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Diving Coach John Bransfield
 E-mail Coach
Bransfield
Now
entering his 11th season directing the UConn diving program, John
Bransfield is coming off another successful season on the boards. Bransfield
coached graduated senior Allison Coleman to her second BIG EAST Diver of the
Year Award in 2008 while a total of three Husky divers took place in NCAA Zone
action.Most recently, Bransfield was named the 2006 BIG EAST Women’s Diving
Coach of the year.
Developing champions is not something new to Bransfield. In his 32 years of
coaching, Bransfield has had many conference champions and at least one
conference champion at each and every school that he has worked at, including
Army, Maine, Springfield College and Northern Michigan. He has coached several
national qualifiers including a four-time NCAA Division II Champion. In 2003,
Melissa Kull became the first Connecticut diver to compete at the NCAA National
Championship.
This year’s divers are led on
the women’s side by senior Liza Marianni, who is the current holder of the
three-meter record at UConn and was sixth at the BIG EAST Championship in that
event. The men are led by sophomore Stephen Ferreira, who also took part in the
NCAA Zone Regionals last year.
Bransfield’s background extends beyond the collegiate realm of diving. He
enjoyed many years of success with U.S. Diving as a Junior Olympic coach, and
was the recipient of a stipend in 1988 to work with two U.S Olympic Coaches. In
1992, Bransfield was appointed as a Regional Technical Director of United States
Diving, and while at West Point, hosted numerous clinics for U.S Diving Coaches.
In 1998 he served as the Competition Manager of the Goodwill Games in New York.
Bransfield has taught numerous coaching clinics for Grass Roots fundamentals,
Spotting Training and Safety Certification and he currently serves on the NCAA
Diving Rules Subcommittee.
In the summer of 2003, Bransfield spent close to three weeks in the People's
Republic of China. The opportunity allowed him to closely observe the training
programs at two Provincial sites and attend the Asian Junior Championships.
Bransfield is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., where he received his bachelor's
degree from St. Francis College. He earned a master's at Northern Michigan
University and continued to study biomechanics while at Springfield College.
Bransfield and his wife, Ginny, have four sons, and presently reside in Storrs.
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