TNYA Spotlight: Croft Vaughn

The board is very pleased to announce that Croft Vaughn, our head diving coach, is our TNYA of the month. Croft has been the coach of the TNYA diving program since it started in the fall of 2010. He has worked hard to build TNYA’s team to be the largest IGLA diving program. He has also done a great job of encouraging our divers to swim and leading them at all our fundraisers and socials! In January 2011, TNYA hosted its first diving boot camp at Columbia University, with over 30 attendees. Since then, TNYA has dominated the diving competitions at IGLA in Hawaii and Reykjavik. They are poised to continue their success at IGLA 2013 in Seattle, where Croft will also serve as the diving Meet Director.

The diving program is extremely near and dear to Croft’s heart. He addresses all his divers as “Champions,” and strives to bring out the best in their diving. He loves sharing the thrill of diving with beginners, and diligently works to create a warm and inviting atmosphere at diving practices. He has had the honor of training under Olympic coach John Wingfield and Olympic silver medalist Scott Donie, and is extremely proud to have the former Olympian Stefanos Tzivopoulos and Rob Mendez as a fellow diving coaches with TNYA.

Croft trained in gymnastics as a child before taking up swimming in the 6th grade. A terribly slow swimmer, he realized that the swim coach signed him up for the long distance events to give the sprinters more time to recover between the individual events and the relays. He took up diving in the 7th grade, and was the first athlete at Greencastle High School to medal at state competitions his senior year. He represented NYU’s diving team in college, and taught diving at NYU for 3 years before launching the diving program with TNYA.

Croft volunteers with a non-profit that addresses the Global Toilet Crisis. With The POOP Project, he is creating a new musical called “An Inconvenient Poop.” Croft is also a fierce country western dancer, and invites you to join him on the dance floor at the Big Apple Ranch any Saturday night. Please join us in thanking Croft for everything he does for TNYA! And if you are interested in joining our diving team, don’t hesitate to get in contact with Croft at diving@tnya.org.

July 2013