Hoosier headman receives acclaim

For the seventh straight year, the IU men's and women's diving coach Jeff Huber has received the U.S. Diving's National Coach of the Year award.\n"Winning this award never gets old," Huber said in a statement. \nYou don't have to look far to see examples of Huber's prowess. He led the IU program to its 11th U.S. Combined National Championship. It beat powerhouse Auburn by over 100 points, sealing Huber's fate as National Coach of the Year again. Also, he led the women's diving program to its sixth consecutive national championship in diving by beating Team Orlando with the men's program capturing second place. \n"It is something I am proud of as, again, it has a lot to do about the divers and the hard work they have done. Every year, they have to prove how good they are in front of the diving world. Additionally, the divers are quite proud of this award as well," Huber said.\nDuring his career, Huber has not only solidified himself as a great coach but also proved it with his divers' performances. Huber led Sara Hildebrand, Cassandra Cardinell, Lindsay Weigle, Marc Carlton and Brian Mariano to gain spots in the U.S. National Team this year. Huber also served as an assistant diving coach at the 2004 Athens Olympics which included Hildebrand, Cardinell and Kimiko Hirai-Soldati. \nOther divers who have achieved accolades under Huber include Hirai-Soldati, who achieved the NCAA 1-meter diving championship in 1996, and Mark Lenzi, the 1-meter NCAA champion in 1989, an Olympic gold medalist in 1992 and an Olympic bronze medalist in 1996.\nThese kinds of awards are not strange to Huber, who over the years has accomplished many coaching awards since his tenure began. In 2003, he received not only the U.S. National Diving Coach of the Year award but also the Big Ten Women's and the Big Ten Men's Diving Coach of the Year and the Mike Peppe awards -- which recognizes the U.S. Senior National Coach of the Year -- bringing Huber's award count to six for that particular award. Also at the 2000 and 2003 U.S. National Indoor Diving Championships, Huber received the Coach's Award for Excellence based on his divers' performances at those meets.\nHuber's resume is extensive -- he's served as the head coach for diving on the U.S. team at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, which marked the second time the IU coach has served as head coach in the games, his first coming as coach of the Dominican Republic in 1984 in Los Angeles. \nIn 2003, Huber served as the head coach of the U.S. National Team, co-head coach at the Pan-American Games and co-head coach of the World Championship in Barcelona. He has coached at numerous Grand Prix international meets, the 1998 Goodwill Games, the 1991 World University Games and for several U.S. National Teams. \nOn the national level, Huber has guided IU's program to 10 U.S. Diving Combined Team National Championships while leading Carlton and Hildebrand to become the Big Ten's Divers of the Year in 2003.