New Tulane head women’s swimming and diving coach Katie Robinson has hired two new coaches for her staff.
Former Penn State All-American Chris Devine has been hired as the program’s new diving coach, which could make that program relevant in a hurry. As an athlete, he was a 6-time U.S. National Team diver and a three-time National Championship and the 1994 Big Ten Diver of the year.
New Orleans is not new to Devine, however; he was on the staff during the 2004-2005 season, where he worked with then-freshman Danielle Carillo. In his one year, Carillo became the first (and only) Tulane swimmer or diver to win a Conference USA title. Carillo still holds all three school records from that freshman season.
After his first run with Tulane, he gave up coaching and has recently opened the first in his chain of Sports Clips: a huge, national men’s barber shop franchise.
His coaching resume is loaded, even in a short period. He was the director and coach of Queen City Diving, the diving equivalent of SwimMAC Carolina, and prior to that was the coach and director for the Mission Viejo Nadadores diving program and sent 6 to the National Championship meet.
He was also an assistant at Florida State from 1999-2000, which is one of the country’s premier diving programs.
“He has built up club diving programs in Florida, California, Maryland and North Carolina, giving him experience and the tools necessary to build our diving program here at Tulane to be extremely competitive on the national level,” Robinson said. “It’s been a pleasure to get to know Chris through this process and I’m happy to bring him back into the Tulane swimming and diving family.”
Joining him on this entirely new staff is assistant swim coach Sarah Woodbury, who comes to the program after one season at Marshal.
Prior to that, she spent a year at Division III power Stevens in New Jersey, and before that at Southwestern University just outside of Austin.
Woodbury is an Austin, Texas native and swam at BYU from 2003-2007 and was a three-time All-MWC performer.
In addition to her on-deck coaching prowess, Robinson hailed Woodbury’s administrative abilities.
“Sarah is extremely competent in all aspects `behind the scenes’ of coaching that will make her an huge asset to our program. We share a similar coaching philosophy while having differing strengths to complement each other as a coaching team. I am blessed to be able to welcome her to our swimming and diving family and look forward to coaching alongside of her for many years.”
The Tulane program has been seeking some stability, with already three different head coaches since returning to competition in 2009. The team disband temporarily after Hurricane Katrina ripped through the city in 2005.
