The Weymouth Waves Swim Club of Weymouth, MA has named Michael Brooks as their new head swim coach on August 9th. Brooks is joining the Weymouth Waves after his resignation from the King Aquatic Club in April.
Brooks’ resignation from King came amidst the sexual assault accusations Olympian and former world record holder Ariana Kukors made against former King owner and CEO Sean Hutchinson.
In his letter to the team, Brooks said that he had hoped that the team could recuperate from Hutchinson’s accusations. Brooks pointed out that was not the case as much chaos spread across the team.
Prior to his time at KING, Brooks was the coach of the York YMCA in York, Pennsylvania, where he coached 4 National Junior Team members and 2 National Team Members. He was named the YMCA Short Course Nationals Coach of the Year on 4 occasions (2010, 2012, 2013, 2015) and the Middle Atlantic LSC Senior Coach of the Year twice (2014, 2015)
Below is the announcement from Weymouth’s executive director Jeff Linn on Brooks’ arrival to the team:
“Weymouth Club would like to welcome Michael Brooks as our new Head Swim Coach of the Weymouth Waves Swim Team. Michael comes to us from Seattle where he was the Head Coach of the King Aquatic Club, from the Fall of 2017 to Spring 2018. Coach Brooks was Head Coach of the North Carolina Aquatic Club and for 10 years as Head Coach of the York YMCA. While at the York YMCA, a USA Silver and Gold Medal Club, Coach Brooks coached 4 National Junior Team Members, 2 National Team Members, 6 National Age Group Champions, scores of #1 rankings and hundreds of Top 10’s.
With over 20 years of coaching experience, he has been the Coach of the Meet Award recipient at the 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2015 Short Course YMCA National Championships, the Middle Atlantic Senior Coach of the Year in 2014 & 2015, a Member of USA Swimming’s National Age Group Development Committee, the Assistant Coach of Team USA at Junior Pan Pacific Championships in 2014, and was Head Coach of 18 & under USA National Team at World Cup meets in Doha & Dubai in 2015.
As a member of the Olympic Committees National Team Coaches’ Leadership Program, Coach Brooks is a fanatic about good technique, and enjoys working with children of all ages and abilities. He strives to construct the perfect program with all-around swimmer development as the goal. One of his primary jobs is to educate the swimmers and their parents about the process of excellence, through frequent talks and daily interactions with the athletes, and through newsletters and meetings with the parents. As a coach, an educator in the coaching community, an author, and a featured speaker at many swimming coaches’ conferences, we are excited to see where Michael take the Waves Swim Team.”
So happy to see him leave Waves, he was a horrible coach who yelled and constantly degraded the swimmers. He made me hate swimming and influenced my decision to leave Waves.
Omg! Yes, same haha. I’d go to practice on edge all the time. It was always so tense at practice I hated it. Lol. It’s so much better already with Coach Tim. Like, he writes really good, hard workouts, but it’s fun and he actually talks to me like a person. I look forward to going every night now. Sorry you left, but totally get it though.
i see he didn’t change after leaving York Y either.
This did not age well. Currently on the team, happy to see him go. Yelling, berating, long boring sets and just swimming slower than I did a year ago. And this guy wrote a book?
Great hire for Weymouth!
Best of luck Michael & Team!
Weymouth Waves is about to hit the Swim map with Michael Brooks. Congratulations to Michael and good fortune for Weymouth.
Extreme good fortune for Weymouth. Kids had a few weeks of coaching uncertainty after they wished departing coach Jack folcarelli well on his new opportunity in Nashville. It went from apprehension to excitement in an instant for my kid. A week on deck with Brooks has only increased the confidence I see and hear from my kid. Amazing our small team could land a coach like Brooks.
Thought he was in North Carolina too?