[media-credit name=’UW Athletic Communications’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Since the arrival of Josh Seykora in 2003, the No. 18 Wisconsin men’s (5-6, 1-4 Big Ten) and No. 8 women’s (10-1, 5-0) diving teams have been competing at a level with such vigor and intensity that several national contenders have emerged as a result.

In only his second season as diving coach at UW, Seykora has effectively turned around a despondent organization into a young, blossoming program that boasts six freshman divers out of a total eight in both squads.

“Last year we essentially had only two female divers on the team, and this year we have a team of eight,” Seykora said. “It’s been a good change and has been a learning process for myself and the rest of the team; so far everybody has really gelled together.”

Seykora, a 1998 graduate of the University of Iowa, was a four-year letterwinner with the Hawkeyes’ swimming program before he began his career as a United States Diving Club coach at the Dick Rydze Diving Club. His experience and work ethic made an immediate impact on his young athletes.

“I worked hard to get everyone on the same page and cast the same vision that I have,” Seykora said. “We want to be a scoring team at the Big Ten [Championships] and qualify for Nationals, and so far I think everyone has latched on to that.”

Seykora’s dedication to the UW program stems from his previous coaching days at the high school level and his three seasons as women’s diving coach at the University of Illinois.

“When I was at Illinois, we paid a lot of attention to the fundamentals and really focused on details,” Seykora said. “We took a lot of time teaching [the divers] not only how to dive, but about their dives — there is a lot of physics and biomechanics involved, and it really helps them to have that information.”

During the 2001-02 season at Illinois, Seykora instructed three Illini divers to their first NCAA Diving Zone qualifying scores. The accomplishment marked the first appearance for Illinois at the Zone Championship in more than nine years. Though Seykora enjoyed his time at Illinois, his desire to coach both men and women eventually became a reality with his transfer to Wisconsin.

“The experience in the Big Ten down there kind of paved the way for coming up here,” Seykora said. “I love coaching both men and women, so the opportunity to coach (at Wisconsin) was really exciting.”

With a majority of the squad made up of freshmen, Seykora has enjoyed a pleasurable experience watching the significant strides both on and off the boards, as the divers have progressed into a closely-knit group.

“The team definitely came together in our trip to Hawaii,” Seykora said. “The guys came together in the dual-meet against Michigan, and on the girls side, Amanda (Witte) and Cassie (Kubly) — the juniors — have really stepped up and taken a leadership role.”

Seykora’s personal relationship with his divers has come naturally thanks to the comfortable environment in which they all interact.

“The thing I’ve enjoyed the most has been getting to know my athletes,” Seykora said. “Diving is just constant interaction, and we’re always talking. We have some very extreme personalities and some mild personalities, and they all help balance each other out.”

In addition to Seykora’s devotion, the resurgence of the program is demonstrated by the accomplishments of captain Amanda Witte.

“Amanda has helped handle a lot of things within the squad that I don’t have to,” Seykora said. “She’s taken ownership and has tried to cast her competitive attitude and attention to details onto the others.”

Throughout the season, the team has been making long strides towards improvement, and has achieved several goals along the way. As the program becomes more and more established, Seykora hopes to reach a national competitive scoring level and to become a regular contender in the Big Ten Championships.

“We’ve been honored to have Amanda [Witte] and Josh [Bonner] as Big Ten Diver[s] of the week,” Seykora said. “It shows that we’re making progress. I want people to look at our program as a model — not just in terms of diving, but a program of overall excellence.”

Looking forward to the future, Seykora hopes his divers can rise up to the level of competition and hopefully qualify for Nationals.

“For (the NCAA Diving Zones), we just need to step up to the plate and dive as well as we can,” Seykora said. “We’ve seen the level of competition, and now we just need experience in diving consistently.”