Scott Donie, a former Olympic diver and longtime New York University coach, has been hired to lead the Columbia Lions diving program. Donie, who won a silver medal for the US at the 1992 games in Barcelona and competed again in 1996 in Atlanta, comes to Columbia after sixteen years coaching at NYU. He was named coach of the year of the University Athletic Association conference seventeen times while leading both the NYU men’s and women’s squads.
A native of Somerset, New Jersey, Donie says that his arrival at Morningside Heights represents a homecoming of sorts, since he practiced here regularly as an adolescent.
“From the age of eleven, I traveled to Columbia to train under the legendary Jim Stillson as a member of the nationally acclaimed Morningside Muggers, one of the top club programs in the country,” he says. “There is a long tradition of world-class swimmers and divers who have trained on the campus of Columbia. I’m deeply humbled to have been selected to lead the diving program here.”
Donie succeeds former Lions head diving coach Gordon Spencer, who retired last spring after thirty-two years at Columbia. Under Spencer, the Lions won nine Ivy League diving titles, five Eastern Intercollegiate championship titles, and three Ivy League diver-of-the-year honors.
