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You can reach Diving Head Coach Jane Figueiredo at janefig@msn.com.
2003 NCAA Diving Coach of the Year
2007 C-USA Diving Coach of the Year
C-USA Swimming & Diving Coach of the Decade
2001 NIC Diving Coach of the Year Jane Figueiredo begins her 18th season as the head diving coach at the University of Houston with a reputation as one of the nation's best. Olympic Games performances as an athlete... Olympic Games experience as a head coach... NCAA Coach of the Year awards... Conference USA Coach of the Year honors... National Independent Conference Coach of the Year accolades... Award-winning athletes... All of these awards and more can be found on Figueiredo's amazing resume. A six-time Conference USA Diving-Coach-of-the-Year recipient, Figueiredo and her divers have won nearly every postseason award in Conference USA. In 2006-07, divers Anastasia Pozdniakova and Ginni van Katwijk combined to score all of the Cougars' 38 points at the NCAA Championships, giving the Cougars their seventh finish among the Top 25 team leaders at that meet. Pozdniakova finished as the National Runner-up on the 3-meter springboard and placed fifth in the 1-meter competition, while van Katwijk placed 10th on the platform. Her divers' performances marked the 23rd time that Figueiredo-coached divers competed at the NCAA Championships. The Cougars swept all three events at the C-USA Championship with Pozdniakova claiming both Diver of the Meet and Diver of the Year honors and Figueiredo being named C-USA Diving Coach of the Year for the sixth consecutive season. Every Cougar diver was named C-USA Diver of the Week at least once during the regular season with Pozdniakova's five weekly honors leading all performers. In 2005-06, divers Anna Kiess and Tania Cagnotto scored all 34 points for the Cougars at the 2006 NCAA Championships to help lead UH to a 23rd-place finish at that meet. Cagnotto swept all three events at the 2006 Conference USA Championship, joining former Cougar and NCAA national champion Yulia Pakhalina as the only league performers to accomplish that feat. Teammate and Freshman Diver of the Year Anastasia Pozdniakova was a close second in all three events at the C-USA meet, as the Cougars swept the top two places. Figueiredo's divers earned all 47 points for Houston at the 2005 NCAA Championships to lead the Cougars to a 20th-place finish at the nation's top collegiate meet. It tied as the best performance by UH at the nation's top collegiate meet since 1986-87. All three of her divers - Kiess, Azul Almazan and Rachel Gitelson - earned All-America honors at the 2005 NCAA meet with Kiess finishing as the national runner-up on the 10-meter platform. Before working with her Cougar divers in 2004-05, Figueiredo also was successful at the international level. In the summer of 2004, she guided Pakhalina and Vera Ilyina as a coach for Russia at the Olympic Games in Athens. Pakhalina and Ilyina would go on to earn two medals at those Olympic Games. The Russian duo combined to win a Silver Medal in synchronized diving, while Pakhalina captured the Bronze Medal with her performance on the 3-meter springboard. In 2003, Figueiredo was awarded her profession's highest NCAA honor, when she was recognized as the NCAA Diving Coach of the Year. It was the second time in a three-year span that she received that award. In 2002-03, Pakhalina wrapped up her outstanding Cougar career by sweeping the 1- and 3-meter springboard national championships, becoming the winningest student-athlete in program history. However, Pakhalina wasn't the only Cougar diver to be honored. Almazan won second place at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships and finished among the Top 20 on the 3-meter board. Almazan also was honored as the C-USA Freshman Diver of the Year In 2001-02, Figueiredo helped lead Pakhalina to the NCAA Championships, where she claimed top honors on the 3-meter springboard for the second straight season. During the UH offseason, she also coached Pakhalina and Vera Ilyina to a silver medal at the 2002 European Championships in Berlin with another solid performance on the 3-meter board with Pakhalina taking a gold medal. In addition, Figueiredo was honored as the first-ever Conference USA Diving Coach of the Year and tutored Lindsay Harvey, who captured C-USA Freshman Diver of the Year honors. In 2000-01, the NCAA made official what the University of Houston already has known for some time. Figueiredo was named the 2001 NCAA Diving Coach of the Year by her coaching peers at the national championship meet, the first of her national honors. After tutoring Pakhalina, who won the 2001 national championships on the 1- and 3-meter boards, Figueiredo's selection as the country's coach of the year was the next logical step. The dean of the Houston Swimming & Diving coaching staff has already been honored twice in her career as the NIC Diving Coach of the Year in 1998 and 2001. She also has served as an Olympic diving coach for two different countries. At the Sydney Games, Figueiredo was the coach of Russia's Pakhalina and Ilynia, who captured gold medals in the women's 3-meter synchronized diving. In 1996 in Atlanta, Figueiredo was selected as the Olympic coach of Great Britain. In addition, Pakhalina and Ilyina placed second and third, respectively, at the World Championships in Japan in July 2001, with Pakhalina taking second in synchronized diving at the 2001 Goodwill Games. Figueiredo has trained a number of elite college athletes and a host of conference champions. In addition to Pakhalina, UH's Yolanda Hernandez-Casas won two NIC titles on both the 1- and 3-meter springboard (1999 & 2000). Hernandez-Casas was named the NIC Diver of the Year, an honor that earlier had been won by Figueiredo's pupil and two-time Honorable Mention All-American Noel Lewandowski (who scored for the Cougars at the 1998 and '99 NCAA Championships). Under Figueiredo's direction, Lewandowski was honored as the 1998-99 UH Athlete of the Year for all sports. Both were NCAA qualifiers. In her first year as a collegiate coach, Figueiredo also coached First-Team All-American Olivia Clark, who finished fifth in 3-meter diving. Clark -- a three-time All-American -- completed her career with nine Top-16 finishes at the NCAAs and participated in the NCAA Championships all four years from 1991-95. Figueiredo guided Linda Pesek to All-America honors and Hanneke Faber to honorable mention All-America status in 1991. Pesek finished third in the three-meter event and seventh in the 10-meter diving at the NCAA Championships. It's no surprise that Figueiredo has continued the excellent UH diving tradition after concluding her own stellar career at the collegiate, national and international levels. As a Cougar from 1982-86, Figueiredo established herself as one of the top divers in school history, winning the 1984 Southwest Conference title on the 3-meter springboard. Figueiredo was a five-time All-America competitor for Houston and finished second on the 1-meter springboard at the 1985 NCAA Championships. She represented her native Zimbabwe in international competitions for five years and competed in the 1982 and 1986 World Championships. As a member of the Portuguese national team, Figueiredo competed in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles where she finished 22nd in the preliminaries. Upon graduating from Houston in 1987 with a degree in hotel and restaurant management, Figueiredo worked in the restaurant business for four years. She also fostered an interest in coaching by serving as an assistant for the Cougar Diving Club. As head coach of the Cougar age-group divers, she was awarded the National Age Group Coach of the Year award by USA Diving for the 1991-92 season. She was the USA National Team age-group coach in 1994 for a team that participated in Waldkraiburg, Germany. She also coached at the World Age Group Diving Championships in China in 1995, where Kathy Pesek, a member of the Cougar Diving Club, finished fifth. She is single and lives in Houston.
THE FIGUEIREDO FILE
EDUCATION
FAMILY
COACHING EXPERIENCE
INTERNATIONAL COACHING EXPERIENCE
COACHING ACCOMPLISHMENTS INTERNATIONAL DIVING EXPERIENCE COLLEGIATE DIVING EXPERIENCE
COLLEGIATE DIVING HONORS |
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