The Alabama swimming and diving program has added diving coach Beau Bunn to its staff, head coach Margo Geer announced Thursday.
“We’re excited to have Beau join the Crimson Tide,” Geer said. “He brings a dozen years of collegiate experience to our program, during which he has developed into a great technical coach and has shown incredible passion for developing student-athletes. We know Beau will be an integral part of our staff and program and we look forward to welcoming him and his family to campus.”
A six-time Colonial Athletics Association Diving Coach of the Year, Bunn joins the Crimson Tide after a decade coaching his alma mater, UNC Wilmington. His tenure with the Seahawks included a trio of CAA team titles and a dozen individual CAA titles.
“My family and I are thrilled to be joining the Crimson Tide. Margo Geer and her staff made this transition very natural and smooth. The excitement they have for the program and their student-athletes is exceptional and I am thrilled to be joining a program and staff that has set the expectations high and knows that they can achieve them,” Bunn said.
In Bunn’s final season coaching UNCW in 2022, the Seahawks won the CAA men’s team title and finished as the runner-up in the women’s race while Courtney Klausen and Nicholas Newis swept the individual men’s and women’s diving titles. Newis was honored as the CAA’s Diver of the Year as well as the Rookie Diver of the Year. Klausen was also named CAA Diver of the Year on the women’s side for the second-straight season.
Klausen also won CAA 1-meter titles in 2020 and 2021, while Kolbein Bjugan won back-to-back CAA men’s 1-meter and 3-meter championships and Giovanni Villanueva and Allen Crosby took down conference 1-meter titles under Bunn’s direction.
Bunn coached Klausen to the 2021 and 2022 CAA Female Diver of the Year honors and the 2020 CAA Female Rookie Diver of the Year accolade. Bjugan was the CAA Male Diver of the Year in 2020 and 2021 while Allen Crosby was the 2014 and Devin Hall was the 2015 CAA Male Rookie Diver of the Year.
Prior to returning to Wilmington to coach the Seahawks, Bunn served as an assistant coach with the Duke Blue Devils. While there, Bunn helped Duke head diving coach Drew Johanson, the head coach of the USA Olympic Diving team, in the development of national champions Abby Johnston and Nick McCrory. Both divers represented Team USA at the 2012 London Olympics.
Beau Bunn compiled a decorated career with the Seahawks that saw him arrive as a walk-on and twice earn CAA Diver of the Year honors as well as CAA Rookie-of-the-Year honors in 1996 after finishing second off both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboards.
As a sophomore he earned CAA Diver of the Year honors after winning the 3-meter springboard and taking second off the 1-meter. As a junior he swept both events on the way to earning CAA Diver of the Year honors for the second year in a row.
Beau Bunn graduated from UNCW in 1999 with a degree in physical education and with a master’s degree in higher educational leadership in 2018.
