Brown Created Dynasty in the Pool at West Islip

Chuck Brown has a record that even established professional coaches would envy: 353 wins, 44 losses, two ties.

These are the career numbers of West Islip's first swimming and diving coach, Chuck Brown, who taught and coached at West Islip from 1957-1983.  

He is arguably the architect of one of the most successful sports programs in county history.  The highlights of his storied career include: 15 consecutive Suffolk County swimming and diving championships from 1962-1977, 20 county championships, nominated as National Coach of the Year in 1982, coached 21 High School All-American swimmers/divers (six went on to be Collegiate All-Americans), and nominated to the U.S.A. Olympic Diving Committee in 1977.

Brown, who has been married over 60 years to the love of his life, is a World War II veteran.

He enlisted into the U.S. Navy and admirably served from 1945-1949 because he wanted to defend his nation in a time of peril; he chose to go overseas to protect America.

While in the navy, he joined their swimming and diving team and served at the Quonset Point base in Rhode Island where he further honed his skills.

Brown also coached soccer, officiated various sports all throughout his career, and developed Long Island’s AAU swimming/diving program.

He first got interested in swimming and diving as a youth in Queens and he would frequent the Astoria pool. His first diving teacher was his good friend, Whitey Hart, who went on to dive in the second World's Fair. 

It turns out one of his most famous divers happened to be his own daughter Charlize, who was the first woman to dive in the high school state competition. 

She was so dominant on the women’s diving team at Yale that she was invited to dive on the men’s team for her junior and senior years. This was the first instance of this ever happening in the nation, Brown said.

When speaking about his former swimmers and divers, it was as if he was talking about his own children.  He remembered names of those he caoched from as far back as his first year of coaching in the 1950s. 

He affectionately recalled his first team at West Islip in 1957.

“I think the first team set the atmosphere for the whole program,” he said. “Since they won, every team after them thought that they themselves could do it too. And if you believe you can do it, you’re halfway there.”