Donald Leas Wins Top YMCA Award

BRUSSELS, Belgium, January 3. LAST month, Donald Leas of the United States, the International University Sports Federation (FISU) Technical Chair for Diving, received the Joseph G. Rogers Award, for dedication, accomplishment and excellence in YMCA Competitive Swimming and Diving.

Leas has been involved for more than 30 years with the management of the National YMCA Diving Championships. His involvement with swimming and diving at the YMCA dates all the way back to 1944 as a swimming and diving competitor. Leas' participation in aquatics over the years has been extensive and varied. From a competitor through high school and University, he held different coaching positions in several Universities. His coaching career blossomed at Clarion University in Pennsylvania were he produced 36 National Champions and 135 All-Americans in the sport of diving with two of his women divers going on to become members of three Olympic Teams.

In 1984, he was named NCAA Coach of the Year and in 1990 he was named NCAA Diving Coach of the Decade. He also managed the diving competition for the 1995 FINA World Cup and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Leas has been the FISU Technical Chair for Diving since 1981.

Special thanks to FISU for contributing this report.

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