Chunhua Zhao

Biography

Chunhua “Joy” Zhao enters her 20th year as SIU’s diving coach and second-longest tenured coach in Carbondale. Zhao has earned Diving Coach of the Year recognition six times and last earned the honor at the 2020 Missouri Valley Conference Championships. Under her leadership, SIU divers have been named conference Diver of the Year 13 times and have earned 19 conference titles. Most recently, Zhao coached divers Beibei Ji and Baobao Ji to a one-two finish at the MVC Championships in the one- and three-meter dives in 2020. Under her guidance, Baobao and Beibei combined for six diving titles in three years. Baobao was named Valley Diver of the Year in 2018 and 2020 while Beibei swept diving titles in 2019. Zhao is notable for coaching Kaixuan "Sherry" Zhang to seven MVC titles and a bronze finish in the three-meter dive at the 2014 NCAA Championships. Zhang earned MVC Diver of the Week honors 21 times and MVC Diver of the Year three times under Zhao. On the men’s side, Zhao recently coached Kai Hoffmann-Dussome to a victory in the one-meter and Mid-American Conference Diver of the Year honors at the 2020 MAC Championships. He became the second Saluki on the men's team to earn a conference title under Zhao. Hoffman-Dussome won the MAC's Freshman Diver of the Year Award in 2017. Kegan Skelton came away with the 2015 MAC conference title in the one-meter. He was also named MAC Diver of the Year. To conclude the 2014-15 season, Zhao accompanied Zhang to the NCAA Championships for the

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