Nathan Parker - Women's Swimming & Diving Coach - University of Richmond Athletics

Nathan Parker

Title:
Head Dive Coach
Email:
nparker@richmond.edu

Nathan Parker joins the Spiders after serving as the Edison High School Head Dive coach in Alexandria as well as serving as the Alexandria Dive Club assistant coach. The 2020-21 season will be his third with the Spiders.

2021 saw the Spiders win their 16th Atlantic 10 Championship in Ohio. In one of the most unprecedented seasons in history, the Spiders brought home the Atlantic 10 Championship trophy in convincing fashion, scoring 687.5 points, the most points for a winning team since Richmond won during the 2012-13 season (737.00). All three divers contributed to Richmond's championship run. Competing separately from the swimming competition at George Mason, the divers scored points in both the 3-meter and 1-meter competitions. Senior Alex Beran and junior Emma Yeakley qualified for the championship finals in the 3-meter event, finishing fifth (259.45) and seventh (250.05), respectively. Freshman Zazi Hall made the most of her opportunity in the Consolation final, finishing the the top score of 266.00. Beran continued her superb diving in the 1-meter event, scoring a career-best 256.80 to earn fifth place in the event and etch her name into the Spider record book with the ninth-best score in school history.

Parker and the divers competed well in the 2019-20 season. Senior Sydney Weiskopf qualified for NCAA Zones in Morgantown, West Viriginia after turning in a season-best score at the Atlantic 10 Championships in the 1-meter event. Parker helped the Spiders earn the CSCAA Scholar All-American Honors for their performances in the classroom this past season.

In Parker's first season with the Spiders, he helped send three divers to the NCAA Zones Diving competition in Annapolis. Alex Beran, Maddy Chao and Sydney Weiskopf qualified for the NCAA competition after turning in several high scores during the year. Weiskopf led the team with a season-high 288.30 tally in the 3-meter event and Chao turned in the top score in the 1-meter competition at 279.45. The Swim and Dive team was one of just six Spider programs to earn the NCAA Public Recognition awards for APR Success after finishing the year in the top 10 percent of their sports in the most recent Academic Progress Rates (APR).

Parker is a graduate of the University of Virginia where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Architecture in 2011, and received a Masters of Architecture from Clemson University in 2015. As an athlete at Virginia, Parker twice qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships as well as earned the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll and the scholar athlete honors all four years. He earned the Student Athlete Advisory Committee’s Highest Varsity Athlete graduating GPA.

During his prep career, Parker graduated from Mount Vernon High as his class’s valedictorian. Along with his incredible classroom achievements, he was a three-time qualifier for the Virginia State Diving Championships.

Parker is also a published author, his book The Rift was published in January 2017.