om Stebbins enters his 22nd season as the head coach of the UCLA women’s diving team in 2019-20, a program that has had much success since his tenure in Westwood began. Stebbins has been named the Pac-12 Diving Coach of the Year in each of the past three seasons, becoming just the second person ever to three-peat as the league's top diving coach.
Stebbins is coming off a 2018-19 campaign that saw him earn CSCAA Diving Coach of the Year honors, 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."
