DGN diving coach Tony Ciezadlo won “Sectional Diving Coach of the Year”, beating out six other coaches for the second year in a row.

On the day of sectionals, Nov. 14, the coaches from each school met, this year at DGN and last year at York high school, and voted to decide who would win this award. There is a “Sectional Coach of the Year” award for both the diving coaches and the swim coaches.

The diving coaches in the DGN sectional awarded Ciezadlo with this honor. This is a new award, having only been around for two years, of which Ciezadlo has won both times.

“It’s a nice honor to be recognized by my peers [the other coaches],” Ciezadlo said.

Ciezadlo has been working with divers Elizabeth and Emily Aument the past three years and each of these three years the girls have placed at the Sectional and IHSA state competitions. Ciezadlo attributes this recognition to his work with them.

“It’s either you started with nothing and created something, or you are gifted with great divers and you don’t mess them up,” Ciezadlo said. “They model what great diving should look like.”

Ciezadlo only trains the Auments for three months out of every year, so he mainly focuses on their technique and difficulty level of dives.

Next year, Ciezadlo plans to keep with the same training and coaching strategies put into place this year.