Rich Brown ’77, the director of Santa Clara University women’s basketball development the past three years, has been hired by SCU Head Coach Jennifer Mountain as assistant coach. Brown will continue to have a major impact on the program, moving his focus to mentoring the post players, recruiting, scouting and practice planning.
A former Bronco student-athlete, Brown’s coaching resume spans 30-plus years, most recently serving as head basketball coach at San Jose’s Presentation High School (2001 through 2007). During his tenure at Presentation, Brown consistently had the Panthers ranked among the region’s Top 20 programs according to the San Francisco Chronicle, while competing in the West Catholic Athletic League (WCAL), one of the state’s top conferences.
Brown led Presentation to the 2003 CIF Northern California Division III championship game at Arco Arena. That team was led by record-setting post player Nicole Yarwasky who established new single-season WCAL records in points (283), scoring average (20.2 ppg) and field goal percentage (.640), among others. Yarwasky went on to play collegiately at Cal Poly SLO.
Brown attended Pius X High School in Downey, California and Cerritos College before coming to Santa Clara on scholarship to play football in 1975 and 1976. He was a starting defensive tackle for the Broncos, and a key part of SCU’s teams both years. As a senior in 1976, he helped the Broncos post a 7-4 record, which included a victory over Fresno State.
He immediately began his coaching career in 1977 on the SCU football staff, the same year he earned a degree in Marketing from Santa Clara’s Leavey School of Business. Brown has coached ever-since, moving on to become an assistant football coach at his prep alma mater, Pius X, in 1978 and ’79.
Brown relocated back to the Bay Area in 1984 and gained additional coaching experience at Menlo College, Presentation High School and the Spring Football League (SFL) in 2000 with the LA Dragons before taking on the role as head women’s basketball coach at Presentation in 2001.
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