Tom Stebbins - Swimming & Diving Coach

Photo by: Don Liebig, UCLA Photography

Tom Stebbins

Title:
Head Diving Coach
Email:
tstebbins@athletics.ucla.edu

Tom Stebbins enters his 26th season as the head coach of the UCLA women’s diving team in 2023-24, a program that has had much success since his tenure in Westwood began. Stebbins was recently named the Pac-12 Diving Coach of the Year at the conclusion of three consecutive seasons (2017-19), making him just the second person ever to three-peat as the league's top diving coach.

Most recently, Stebbins has helped Hannah Butler double-qualify for NCAAs in each of the past three seasons while Eden Cheng earned 2023 Pac-12 Freshman Diver of the Year honors in 2022-23.

Despite losing the program's top two divers, UCLA diving was once again a force nationally in 2019-20. Junior Ruby Neave emerged as one of the top divers on the west coast, winning the 1-meter title at Pac-12s and finishing runner-up at the NCAA Zone E Championships. She was one of four Bruins who ultimately qualified for Zones, joining junior Alice Yanovsky and true freshmen Hannah Butler and Katie Shaheen.

Stebbins earned CSCAA Diving Coach of the Year honors in 2018-19, making him the second Pac-12 coach ever to take home that award. UCLA divers combined to score 75 points at the NCAA Championships, the most of any school nationwide and a new program benchmark. Under his tutelage, Maria Polyakova was named the CSCAA and Pac-12 Diver of the Year while Eloise Belanger scored more points (38) than any other diver at NCAAs.

In 2017-18, Stebbins guided Eloise Belanger to UCLA's second straight Pac-12 Diver of the Year Award. Belanger won the 1-meter and 3-meter events at the Pac-12 Championships, then finished second in three events at the 2018 NCAA Zone E Championships.

The year prior, he helped Maria Polyakova to the first conference Diver of the Year honor of his tenure. Before coming to UCLA, Stebbins served as head diving coach at Fordham University, where he coached two-time senior national qualifier Paul Delo, who won two Atlantic 10 titles each on the 1M and 3M. Stebbins also helped coach Delo to an undefeated record in the 1996-97 season.

Coach Stebbins' Background
Stebbins was a four-year letterwinner at Yale University, a three-time NCAA Zone qualifier and a four-time All-Ivy League selection. While diving at Yale, he helped lead his team to the 1993 Ivy League co-title. In 1996, he won the Heaton High Point Award and was named the recipient of the Phil Moriarty MVP Prize. Stebbins graduated from Yale in 1996 with a degree in psychology. A native of Connecticut, he now resides in Playa del Rey with his wife Erika, daughter Reilly and son Owen.

The Stebbins Philosophy
"Luck sits squarely at the intersection of hard work and opportunity."
Coach Stebbins believes that each person is in total control of creating her own luck. The UCLA Diving program stresses the need for the individual to be accountable to herself, her teammates, her sport, and her studies. With all of the wonderful opportunities presented to student athletes at UCLA, it is important that each person know that she is responsible for the decisions and directions that she chooses. This is the beginning of a lifelong process in which the student-athlete learns how to maximize herself academically, athletically, and socially. While the coaching staff hopes to steer this direction, it is the student-athlete herself that will determine how quickly she will achieve her goals.

Coach Stebbins believes, "We are all very fortunate to be part of the greatest athletic program in the country. How we choose to give back to that tradition should go well beyond the few moments each individual will spend competing in the Bruin Blue. Becoming a Bruin is just the beginning of a lifelong commitment to creating excellence in every facet of your life. As coaches, we are all here to enhance the early stages of that process, through our passion, dedication, and enthusiasm for the people whose lives we have the opportunity to touch."

The Last Decade

In 2013-2014, three Bruins qualified for the NCAA Zones in Guzman, Monahan and freshman Annika Lenz. Lenz was fourth in the Platform event, ninth in the 3M and 14th in the 1M at Zones, setting a personal best (329.80) in the 3M at the Pac-12 Championships. Lenz won four dual meet events and was named Pac-12 Diver of the Month for November. Monahan was 15th in the Platform at NCAA Zones, while Guzman was 16th in the 1M.

In the summer of 2014, Lenz won a silver medal in the Platform at the AT&T USA Diving National Championships with a personal-best and National Meet-best score of 312.60. She was the seventh-highest women's point scorer, also competing in the 1M (15th), 3M (22nd) and Synchronized 3M (4th). Incoming freshman Maria Polyakova won a pair of silver medals at the FINA World Junior Diving Championships in September in the 1M and 3M, also placing third in the Synchro 3M.

In 2014-15, Maria Polyakova was named the Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year after an historic initial season in Westwood, which culminated in a fourth-place finish in the 3M at the NCAA Championships. She became the first Bruin to qualify for a championship final since 2013, posting the best showing ever for a UCLA diver at NCAA’s and the best Bruin finish at Championships since 2006. During her historic performance in the 3M, Polyakova broke her own school record twice with a 380.60 in the preliminaries and a 392.00 in the championship. Sophomore Annika Lenz, who set a UCLA school record in the Platform at the Pac-12 Championships (323.15), finished fourth at the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships in March.

In the summer of 2015, Polyakova won gold in the 1M, while also finishing second in the Synchronized 3M and fifth in the 3M, in the inaugural European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan. Polyakova also won the Women's 1M at her 2015 Summer National Championships in Russia and finished ninth in the 1M finals at the FINA World Championships. Ciara Monahan qualified for August's AT&T USA Diving Senior National Championships after her fifth-place finish in the 1M at the USA Diving Zone F Championships.

In 2015-16, Eloise Belanger was named the Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year after posting a runner-up finish in the Platform event at the Pac-12 Championships. She also placed third in the 1M and fourth in the 3M. The freshman’s standout debut season culminated in a second-place finish in the 1M event at the NCAA Championships. Her score of 336.00 in the finals set a new UCLA record in the event, previously held by Marisa Samaniego. Once again, Maria Polyakova had a stellar season, twice earning Pac-12 Diver of the Month honors and winning 12 of 14 regular season diving competitions. The Bruin sophomore captured the 1M crown at Pac-12s and went on to post two top-five finishes in the springboard events at the NCAA Championships. Junior Annika Lenz placed fourth in the platform event at Pac-12s. During the summer season, all three Bruins went on to compete at the Olympic Trials for their respective nations.

Honors were heaped upon the Bruins in 2016-17, with Maria Polyakova the most decorated of all. The junior was named Pac-12 Diver of the Year after a red-hot close to her campaign that began with her second Pac-12 championship in as many years. The Penza, Russia native took the 3M competition while reaching the podium in the 1M and Platform events en route to the Diver of the Meet award. Polyakova went on to set two school records at the NCAA Zone E Championships, posting scores of 398.75 and 339.05 in the 3M and 1M events, respectively. In all, the 2016-17 Bruins qualified four divers for the NCAA Championships after strong showings at Zones. Joining Polyakova were sophomore Eloise Belanger, senior Annika Lenz and junior Ciara Monahan. Polyakova went on to cap her remarkable season with a pair of top-five finishes, while Belanger scored points in the 1M and Platform competitions. Belanger and Polyakova were also named CSCAA All-Americans for their performances. Those two also made UCLA the only school to tally multiple Pac-12 Diver of the Month awards as Stebbins went on to capture his first Pac-12 Diving Coach of the Year honor.

Summer 2017 was a busy one for the globe-trotting Bruin divers, beginning with Polyakova reaching three final rounds at the FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Additionally, Monahan and Traci Shiver were joined by incoming freshman Alice Yanovsky at the 2017 USA Diving National Championships in Columbus, Ohio, while Polyakova competed alongside Australian newcomer Ruby Neave at the 29th Summer Universiade in Taipei. Polyakova went on to earn a bronze medal in the Mixed Synchro 3M.

Under his tutelage, UCLA had another banner year in 2017-18. Eloise Belanger won the program's second straight Pac-12 Diver of the Year Award. She won the 1m and 3m titles at the Pac-12 Championships, then finished second in three events at the Zone E Championships en route to a pair of top-10 finishes at NCAAs. Traci Shiver, Alice Yanovsky, and Ciara Monahan all qualified for Zones as well. At the end of the year, Stebbins repeated as the league's Diving Coach of the Year, a program first.

2018-19 was arguably the best season in Bruin diving history, leading to CSCAA Diving Coach of the Year honors for Stebbins. UCLA divers combined to score 75 points at NCAAs, a figure which led all schools and established a new program benchmark. The Bruins produced the 3M champion in Polyakova, as well as the highest-scoring diver of the meet in Belanger, who had 38 points across three events. Polyakova was the second-highest scoring diver at the meet with 37 points over two events. After the season, Polyakova was tabbed as the Pac-12 Diver of the Year while Stebbins garnered Pac-12 Diving Coach of the Year acclaim. Stebbins is the second person ever to three-peat as the Pac-12's top diving coach. UCLA had four divers qualify for Zones, and came agonizingly close to sending a trio of divers to NCAAs as Traci Shiver finished less than a point short of qualifying on tower. UCLA dominated the diving portion of its meets all season, as a Bruin won 21 of 33 diving events the squad entered, including 16 wins in 21 events during the 2019 calendar year.

Despite a hefty amount of turnover that included four graduated seniors, 2019-20 was another standout year for UCLA diving. Ruby Neave, who didn't compete her first two years at UCLA due to injury, broke through as one of the top divers in both the conference and the country, winning the 1M diving title at Pac-12s and finishing runner-up in the same event at Zones. She was the third consecutive Bruin to win the 1M crown at Pac-12s. Neave would eventually earn double NCAA qualification after placing sixth in 3M at Zones. The season was also marked by the emergence of true freshmen Katie Shaheen and Hannah Butler, who both improved markedly over the course of the season en route to Zones qualification. Butler went on to earn All-America honors after qualifying for NCAAs in 1-meter, and narrowly missed out on joining Neave in the double-qualifier club after placing 12th in 3M at Zones. Junior Alice Yanovsky gave the Bruins four Zones participants.

With a training schedule, competition schedule, and roster that were all heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, UCLA still was able to make noise during the 2020-21 season. Two of three divers on the UCLA roster for the season ended up double-qualifying for the NCAA Championships thanks in part to top-five finishes at Zones; Hannah Butler placed fourth in 1M while Katie Shaheen placed fifth in the platform championship (both also qualified for NCAAs in 3M). Butler picked up a pair of first-place finishes over the truncated season (UCLA had just two duals and two diving invitationals in 2020-21), including a 3M win at Cal on Jan. 30.

The 2021-22 season saw success from both returners and newcomers, as Hannah Butler qualified for NCAAs for the third consecutive season while freshmen Zoe Jespersgaard and Maya Salvitti each earned invites to Zones. Butler proved herself one of the top divers in the Pac-12 as a junior, finishing third in 1-meter at Pac-12s, placing fifth in 1M at Zones to clinch double-qualification into NCAAs, and securing seven individual event wins over the course of the year. Meanwhile, Salvitti clinched a Zones berth with a standout effort in 1M on Jan. 29, while Jespersgaard qualified for Zones in all three events.

The 2022-23 campaign was highlighted by standout seasons from freshman Eden Cheng and senior Hannah Butler. Cheng, despite missing much of the fall season, earned Pac-12 Freshman Diver of the Year honors after a sterling debut campaign in Westwood. She tripled-qualified for the NCAA Championships, earned CSCAA All-America honors in platform after placing 15th at NCAAs, and set a program record on tower (324.60) as part of an outstanding showing at the 2023 Pac-12 Championships. Butler meanwhile double-qualified for NCAAs for the third consecutive season, and made the finals in all three events at Pac-12s. Sophomore Zoe Jespersgaard had a solid season of her own, earning Zones-qualification in both springboard events.