UCSB Athletics will begin to phase in a diving program beginning this season it has been announced by head swimming coach Gregg Wilson. Recent UCSB graduate Wil Haynes has been hired as the head diving coach.
“This is a great time for our program,” said Wilson. “Reinstating diving will give us an important component that we have been missing for over a decade. Our divers in the past have been great students and great athletes, and we are looking forward to resurrecting that tradition.”
Haynes graduated this past June from UCSB with a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Prior to attending UCSB, he competed in diving at San Luis Obispo High School where he was top-10 finisher in the CIF-Southern Section Division II all four years of his prep career. As a junior, Haynes helped San Luis Obispo HS to a CIF-Southern Section Division II title and as a senior he was undefeated in league and took sixth in CIF-SS DII.
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Haynes started coaching diving in high school, assisting his father, who was his high school coach. While attending UCSB, he served as a volunteer diving coach at the local high schools for three years.
Diving has been added, in part, to help UCSB maintain a competitive edge as it joins the Pac-10 Conference on the men’s side and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation on the women’s side this year. Diving could garner a team over 100 points at the conference championships.
The Gauchos won a combined 11 Big West Conference titles after diving was discontinued at UCSB following the 1999 season. Diving would have made a difference, however, this past spring when the Gauchos failed to capture the men and women’s Big West titles. UCSB was edged out by UC Davis – which fielded six divers on both the men and women’s sides – by margins of 62 and 12 points, respectively.
