FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Although Emma Brown joined the Fairfield University swimming and diving program as an assistant coach just a few months ago, she had a connection to Fairfield before accepting her current post on the pool deck.

"I have a cousin who currently attends Fairfield so I was knew about the school," Brown said. "And, I had a few friends who were part of the swimming team here between 2016 and 2020 and they loved it here as well. Fairfield is a beautiful area and I look forward doing more exploring around the area now that I am coaching here."

Serving as a coach has been on Brown's radar for some time with the thought first coming into her purview as she contemplated what she wanted to do after finishing up her stellar career as a swimmer at Adelphi University.

Brown competed for four seasons through the 2019-20 season with the Panthers. She established school records throughout her career, beginning with the 100 and 200 fly as well as being part of the 200y medley relay team. In her junior season, Brown helped set school marks with the 200y and 400y free relay teams. She also excelled in the classroom, earning a spot on the Northeast-10 Academic Honor Roll as well as the Northeast-10 Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll all four seasons she competed. She also served two years as team captain.

But with her swimming career coming to an end, she like every college senior began to wonder what her life would be after graduation.

"As I was headed toward graduating, I was thinking what I would do," Brown said. "When I was in college, I was doing swim lessons and I was the head swim coach at a country club and I really enjoyed doing those things. After college, I became an aquatics director and I was a head coach at a JCC where I worked with age group swimmers."

She received a chance to move back into the collegiate arena when she received a phone call from her former head coach at Adelphi University.

"I was approached by my head coach at Adelphi who was moving over to LIU and asked if I wanted to be his assistant," Brown said. "It was an opportunity that could not be passed up so I packed up my things from Albany and moved to Queens."

Brown coached primarily the distance and the IM groups at LIU which was a bit different than to what she had become accustom.

"But prior to LIU, I was involved in all events because age group swimming really doesn't specialize," Brown said. "Even though I coached distance and IM at LIU, I am well versed in sprint and mid-distance as well. Despite working with specific groups at LIU, I wanted to have my hand in all events just to make sure I connected with everyone on the team and not just with certain groups."
Her ability to connect with student-athletes is one of the reasons that Fairfield Head Coach Jake Lichter brought her to the Fairfield campus.

"I am extremely excited to have Emma as part of the program," Lichter said. "She brings a lot of experience on the pool deck as well as on the recruiting trail. She has already done a great job with recruiting and continues to work hard at it now. She is able to make immediate connections with our student-athletes and is be able to support them in their goals both in and out of the pool. For me, it's important to have exciting and fun training environment and I think that she brings that easily to the program."

Both Lichter and Brown embarked on their first season at Fairfield University with a successful first semester but now begin to look to the stretch run that culminates with the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship in February.

"This job is unique because there is a beginning and end and there is a goal for every season," Brown said. "And, you know that you have a certain amount of time to accomplish that goal. All that hard work culminates with championship season and you see all those swimmers flourish because of the work they put in all season. It's exciting to see all that training put to good use and see the swimmers so happy with their results."