UCSD, in its third year of a four year transition from NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I athletics, has eliminated the diving portion of its swimming & diving program.
The program had only two divers on their roster last year, one male and one female, and both were seniors. The female, Isabella Perez, dove exhibition at the MPSF Championships. Kyle Parenti scored 31 points for the men’s team, including 7th place finishes in both springboard events.
In a statement, the school cited a number of factors for the decision, including that the Big West Conference does not sponsor swimming & diving.
“A number of factors have led to a department decision to redirect resources within the swimming program to provide a first-class scholar-athlete experience, encourage conference and NCAA team and individual competitive success and enhance potential international competitive opportunities (i.e. national and world championships, Olympic Games, etc.). In addition, the department is committed to scholar-athlete safety and well-being as well as maintaining its high academic standing.
“Considering the complexities of maintaining a competitive diving program in the face of a national trend that shows a decline in qualified coaches and youth participants, the decision was made to place a dedicated emphasis on enhancing the Triton swimming programs and to phase out diving events.”
UC San Diego has a proud tradition of success as a member of NCAA Divisions III and II in both swimming and diving. The program has produced DII and DIII All-Americans and claimed numerous conference and national championships. However, the Division I landscape is vastly different and the resources required to maintain a nationally competitive diving program are extensive.
The school says that it is “reallocating resources directed to its highly successful swimming program in a manner that best provides a first class scholar-athlete experience and opportunity for team and individual competitive success.”
“A great deal of thought and analysis has been given to exactly how to achieve that. The decision was made to focus funding, resources, scholarships, coaching and facilities to the area of the program that has the best possible opportunity for success – swimming. We believe we can be nationally elite, win championships and bring prestige and distinction to UC San Diego in the sport of swimming on the Division I level and in international competition.”
SwimSwam asked for specific examples of where that funding was being redirected to, but as of publishing did not receive a response.
UCSD’s head diving coach Abigail Smith served in her role for 2 seasons. While Smith’s salary is not available in the UC public payroll systems, prior individuals in her role have earned about $20,000 per year.
The UCSD women finished 2nd out of 10 teams at last season’s MPSF Championship meet, while the men finished 5th out of 7 teams, just 13 points behind conference newcomers Incarnate Word for 4th.
At the MPSF Championships, each team is limited to travelling a maximum of 22 student-athletes, with an official roster of 18 must be declared at the coaches’ meeting. Swimmers count as one and divers count as 1/2 of a roster spot.
Among MPSF teams, UCSB (men and women) and Pacific (women only) also don’t have diving programs.
In 2016, UCSD students voted overwhelmingly (almost 70%) to increase student fees from $129 per quarter to $290 per quarter to fund a move to NCAA Division I athletics. That increase resulted in around $10 million in new revenue annually for the athletics department.
As a former diving coach at U.C. San Diego, this smells fishy.
There were years where UCSD Swimming and Diving vied for national NCAA championships, many times sweeping the top three spots in the both the one meter and three meter diving events. Unless you are University of Virginia the hopes of winning a national championship just became practically impossible. If you doubt this, check out the symbiotic success swimming AND diving for perennial NCAA champions such University of Texas, University of Arizona, Auburn (Marsh should know better), and Stanford.
It seems to me UCSD has forgotten the lineage of amazing diving coaches that not only produced nationally recognized divers but were responsible for the number one diving club in… Read more »
As a former diving coach at U.C. San Diego, this smells fishy.
There were years where UCSD Swimming and Diving vied for national NCAA championships, many times sweeping the top three spots in the both the one meter and three meter diving events. Unless you are University of Virginia the hopes of winning a national championship just became practically impossible. If you doubt this, check out the symbiotic success swimming AND diving for perennial NCAA champions such University of Texas, University of Arizona, Auburn (Marsh should know better), and Stanford.
It seems to me UCSD has forgotten the lineage of amazing diving coaches that not only produced nationally recognized divers but were responsible for the number one diving club… Read more »
I think the school just has no money for the swim program alone
Decline in qualified diving coaches is entirely untrue. There are plenty of great candidates that would have taken a try at the job.
Decline in youth participation is patently false. Especially in that space. Two of the largest club programs in the country have homes within the state of California.
There has been a lack of support for the diving side of this program, forever. A little properly directed effort, an innovative coaching hire, and any level of scholarship concentrated at that end of the pool could have produced a nationally competitive program.
But let’s wait and see what they do with all the money they are saving…..laughable.
It’s just the AD’S polite way of saying they don’t care at all about the sport. Swimming is already on the low end of the totem pole in college athletics- and diving feels more and more like the ugly step-child.
At least our basketball team will get to go to Italy this summer for a “culture” trip.
https://ucsdtritons.com/news/2023/4/13/general-uc-san-diego-basketball-to-embark-on-foreign-tour.aspx
Wait, what? They’re cutting sports when other teams are going abroad? Surely I’m misunderstanding. That seems like a flagrant prioritizing of a sport that’s categorically worse in terms of stats (referring to the sim team’s conference win).
Leaving the dive coach’s salary has nothing to do with the article. Yes it can be found publicly, but it added nothing to the article other than to attempt to embarrass the coach. BS
When the school says that the decision was made to reallocate costs to other parts of the program, you don’t think that information about how much money is being saved by cutting the program is relevant?
Agree to disagree.
Also not sure why you think it’s embarrassing to her.
There is certainly NOT “a nationwide decline in qualified coaches.” There are plenty of coaches out there, but you have to pay them a living wage… $20K?… In SanDiego? McDonald’s is paying $35K plus these days.
How is that embarrassing? A very large portion of college dive coach jobs are part-time postions, and are paid as such. If anything it’s embarrassing for the sport, not the coach.
Marsh screwed this school over big time!
Can you elaborate? Marsh wasn’t making that much by D1 standards and has been gone for a long time, hard to trace this back to him.
They also didn’t make the transition to D1 because of Marsh.
This has zero to do with Marsh bud.
Not to mention that this program won the schools 1st D1 Conference title, has had OT Trials qualifers, an open water national team memeber, and a great incoming class of ’23. Please spare me this Marsh hurt the school BS.