Jon Real and Nicole Buffini have been added in recent weeks to the coaching staff of the University of California San Diego swimming and diving programs. Head coach Daniel Perdew made the announcements.
Real will serve as UC San Diego’s new diving coach, while Buffini joins as an assistant coach for swimming.
Real was with San Diego State Divers from late 2011 to November of 2014. There, he mentored athletes of ages eight to 18, both in dryland settings and at the diving well. His accomplishments with SDSD included utilizing his background in gymnastics to successfully transition gymnasts into diving.
Athletes who Real coached were among the top high school divers in the San Diego region, with some going on to earn Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) All-America distinction. He went on to start La Jolla Dive Club, which is fully sanctioned by the AAU and USA Diving. Real is a certified Level 1 coach within both organizations.
Real was a standout collegiate performer under head coach Dennis Taylor at UCLA, qualifying for the NCAA Championships his senior season, with four varsity letters as the Bruins’ four-time Most Valuable Diver from 1980-83. He later competed in 10-meter platform diving, and has won USA Diving Senior Zones in that discipline while participating in numerous Senior Nationals.
Real’s wife, Sharon Daly Real, is a past age-group national champion and dove for the now-retired and legendary Dr. Rick Schavone at Stanford. They reside in La Jolla, and have two children, with son Jonathan a senior at George Washington University, and daughter Jackie a sophomore diver at Cornell.
Real excelled in diving and gymnastics growing up in Santa Fe Springs, where he attended Santa Fe High School. He earned his UCLA degree in history in 1984.
The Tritons return three women’s divers who were true freshmen in 2015-16, in Brooke Abrantes (San Diego/Santana HS), Delainey Carlin and Patty Sullivan. Abrantes and Sullivan joined fourth-year senior dive captain Allyson Cohen in earning trips to Indianapolis, Ind., for the 2016 NCAA Division II Championships.
Real replaces Michelle Casillas, who completed her eighth year as the Triton diving coach in March, over two separate stints on the La Jolla campus. She had served in that capacity for the last six seasons.
Buffini (née Parmenter) is a San Diego native, product of the North Coast Aquatics club program, and current Coronado resident. While at San Marcos High School, she was the CIF San Diego Section Division II champion in the 100-yard backstroke and 100 butterfly from 2008-10. Buffini was then a member of the 2010-11 national champion California Golden Bears, before completing her college career in Dallas, Texas, at SMU, captaining the Mustangs as a senior and earning her degree in psychology and sociology in 2015. She has worked several Triton camps in the past.
Perdew enters his third year in charge at his alma mater. The men’s head coach has assumed interim head coach duties for the Triton women as well, while Corrie Falcon is on maternity leave following the birth last month of her second child. Marko Djordjevic remains the top assistant, with Emmett Walling also back.
Nick Korth, a two-time national champion and 18-time All-American as arguably the greatest Triton breaststroker ever, will not return as a volunteer, having moved onto a new job. He spent the 2015-16 season on deck while training for a second Olympic Trials appearance in late June.
The UC San Diego men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams stage their annual intrasquad exhibition, the Blue vs. Gold meet, this Saturday, Oct. 8. Action at the Canyonview Aquatic Center begins at 11 a.m.Parking and admission are free.
Courtesy of UC San Diego Athletics