In 1994, 31-year-old Matt Scoggin accepted the position of head dive coach for Texas swimming and diving. As an experienced swimmer, a former Longhorn and a former Olympian, he was the perfect man for the job. Now, 30 years and countless accolades later, Scoggin is joining the coaching staff of the U.S. Olympic team for the fifth time in his career.
Coach Scoggin is one of the most accomplished coaches currently with Texas Athletics. In back-to-back seasons in 2009 and 2010, Scoggin was awarded National Diving Coach of the Year honors by the U.S. Olympic Committee. The Texas alumnus has coached 20 Longhorn divers to individual NCAA titles. Scoggin has been voted the Big 12 Women’s Diving Coach of the Year 15 times, three short of the 18 Big 12 Coach of the Year honors he earned with the men’s team. Having yet another opportunity to coach the Olympic dive team, he continues to add to his already long list of accolades.
Scoggin’s first Olympic appearance was as a diver in 1992 in Barcelona. Scoggin performed adequately, finishing his time there with a 10th-place finish in the Men’s 10-meter platform event. Eight years later, Scoggin returned to the Olympics in Sydney as a member of the U.S. team’s coaching staff for the first time.
Despite his tenured Olympic history, Scoggin describes a moment from the 2012 London games as one of his favorites. At this time, Scoggin’s trip to London was his third time on the coaching staff and was the year the diving squad took home medals on all stages of the podium at gold, silver and bronze.
“I’ll never forget before that team went over to London … (when) General (Mark) Milley … got on our bus and said, ‘Team USA, you need to know the entire country is going to be pulling for you and you need to come home with gold, silver and bronze,’” Scoggin said. “And we came home with gold, silver and bronze. It was just so neat to see (the athletes) go in knowing they had a job to do, and they fought for each other.”
Scoggin is not the only Longhorn traveling to this year’s Olympics. 25-year-old Texas alumna Alison Gibson will be traveling to Paris as well. Gibson is making her second Olympic appearance after finishing eighth in the synchronized 3-meter dive in Tokyo in 2020. For Scoggin, sharing the world stage with Gibson is especially memorable, having known her since she was a young 9-year-old finding her way through swimming and diving.
“It’s really fun, especially with (Gibson), only because our history goes back so far,” Scoggin said. “I remember when I was a much younger coach and she was about nine years of age, I would come in … and coach the college team. I’d see this little girl swimming, … and I noticed she was looking to her left and to her right and making certain that she was in the lead. … I said, ‘Alison, you need to pick up the sport of diving.’”
Scoggin will soon be heading to Paris with the rest of the Olympic dive team in preparation for the first dive event on July 27.
“There’s just no better place to build a young athlete’s dreams, and that’s what it’s all about,” Scoggin said. “(Taking) these young freshmen, these sophomores and (letting) them know what they can achieve,” Scoggin said. “That they can make it to the top eight at NCAA’s, that they can become an NCAA champion and, yes, some of them can go on to the Olympics.”