Diving Coach Dwight Dumais Revealed as Driver of Arizona NCAA Infractions

New details regarding the NCAA violations alleged against the University of Arizona swimming & diving program were made public on Friday after ESPN won a lawsuit forcing the release of documents. The documents were first published by the Arizona Daily Star.

Head coach Augie Busch told SwimSwam last year that he was not accused of a Level I violation, which by deduction of the definition of a ‘major infraction’ meant he was accused of a Level II violation, which was confirmed by new reports. Busch was charged by the NCAA for failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance related to a separate charge levied against the program’s diving coach, Dwight Dumais.

Dumais was charged with running hundreds of impermissible tryouts between October 2018 and September 2019, and Busch ‘did not rebut the presumption of responsibility.’

Violation 7, Level II:

Assistant swimming and diving coach Dwight Dumais allegedly “facilitated contact between a representative of the institution’s athletics interest (booster) and of women’s diving prospective athletes and facilitated contact between local diving club families…which resulted in the provision of approximately $1,207 in preferential treatment benefits; and engaged in over 240 impermissible tryouts” from October 2018 through September 2019 (NCAA.)

These “impermissible tryouts” are the amount of times prospective athletes who were not legal residents living within an undisclosed distance of the sports club and “did not meet any of the exceptions to the legislation” trained with Dumais as part of his diving club.


Violation 8, Level II:

Head women’s swimming and diving coach Busch is “presumed responsible for the violations detailed in Allegation No. 7 and did not rebut the presumption of responsibility. Specifically, Busch did not demonstrate that he promoted an atmosphere for compliance” or  monitor the women’s swimming and diving program from November 2018 through September 2019.  (NCAA.)

The NCAA detailed that since Busch was aware that a prospective athlete was involved in the local diving club run by Dumais he was obligated to notify the compliance of “the prospect’s presence, seek guidance from compliance regarding Dumais’ training of [prospective athlete] and ensure that Dumais completed the institution’s documentation regarding his involvement in a local sports club.

The NCAA first charged Arizona with nine violations in October 2020, five of which were Level I allegations. The details of Busch’s allegations at the time were only vaguely explained as “lack of head coach control. In December, Arizona’s request to put their case through the Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) was granted.

Notably, the program was on probation until January 2021 due to violations committed by former diving head coach Omar Ojeda. As a result of the fallout, the program was stripped of a scholarship for the 2019-2020 seasonCK. This also caused the athletics program to drop the women’s diving scholarship. These recent violations follow a history of similar NCAA violations within the University of Arizona athletics department. Multiple violations for lack of control and compliance could result in escalated sanctions for the swimming & diving program.

Arizona hired Dumais in 2018 after rescinding their employment offer to John Appleman following his suspension by USA Diving due to SafeSport allegations (which has now been lifted.) Dumais had a successful collegiate diving career at Stanford where he was a 5-time All-American and two-time PAC-12 Conference Champion on 1-meter.

Dumais earned a spot on the USA Diving National Team for 6 years (2009, 2011-2015). During that time he won the 2012 U.S. National Championship in the 3-meter synchro event and qualified for Olympic Trials in 2012 and 2016. After retiring, Dumais coached at the Longhorn Aquatic Club, based out of the University of Texas, for 8 years. His older brothers Justin and Troy are both U.S. Olympic divers.

In addition to the swimming and diving team, men’s basketball coach Sean Miller faces the same NCAA charge as Busch for failure to “demonstrate that he promoted an atmosphere for compliance and monitored his staff within the men’s basketball program.”

This resulted in a total of five allegations, three level I’s, one level II, and one level III violation. Two of Miller’s three assistant coaches committed intentional violations involving fraudulent academic transcripts, receipt of cash bribes, facilitating a meeting with an aspiring agent, impermissible inducements and recruiting violations all within an 18-month period,” the NCAA wrote. Due to the severity and amount of the violations Miller is responsible for, his violation is marked as a level I.

Violation 9 places the responsibility on the institution as a whole for the violations from both programs.

Violation 9, Level I

“The institution failed to heighten its monitoring and/or take reasonable steps to prevent non-compliant conduct despite red flags in both men’s basketball and swimming and diving programs. Multiple member’s of the institution’s athletics administration and men’s basketball coaching staff knew that the men’s basketball prospective athlete in Allegation No. 1 had significant academic issues…Additionally, Dwight Dumais (Dumais)…had no previous NCAA coaching experience and noticed compliance on two separate occasions of his plan to associate with a local sports club that included prospective athletes…Further, the institution failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the same noncompliant conduct as its most recent infractions case…when it failed to proactively follow up with Dumais to obtain compliance paperwork regarding his affiliation with a local diving club.” (NCAA.)

Arizona women’s swimming and diving recently finished 6th at the 2021 PAC-12 Championships and their men’s basketball program are currently ranked 5th within the PAC-12 regular season standings.

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Archer
3 years ago

Tough situation here, but Arizona has too much rich history in our sport and needs new leadership. Two names to watch would be Lars Jorgensen at Kentucky and Matt Bowe at Ohio State. Coming off an SEC championship at Kentucky, Lars has had a very successful tenure at UK. Arizona would be a much easier destination to recruit, and now would be the time to bolt if he was interested. Ohio State has put together consecutive Big Ten championships on the women’s side, and their sprint program has really been impressive over the last 4 years on both sides. Credit to Bowe and his leadership there. Arizona would be an ideal opportunity.

azswummer
Reply to  Archer
3 years ago

There were plenty of qualified candidates the last time the head job was open. The swimmers deserve consistency and strong leadership on BOTH sides if it is to remain a combined program. GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME!!! That is if you want to keep the alum faithful. As of now, Augie acts as if we are invisible and RARELY reaches out. Haven’t heard any communications from him in the past year. Really bad look for a non-revenue sport if you ask me. I have the financial means to contribute but would rather give to the program that my swimmer will be entering next year. Sad when many alum will not send their kids there to swim with the current state… Read more »

Joe
Reply to  azswummer
3 years ago

Well said. For some reason he was recommended as if he could be his father, but is far from on a coaching and personal level. You just have to hope the athletic department understands what is happening.

Azswummer
Reply to  Joe
3 years ago

Not much faith in AD dept. Look at the current state of football and Mens BB. Can’t afford the payout to fire Miller. Probably still paying Rich Rod from his tenure. Those are supposed to be the ones funding everything else! Someone is making really poor hiring decisions in some of these programs. Only program lighting it up is Adia Barnes and her team (which is great to see).

Coach A
3 years ago

it is permissible for the diving coach to be associated with the local diving club. What’s not ok is arranging for the prospect to live rent-free while waiting to become eligible and admissible to the university and coaching her (240 practices). Crazy is that previous diving coach basically did the same thing, so they definitely should have been aware. On the swim side of things, their top end kids swim well, so something is working right there. just don’t have a lot of depth, especially on women’s side. Is that recruiting, covid, transfers? Who knows – but I don’t think U of A will do anything more than a slap on the wrist and a letter in the personnel file.

DLswim
3 years ago

So the UA diving coach also coached a bunch of club divers and the head coach knew about this and didn’t do anything. Truly crazy that Dumais, a guy with vast diving and NCAA experience, would do something like this. And Busch should’ve stopped this, if indeed he knew what was going on. Perhaps he didn’t because the club team may have practiced when Busch wasn’t there, but I don’t have any first-hand info.

Azswummer
3 years ago

Diving coach issues aside, the steep decline of the women’s program is ridiculous. Should not be that much discrepancy in performance at conference between the men’s and women’s team in a combined program. We have historically been fairly equivalent. Coaching men and women are very different. You get my drift on what needs to happen…

fish life fan
Reply to  Azswummer
3 years ago

The “steep decline” of the arizona womens program you speak of based on this years conference results has entirely to do with athletes personal lives than coaching or performance. Multiple female athletes had parents pass away or be diagnosed with cancer. On top of COVID, there are some things that are incredible challenging to perform well through. This is a weird year for everyone, and this team has been through the wringer. Always cheering for the Wildcats, and know the best is still to come.

SCCOACH
Reply to  fish life fan
3 years ago

Yeah I think we need to take a year or two off on harshly judging teams

Coach
Reply to  SCCOACH
3 years ago

Agreed. Been really clear the last several months that most in the college sports world lack any type of perspective. Not the year to make performance based judgements.

Azswummer
Reply to  fish life fan
3 years ago

The decline started years ago. Things are not what they used to be in Tucson. I’m far from the first alum to state this. Starts at the top. The coaching carousel the last 10 year’s or so has been the driver- not the swimmers. Sorry this year has been rough for these swimmers on a personal level. The world has been in chaos and I have kids this same age. The adults here – AD included- Need to get it right.

Countyourswimmers
Reply to  Azswummer
3 years ago

It’s important to note the number of female transfers from the Arizona team. I think this is highly indicative of the women’s team and coaching environment.

Azswummer
Reply to  Countyourswimmers
3 years ago

Bingo.

Editor
Reply to  Azswummer
3 years ago

For what it’s worth, the UVA women had a good deal more success than the UVA men while Busch was the head coach there.

Joe
Reply to  Robert Gibbs
3 years ago

Two words, Leah Smith. The women’s team always underperformed from their projected finish.

Coaching aside, I’m not sure who could ever trust the judgment of the “adults” in this program. Unranked class, after unranked class by this regime, equal the results.

TheBuschEffect
Reply to  Joe
3 years ago

I would also look at how much the Women’s team improved AFTER Augie LEFT! They went from barely cracking the top 20 to being the best team in the country.

BooBusch
3 years ago

Where’s that guy who always comments as AugieBuschFan when you need him?

Proudhoosier
3 years ago

Alright who’s the front runner for Augie job?

Stickles? Free agent alumni
The return of Chitwood?
Other?

swimapologist
Reply to  Proudhoosier
3 years ago

I almost literally can’t think of two names who would be lower on the list among individuals who have been Power 5 D1 coaches this season than those two.

Coach
Reply to  Proudhoosier
3 years ago

The guy who just bailed on another major job within two years of being hired or the guy who was just let go by the university two years ago.

Was this a most likely or least likely list?

Bigboy21
Reply to  Proudhoosier
3 years ago

Maybe people are getting ahead of themselves. Augie Busch is only charged with a level 2 offence and it has gone to the IARP which could take over a year to complete as there are 4 other cases before the Arizona case to be heard and so if it is bound up with the more serious basketball charges then it will take a long time to come to a decision. And in the meantime the UA men will do a whole lot better than their current ranking of 19th at NCAAs. They might even challenge Indiana!

DLswim
Reply to  Bigboy21
3 years ago

One of the downvotes is Guerra, surely.

Former Big10
Reply to  Proudhoosier
3 years ago

Lmao, Chitwood? Their program is already a PR nightmare…

Guerra
Reply to  Former Big10
3 years ago

Cory Chitwood is an outstanding coach and will eventually be a D1 head coach at a top school. Unfortunately, it probably won’t be Arizona. 20/20 hindsight reveals that the Arizona Athletic Department looks like a bunch of idiots now that Angie Busch and basketball coach, Sean Miller, are still employed and Cory is not.

Doconc
3 years ago

This feels like the kicker getting a football team suspended

Waterbear13
Reply to  Doconc
3 years ago

Hey now, be nice to kickers. At least they share the field with the other players.

swimmmer
3 years ago

Augie and Sam really carrying the Busch name…

Guerra
Reply to  swimmmer
3 years ago

Frank has nobody to blame but himself…

MICKEYMOUSE
Reply to  swimmmer
3 years ago

my exact thoughts…

About Annika Johnson

Annika Johnson

Annika came into the sport competitively at age eight, following in the footsteps of her twin sister and older brother. The sibling rivalry was further fueled when all three began focusing on distance freestyle, forcing the family to buy two lap counters. Annika is a three-time Futures finalist in the 200 …

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