Head Coach. Michael is an accomplished coach and teacher. His athletes at York YMCA and at his previous teams have excelled at the highest levels of our sport. We are eager for Michael to begin once he has completed his duties with York in early August. Once settled into his position with NCAC, we also expect to have Michael help as a part-time assistant coach with the UNC team, as previous NCAC coach Sean Quinn did.”