Penn State Hires Loren Smith as Head Diving Coach
Loren Smith has been hired as the head diving coach at Penn State, the university announced on Monday.
Smith, who also goes by the nickname Buck, has spent the last 24 seasons at Eastern Michigan University. He heads south to join the staff of new head coach Hollie Bonewit-Cron.
“I have known Buck for decades and have seen the kind of coaching he has done to produce the best results from his divers,” Bonewit-Cron said in a university statement. “I am beyond excited to see his experience and drive each and every day on deck and I am very eager to witness the success he will create with our diving student-athletes and our entire diving program at B1G’s, NCAA’s, and beyond!”
Smith coached both men’s and women’s divers at EMU. He’s qualified 16 divers to NCAAs (nine female, seven male) and had five All-Americans (three female, two male). Smith mentored divers who won 22 Mid-American Conference diving championships and nine MAC divers of the year. He was named the MAC Diving Coach of the year 15 times with the women’s program and 10 times with the men’s.
Smith also coached for one season at Oakland University, in 1999-2000.
Smith has also coached for 25 years at Legacy Diving. He’s mentored 65 junior national qualifiers, 40 junior national finalists, 22 national champions, seven silver medalists and five bronze medalists. At the senior level, he’s led 28 senior national qualifiers and 15 finalists, plus the 2006 U.S. Open 1-meter champion, Jason Coben. Smith has had international pupils, including six Canadian Junior Olympic finalists.
This year, Smith was recognized with the Dick Kimball Award by the Professional Diving Coaches Association. In 2010, he won the Bruce Harlan Award from the Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association.