Craig Brown |
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Craig Brown, a two-time Big Ten Diving Coach of the Year, enters his 25th season at the helm of the Nittany Lion divers.
Brown has consistently produced quality divers that have represented Penn State at the conference and national level. Since taking over the diving program in 1986, he has sent 18 divers to the NCAA Championships, with at least one in all but four seasons since 1988. In 1995 and 1998, he coached three divers to the NCAA Championships. He helped Chris Devine to the one-meter Big Ten title in 1994 and a third place NCAA finish. More recently, he guided Drew Jackson to four consecutive trips to the NCAAs from 1995-98.
Four years ago, he coached Penn State's first Big Ten diving champion since Devine in 1994 as Mike Alderman, who graduated in 2007, won the one-meter event. Alderman also qualified for the U.S. Open Diving Championships that year. Then, Alderman wrapped up his career with a pair of top eight finishes on the springboards at Big Ten's and once again qualified for NCAA's. His younger sister, Meg, is a current member of the Nittany Lion diving family.
Brown also helped another diver, Adam Pierce, qualify for the NCAA Championships in 2006, where he was Penn State's lone representative and made the best of it. He placed 15th in the three-meter diving event to pick up two points for the Nittany Lions. Pierce was a two-time NCAA qualifier.
Brown has recently developed Kim Peifer into one of the top divers in the Big Ten. Peifer walked on to the diving team after being a member of the Penn State track and field team for her first two years. She went on to score points on the three-meter board at Big Ten's two years ago.
Brown was the 1994 Big Ten Diving Coach of the Year and was also named the 1999 Big Ten Diving Coach of the Year after coaching Jaime Jaax to the Big Ten three-meter title, the first Nittany Lion woman to win a Big Ten diving title. Overall, Brown has coached 12 different divers that have qualified for NCAA Championships
Brown headed the men's and women's diving programs at Penn from 1983-85 in his first collegiate coaching post.
Prior to his appointment at Penn, Brown coached at Philadelphia area clubs, including the Warrington Swim and Tennis Club (1982-83), Hatboro-Horsham Aquatic Club (1983), Hideaway Swim Club (1980-81), Hatboro Memorial Pool (1976, 78-79) and Hatboro YMCA (1976).
As a diver at Penn State, Brown won the 1981 Eastern Collegiate Championship in the three-meter springboard and the one-meter springboard in 1979. He was the team's Most Valuable Diver in 1978, 1979 and 1981.
As a scholastic diver, Brown was the Pennsylvania state champion in 1977 and the Bux-Mont League Champion in 1975 and 1976. He won the YMCA national one-meter championship in 1977 and was the District I titlist in 1976.
A two-time Junior Olympic finalist, he also earned All-Bux-Mont honors in soccer and in football as a placekicker.
Brown graduated from Penn State with a degree in Environmental Resource Management and worked from 1982-85 as an inventory control and purchasing manager with the Moreland Corporation in Willow Grove, Pa. He also was an assistant quality control manager and production supervisor with Moreland.
Brown has two children, an 11-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter.
