Courtesy: FSU Athletics
TALLAHASSEE – Florida State head swimming and diving coach Neal Studd announced the hiring of Wesley Mattice as the head diving coach on Friday.
“We could not be happier to welcome Coach Wes to the Seminole family,” Studd said. “I’m really excited about his path in coaching. His experience on the U.S. national teams and his incredible success with what he has done collegiality is a great fit for our program. We have a similar vision for what we expect of our student-athletes and ourselves. The future of FSU diving looks very bright indeed.”
Mattice arrives in Tallahassee following a head coaching stint at NC State, where he led divers to the NCAA Championships in each of his three seasons at the helm (2021-2024), while helping the Wolfpack take home the ACC Championship in all three seasons.
“I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity to coach at FSU,” Mattice said. “Florida State has a history of great diving. The facilities are amazing, and I look forward to joining this coaching staff.”
Arriving in Raleigh, North Carolina in May of 2021, Mattice produced 41 ACC-scoring performances including six championship finalists, a bronze medalist and one gold medalist. NC State also had divers represented at the NCAA Championships.
In 2024, Mattice coached rookie Bayleigh Cranford to the ACC platform title, where she edged out Else Praasterink of Louisville (313.20) with a score of 313.80. Cranford went on to compete in the event at the NCAA Championships. Mattice also guided Renato Calderaro to bronze at the 2023 ACC meet as a freshman before qualifying for nationals.
In his first season, Bayne Bennett qualified for the NCAA Championships in 2022, marking the first time since the 2017-18 season the Wolfpack had a student-athlete on the boards at nationals.
Prior to NC State, Mattice served as the head diving coach at George Washington after a stint training youth divers. He served as a coach for the USA Diving Junior National Team.
Mattice was the 2020 Atlantic-10 Men’s Diving Coach of the year after guiding Peter Nachtwey to the Most Outstanding Diver awards in both 2018-19 and 2019-20. The men claimed the team title in 2019 and the women earned a program first A-10 Championship victory in 2020.
In his three years at GW, Mattice helped divers claim two golds, two silvers and three bronze medals, while guiding 18 top eight finishes.
Mattice coached for USA Diving in Rockville, Maryland, where he was part of the team that competed at the 2015 Pan American Junior Championships in Cuba, 2018 Junior Worlds in Kiev, Ukraine, 2019 Junior Pan Am Games in Canada and the 2019 USA Grand Prix in Mission Viejo.
Mattice graduated from Southern Connecticut State with a degree in Studio Art. He served as the facility director and coach of the Montgomery Dive Club and was coach of the Whirlwind Dive Club in Connecticut.
Great Coach with awesome knowledge of the sport! FSU should do very well. Congrats Wes and all the best to you and the team.
Wes is an excellent coach. NC State is where diving coaches go to die. Braden hates diving and not taking a scoring athlete to NCAA’s should be the end of diving at NCSU. No club coach or prospective athlete should consider NCSU as an option. If you want a collegiate career that includes the option of making NCAA’s NCSU is the antithesis of that dream.
Divers be warned.
Wes is awesome; so glad that he was presented with a great opportunity. Good luck, Wes!
There are divers and commits that are still members of this team- to the ‘Pack divers who have already watched their coach leave for another program…YOUR HEAD COACH DOESN’T HATE YOU and your program should continue. Ignore anyone who tells you otherwise.
I am sorry to hijack this post, but I feel Like “diving matters” needs an answer. People might be looking to this post as information and will take this dramatic commentary at face value. This could affect decisions that kids are making, that parents are helping them to make, and that a coach is making (hopefully… Read more »
The prior comment is NOT dramatic and I wish I had written it myself. Braden’s actions have spoken clearly… he does NOT value the diving coach nor the divers. Be honest and don’t give future diving coaches and divers false pretense; just eliminate the diving program completely from NC State. Actions speak louder than words.
Divers BE warned!!!
P.S. Did you also analyze the RESULTS of Braden’s “calculated” choices, as well as other teams that brought divers to the NCAA’s? Get back to me on that one…
By not sending the best ranked and only qualifying diver to the NCAA’s this year, a strong statement is being made to “vulnerable” athletes, commits, recruits and future coaches.
Response to point 1: By not sending a swimmer, there would be a 5.9% loss to the swimming team, as opposed to a 100% loss to the diving team by not sending the only qualifying diver.
Response to point 2: NC State is the only team that qualifies more athletes than the 18 spots, with the majority being swimmers (19/20). Minority divers should not have to compete with over-numbered swimmers for a NCAA spot.
Response to points 3/4: It’s even more of an accomplishment that diving produced a qualifying… Read more »
is there going to be an updated post about open coaches soon?
Well Augie is out at Arizona