Therese Brown has guided the girls’ cross-country program since joining the Villa staff in 2010. Her squads have captured 11 of the past 12 District 10 AA team titles (2012-2018; 2020-2023), have won the PIAA AA state champion team title four times (2014, 2015, 2016, 2022), and were runners-up in 2023. The program has nine top-5 state finishes in its 12 state championship appearances. Brown has coached 17 individual PIAA state medalists, four District 10 individual champions, 26 All-District runners, and 55 First Team All-Region and 49 Second Team All-Region athletes. The Region Runner-of-the-Year honor has been awarded to Villa and Prep runners every year since 2012.
After 13 years leading the middle and distance track athletes at Prep and Villa, Brown took over as head track and field coach at Cathedral Prep in 2022. During her tenure with the distance squad, school records have been set in every middle distance and distance event (400m, 800m, 1600m, 3200m, 4x400, and 4x800 relays) and the Prep 800m and 1600m. The middle distance/distance group has set seven District 10 records (girls AA 800m, girls AA & AAA 1600m, girls AAA 3200m, and girls AA 4x800m relay; boys AAA 800m and AAA 1600m), and have won 42 District 10 AA and AAA track and field titles (19 relays and 19 individual titles). The Villa 4x800m relay has won two AA state titles (2013, 2015) and finished in the runner-up spot twice (2014, 2016). In the two years since Brown took over the Track & Field program, school records have also been broken in the girls high jump and pole vault.
As a high school athlete, Brown was a two-time New York state champion in the 1500m, was named to the U.S. All-American team, and was selected as the 1986 New York State Gatorade High School Track and Field Athlete of the Year. She went on to compete at Dartmouth College, where she was captain of the cross country and track teams her senior year. She was named to the NCAA Division I All-American Track and Field Team in the 3000m in 1989. As a post-collegiate athlete, Brown competed for Adidas/Boston Athletic Association and participated in the 1992 Olympic Trials.
She and her husband Mike (coach of Prep's Boys Cross Country) have six children. Their oldest children, Claire (’16VMA), Grace (’18VMA), Andrew (’21), and Luke (’23) competed in cross country and track at Villa and Prep, respectively. Their daughter, Anne-Catherine ’26 and son, Michael ‘28 are currently members of the Cathedral Prep cross country and track teams.
