Diving coach Dave Parrington isn’t a stranger to success.

He has coached divers at Tennessee for 25 seasons with no signs of slowing down. Parrington has produced 6 NCAA champions (4 men, 2 women) and has instructed 37 SEC champions. He also had won SEC Coach of the year 12 times.

Parrington is extremely thankful for his awards, taking pride in the fact that his peers selected him as the SEC Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year.

“The thing that makes it so special is that it’s something that’s voted on by my coaching peers” Parrington said. “To have their respect just means a whole lot me”

Parrington attributes his success to the caliber of divers he’s been able to coach over the years. He doesn’t base his evaluations of high school kids on talent alone. He doesn’t just want divers, but well-rounded individuals that exhibit good character.

This has proved to be an effective approach for Parrington, who spends countless hours working on recruiting weekly. So many hours, that he himself can’t even keep count of them. The hard hours he puts in recruiting has brought in several exceptional divers.

“He was a really big reason why I came here” said freshman diver Rachel Rubadue. “The team, the coaching staff and everything about Tennessee, but Dave had a really big impact on my decision.”

The divers are usually comfortable with Parrington, but they still have to establish team chemistry.

That’s why Parrington makes sure his divers are comfortable around each other.

“We’re very close, I remember coming in in August and being intimidated, but very quickly they were very welcoming,” Rubadue said. “Coach Dave makes sure we are all doing okay and he helps out a lot.”

Parrington tends to give his divers a lot of instruction with things like nutrition. These instructions may go unnoticed by many people, but the little things have been critical in his approach.

“The SEC is extremely strong and competitive so in order for them to be the best of the best you have to take care of every possible thing to help you.” Parrington said.

If it’s meeting with the nutrition staff, mental strength coach or going to the weight room, Parrington believes these things are the critical factors that go unnoticed.

But his divers noticed them.

“Dave has an unique style to him, and he will sort of teach different ways to do things but it really works” Rubadue said.