Long-time associate head coach Chad Brown was hired recently to head the Community Colleges of Spokane’s men’s soccer team. Brown replaces Kenny Krestian, who retired this summer after 16 years leading the team.
Before joining CCS in 2014, Brown was an assistant coach at West Virginia University from 2010 to 2013, and an acting head coach at University of Nevada Las Vegas from 2009 to 2010. While coaching for the community colleges soccer team, from 2014 to 2017 Brown also was a head coach for the Spokane Shadow soccer team and an assistant coach to the Gonzaga women’s soccer team.
Brown played for the CCS team in 1996.
“We are very fortunate to name Chad Brown as the new CCS Men’s Soccer Head Coach,” said CCS Athletic Director Jim Fitzgerald. “Being a former CCS student athlete and working closely with former head coach, Kenny Krestian for the past six seasons, I am confident Chad will continue to lead the men’s soccer program success both on the pitch and academically.”
Brown has large shoes to fill. Krestian leaves CCS with many accomplishments, including earning post-season births in 13 of the 15 seasons he coached. In 2007, 2015, 2016 and 2017, Krestian led the team to winning the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) Eastern Region Championship. He also places second and third three times, and only once lost in the first round of the playoffs.
“Kenny retires after sixteen years leading our program but will still be a physical education instructor at SFCC,” Fitzgerald said. “Having him still on campus will benefit both our athletic and physical education departments.”
From 2005 to 2021, Krestian coached the team to 180 wins, 104 losses and 50 draws. In 2015 he was named NWAC Coach of the Year and named Eastern Region Coach of the Year nine times.
Fitzgerald said he was confident in Brown’s ability to lead the team to further championships.
“Chad brings a wealth of soccer experience, and he will be a great mentor,” he said. “He knows what is takes to be a great Sasquatch student athlete.”