Michael Brooks leaving as York YMCA swim coach

• Michael Brooks is taking the coaching job at North Carolina Aquatic Club.
• Among the swimmers Brooks has coached while at York is 2016 Olympian Hali Flickinger.
• Brooks is expected to begin his new job in early August.

Michael Brooks, the highly successful swimming coach at the York YMCA, is leaving the club to take over the same role at the North Carolina Aquatic Club.

Brooks will replace Sean Quinn at NCAC after serving as the York YMCA head coach since October 2006. The NCAC is based out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and competes out of the University of North Carolina's Koury Natatorium.

According to an NCAC news release, Brooks has seen his York YMCA swimmers represent the United States internationally at meets such as the Junior Worlds, Youth Olympics, Junior Pan Pacifics, Pan American Games and various World Cup meets. Four of his swimmers have been named to U.S. Swimming’s National Junior Team and two to the U.S. National Team. The York YMCA was named a Gold Medal Club in both 2013 and 2015. In 2016, the York YMCA girls’ squad won the team title at the YMCA National Championships.

Most notably, Spring Grove High School graduate Hali Flickinger, who competed for the York YMCA under Brooks, qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team for the Rio Summer Games in the 200-meter butterfly.

During his time with the club, he's also coached and developed some of the nation's top junior swimmers.

Hali Flickinger earns Olympic swimming berth in 200 fly

Under his guidance, Lineboro, Maryland, native Meghan Small competed in this year's U.S. Olympic Team Trials and was rated the top college recruit in the country last year. She will swim at the University of Tennessee this year. West York High School senior Courtney Harnish also competed in this year's Olympic Trials and is ranked the top college recruit in the nation for the Class of 2017. Brooks also coached several other local high school swimmers to NCAA Division I offers, including recent Dallastown grad Kacey Oberlander, who will swim for Alabama, and Dallastown grad Brandon Flynn, who will be a senior this year at Kentucky.

Brooks has been named the Coach of the Meet at the YMCA National Championships four times, the Middle Atlantic Senior Coach of the Year twice and the Maryland Age Group Coach of the Year twice. His swimmers have raced to 50-plus YMCA national titles and more than 20 national top-16 and top-10 rankings, according to the release.

“We are thrilled to have Michael joining our NCAC staff as head coach," NCAC president Rich DeSelm said in the release. "Michael is an accomplished coach and teacher. His athletes at York YMCA and at his previous teams have excelled at the highest levels of our sport. We are eager for Michael to begin once he has completed his duties with York in early August. Once settled into his position with NCAC, we also expect to have Michael help as a part-time assistant coach with the UNC team, as previous NCAC coach Sean Quinn did.”

Before joining the York YMCA, Brooks spent two years as the head age group coach of the Brophy East Swimming Team in Phoenix, Arizona. Before that, he spent five years as head coach of the York site of the North Baltimore Aquatic Club.

He got his coaching career started in Salt Lake City from 1994-98, where he coached both a high school team and club team. During that stint, he led teams to two high school state championships, 24 high school individual titles and eight state relay championships.

The York YMCA is already in the process of finding a replacement for Brooks. Brooks didn't immediately return messages left for him.