April 12, 2006

LAS VEGAS - Chad Brown has been named assistant men's soccer coach at UNLV, head coach Mario Sanchez announced on Wednesday. Brown is the first hire by Sanchez, who became the Rebels' head coach in January.

"I think that Chad's experience at college and in the professional level will help bring a winning attitude to the program," said Sanchez. "His experience coaching with one of the top clubs in the nation will help expand our recruiting presence on the West Coast as well."

Brown comes to UNLV spending the last seven years as head coach for the Crossfire Premier Soccer Club. He ran two teams in the club program in Redmond, Wash., where he started as the head coach in 1999.

A two-year center midfielder at Fresno State, Brown was twice named All-Western Athletic Conference, and led the Bulldogs in scoring in both 1997 and 1998. He began his collegiate playing career at Bellevue Community College, where he was an NWAAC All-State selection while leading it to the 1994 NWAAC Championship. He repeated that feat with Spokane Community College in 1996, leading the school to the NWAAC Championship while being named NWAAC MVP.

After graduating from FSU in 1999 with a bachelor of arts degree in sociology, he joined the Seattle Sounders in the professional A League, and helped them to the league finals in 2004-05, and to the league championship in 2005-06.

While coaching the Crossfire Premier Soccer Club, Brown also owned, coordinated and ran operations for First Touch Training LLC, which were soccer training clinics in the Seattle area, from 2003-2006.