by Ashley Holcomb (’27) | March 1, 2024
With a new diving season underway, major changes have been made to the leadership of the program. Last year, the Saint Francis diving team had no head coach and was run solely by the divers themselves. This year, we will be diving into new waters with head coach Yasmeen Almog.
Coach Yaz started her diving career at Edina High School in Minnesota, where she experienced great success, earning All-American, All-State, and All-Conference honors. She was a strong competitor, winning three section diving championships and leading her team to three more victories for the state title. Coach Yaz holds team records for her six-dive list and her eleven-dive list. She is no stranger to leadership, as she held the position of captain for both her high school and club teams. After her time at Edina, Coach Yaz moved on to Division I diving at Princeton University. By her sophomore year, she was one of three captains for the Tigers and led her team to earn the title of Ivy League Champions.
After college, she started her coaching career at Asphalt Green in New York and, after moving to California, began working for the Stanford diving club. This is Coach Yaz’s first time being head coach for a high school team, and she is very excited to begin working with the divers.
Coach Yaz has many goals for this season. Her main hope is for her divers to feel proud of themselves and the great things they have accomplished during practices and meets. She says, “Diving is a performance sport, but it’s also about courage, camaraderie, and perseverance. If all of the divers on the team experience those things by the end of the season, I’ll have done my job.” She is also helping to prepare the divers for college, for those who want to continue on. Her way of preparing the athletes involves teaching technical skills and discipline while working with them to learn new and more complex dives. Coach Yaz explains, “The divers will be training in and out of the pool, both physically and mentally.” Her plans to push the team will teach consistency and determination that will get them ready for whatever diving plans they have after high school.
Her years of experience with this sport will be beneficial to the athletes. After coaching other teams, Coach Yaz has learned that “the hardest thing about diving is overcoming fear and dealing with the unknown.” She plans on using this knowledge to push the divers through their challenges at Saint Francis. For this upcoming season, she is most excited to watch how each individual diver grows. Coach Yaz knows about all of the difficulties that come with competing in such a tough sport. At the end of the day, it is about how much they are improving and how much better the divers are today than they were yesterday. “I am hoping that by the spring, many of our divers will be able to look back at the first few weeks of this season and be shocked at how far they’ve come.” Come out and support the Saint Francis diving team as they prepare to make a splash this upcoming season!