''More Than Just a Coach''

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Randy Ableman knows he must have looked beyond out of place.

He stood on the pool deck at the University of Miami, sweltering in a navy, three-piece suit, while all around him, students sunned themselves or swam laps in the bright sunshine.

It didn’t take long for one of those students to walk over, introduce himself and upon learning that Ableman was at the University to interview for the job of head diving coach, give Ableman a list of reasons why he should join the Miami family.

That student, it turns out, was national champion Hurricanes quarterback Craig Erickson.

And his speech worked. Not only did Ableman cancel an interview he’d scheduled the next day at the University of Florida, but the coach wound up staying in Coral Gables for more than three decades, three decades in which he helped make Miami a diving powerhouse.

“Well, that’s one thing I hate to do is waste time, my time or anybody else’s,” Ableman recalled with a chuckle. “And you know, I was so sold on this place that it was, to me, going to be a waste of everyone’s time for me to go up to Gainesville. Looking back, it makes a great story now, sticking it to the Gators a little bit. But at the time, it wasn’t so much about sticking it to them. It was just that I was so in love with the University of Miami that it was going to be an absolute waste of time to go up there for an interview.”

Over the course of the next 35 years, Ableman’s love for Miami has only grown stronger.

He grew to love the student-athletes he coached. The campus where he worked. And the community that he and his family have made their home.

And all of that is why, Ableman said, the decision to step away from coaching the Hurricanes and retire has been so difficult.

“When I was a diver, and there’d be coaches that were in their sixties, I’d look around and say there was absolutely no way that would ever be me on that pool deck,” Ableman said. “And it’s so funny that that became who I am. That’s what gives me a little bit more comfort in the fact that it’s okay to move ahead and move on. It’s not something anyone should do forever and ever and while I was very good at what I did, it’s time to be great at other things and put my passion into some other things.

“I’ll always be following the program and be a huge supporter of these kids. I look forward to watching them from the stands and the t.v. and to see where the next coach takes this program because it is absolutely set up for success.”

Ableman’s assessment of his success at Miami may be an understatement.

In his 35 years leading the Hurricanes’ diving program, he has coached 14 divers to 26 individual national championships, including most recently senior Mia Vallée, who won the NCAA 1-meter springboard in 2022.

He’s also coached 160 All-American performances and was named the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America Coach of the Year nine times, the ACC Men’s Diving Coach of the Year six times and the ACC Women’s Diving Coach of the Year four times.

And Ableman, himself a national champion during his Iowa career, has coached 17 Olympic divers, including two who most recently competed at the Paris Olympic Games: sophomore Mohamed Farouk, who represented Egypt, and junior Chiara Pellacani of Italy.

Ableman, who qualified to represent the U.S. in the boycotted 1980 Moscow Olympics, has also served on the Team USA coaching staff at five Olympics and assisted the South African coaching staff at the 2008 Games.

But as proud as he is of the success he’s helped his divers achieve, the veteran coach is quick to note his journey at Miami has been about more than wins and losses.

He’s watched countless of his student-athletes earn degrees and he’s prided himself on creating a family-like environment that has helped those student-athletes feel at home, especially when many are so far from their own families.

“It wasn’t always a purposeful thing. It’s just the way I roll. And when you spend so much time together, when you’re training at this level – two practices a day, five days a week, and it can go year ‘round – you don’t just write a workout on a chalkboard and they go off and do it,” Ableman said. “There’s a whole interaction where you’re always critiquing and criticizing, so you try to throw a little humor in there to keep things fresh. And there’s just so much interaction that happens in coaching a sport like diving that I think it just lends itself to really getting to know people. The fact that it’s come to where I feel like they’re my kids and I’m their second father out there, it’s just the nature of how well we’re all working together.

“Like I said, it wasn’t an intentional thing or an artificial thing. It’s just what happens when people are passionate about what they’re doing. … And as an old man, that means everything. I don’t count how many victories or national championships there are, because every kid was great. It’s more about the process and the mutual respect and working together and achieving things together. It’s not just counting how many rings you have on your nightstand.”

That family atmosphere has been a boon to many of Ableman’s divers, including two-time Olympian and ACC champion Alicia Blagg, who came to Miami from her native England and credited Ableman and Hurricanes assistant coach Dario di Fazio with helping her navigate her time in the U.S.

“Without Randy, my God, I don’t know where I’d have been,” Blagg said. “He really is the GOAT. I just owe so much to him. He was more than just a coach. He was like my dad over there. I was so far away from my family and Randy was always there, and Dario, too. They were both there if we ever needed a chat and were always there to support us. They made Miami such a special, special experience.”

Former Hurricanes diver David Dinsmore, the 2017 NCAA platform champion and a three-time ACC gold medalist in the event, echoed those sentiments.

“I have so much pride in being one of Randy Ableman’s athletes and one of the special things [about him], if you ask any of his alumni athletes is how he cares more about you as a person than he does as an athlete,” Dinsmore said. “Obviously, he wants you to be successful in the sport. But he cares more about setting you up to be successful in life and to enjoy the things in life. … I mean, the toughest part of leaving Miami was just not seeing him every day. I mean, having that relationship every day, he’s more than a father figure. He’s like your best friend.”

That legacy is one that won’t be forgotten any time soon, not by the divers who were part of Ableman’s program nor by the coach himself.

And now, as Ableman shifts his focus to what’s next – plenty of family time with his wife Karen and his two daughters and fishing are at the top of his list – he’s grateful for all that came after a fateful conversation with a quarterback on the pool deck at the University Center oh so many years ago.

“I’m very proud of everything we’ve accomplished and the amount of great kids and athletes that have come through this program, and how close we’ve remained and what a family atmosphere it’s been,” Ableman said. “And they all know it. It’s way more than just coach-diver, college-after-school practice. These kids come here with a dream, and I have a dream for them, and I just worked to make sure, for all these years that they got there.

“I hope everyone feels that I was more than a decent diving coach, that my love for my athletes and passion for the sport were way more than what anyone expected of just a diving coach.”