Sean Letsinger Brings Impressive Success, Experience As New Head Diving Coach At Princeton

Sean Letsinger has guided divers to impressive heights in multiple places during his young career, and Princeton is excited to see what he can do with a talented group of competitors, including an underclassman trio who qualified to the 2018 NCAA Championships. Letsinger was named the new head diving coach at Princeton by Mollie Marcoux Samaan, the Ford Family Director of Athletics.

Letsinger, who dove for the University of Tennessee prior to beginning his collegiate coaching career, comes to Princeton from Richmond, where he served as the head coach for five years and was named the 2016 Diving Coach of the Year. His coaching career has spanned both the collegiate and club level, and his divers experienced great success in both.

"We are thrilled to welcome Coach Sean Letsinger to the Princeton Athletics Family," Marcoux Samaan said. "Coach Letsinger brings with him an unusual and important balance of experience, passion, compassion and knowledge to this role. We are confident that he will build on our strong tradition of diving excellence, and he will dedicate himself to helping all of our male and female divers reach their peak potential in the pool, in the classroom and in life."

"I am very excited to join the Princeton Tigers family," Letsinger said. "I knew from the second that I stepped on campus that it is truly a special place. I am looking forward to working with Mollie, Bret, and Rob to continue elevating Princeton Swimming and Diving into one of the top programs in the nation. I am excited to surround myself with so many energetic and passionate people who share my vision of all the amazing things that we can accomplish at Princeton. I am eager to get started."

Letsinger, who has sent eight divers to NCAA Zones and coached two to Zone finals, guided Richmond's Irina Chiulli to a pair of Atlantic 10 titles, as well as the 2015 Atlantic 10 Most Outstanding Diver honor. His divers had a consistent presence in the conference finals, and they helped lead Richmond to both the 2016 and 2017 Atlantic 10 titles. He also started the first competitive age group team in the area, Richmond Area Diving (RAD); in his five years, Letsinger coached Tyler Read to five AAU national titles, and he led multiple divers to AAU Diving Nationals and USA Diving National finals.

Letsinger's junior level divers have gone on to compete at several Division I institutions, including Florida, Ohio State, Purdue, Virginia Tech and Utah.

"Sean brings the comprehensive skill-sets we look for to lead our student-athletes," women's head coach Bret Lundgaard said. "His passion is student-athlete development, and his communication, sport knowledge and relationship-building skills make him the ideal leader for this program. His vision for Princeton Diving is incredibly exciting, and he will partner with our student-athletes to create new possibilities for our team.

"In our search, we discovered that Sean is nationally respected by both coaches and student-athletes," Lundgaard added. "His success at an excellent academic university prepares him to recruit and develop nationally competitive student-athletes."

Letsinger spent the 2012–2013 season as the men's and women's diving coach at South Dakota State University. In his short time there, he led his divers to 22 individual personal best performances, 18 individual wins, 14 individual second place finishes, and 7 new school records. Letsinger played a pivotal role in leading the men's team to its first undefeated dual meet season in school history (7–0). Under his leadership, his divers raised the men's 3-meter school record by 28.73 points and raised the men's 1-meter school record by 42.22 points.

"PUCSDT is extremely excited to add Sean Letsinger to our staff," men's head coach Rob Orr said. "Sean comes to Princeton with an exceptional background and experience in diving which will help our teams to excel both in our conference and on the national scene. We all look forward to continuing our great success on the boards with Sean."

Letsinger was a letterman diver at Tennessee from 2007–2010. He was awarded the first ever Inspiration Award at the 2010 Volscars in honor of his perseverance through extreme personal obstacles. During the following two seasons, he went on to become the student assistant diving coach at Tennessee and assisted head coach Dave Parrington in leading the Volunteer divers to multiple top finishes in the 2012 SEC Championships.

Letsinger held the assistant diving coach position for Tennessee Diving for eight years (2004–2012). During his time with Tennessee Diving, he assisted in coaching multiple city, state, regional, zone, and national finalists and champions. Letsinger coached divers including Jacob Siler, who was the gold medalist in the 12-13 3-meter event at the 2011 USA Diving Age Group National Championships, and Samuel Smith, who was a finalist in the 2012 USA Diving Olympic Trials.

Prior to college, Letsinger qualified and competed in 14 USA Junior Olympic Nationals, one USA Diving Junior Olympic World Trials (2002), two USA vs. Canada Junior Challenges (2002, 2003), and one Junior Olympic Pan-American Games (2003). He competed on several USA Diving international teams which included Olympic medalists: Nick McCrory, Kristian Ipsen, and Kelci Bryant.

Letsinger remains the current record holder of the Knoxville Area high school city championships (571.90) and has held that record since 2005. While in high school, he was named Texas Roadhouse High School Athlete of the Week, Tennessee State High School Diver of the Year, and Academic All-American on numerous occasions.

Letsinger graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Sports Management with a minor in Business from the University of Tennessee in May 2011. He received his Master of Science in Sport and Recreation Studies from South Dakota State University in December, 2014.

He takes over a Princeton diving program filled with young talent. Both Charlie Minns and Colten Young qualified for the 2018 NCAA Championships on all three boards; prior to that, Young scored the seventh-most in the history of the 3-meter event at the Ivy League Championships, as well as the second-most ever by a freshman at the Ivy League. Three women's divers made at least one 'A' final at the 2018 Ivy Championships — Natasha MacManus made both — while Sine Scribbick qualified for the NCAA Championships on the 3-meter board.

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