After 47 Years on Deck, Phil Tonne Leaves a Lasting Legacy

DAVIS, Calif. – Phil Tonne has been round swimming swimming pools and particularly diving boards for many of his life.
 
The longtime UC Davis diving coach will retire this spring after 22 years of main Aggie fortunes, the ultimate a part of his 47-year profession as a head diving coach on the collegiate stage. His contributions to the game are legendary.
 
“It was our good fortune to have welcomed Phil to our Aggie aquatic family back in 2004.  He immediately made a huge impact on the men’s and women’s swimming program with his coaching expertise. He was a great leader besides being a great coach and provided his divers (over 62 men and women) with life skills that will live on forever,” mentioned Barbara Jahn, former UC Davis girls’s swimming and diving coach.
 
Put merely, each Aggie diving report on each the lads’s and ladies’s facet has been set since Tonne took over this system in the beginning of the 2004-05 season. That accomplishment, in and of itself, is more likely to land him within the Cal Aggie Athletic Hall of Fame someday. A memorable Big West championship meet in 2010 produced Jennifer Meyer’s 1-meter title and Jason Andrade’s 3-meter crown, each program firsts. In earlier seasons beneath Tonne, Kristyn Chaldekas and Jamie Flynn starred for UC Davis.
 
Speaking of his youth, Tonne defined, “I was a small but energetic kid. We hung out at a local private club pool. My brother and I took lessons when I was nine years old. I picked it up pretty quick.”
 
Pick it up he did.
 
Tonne was a high diver in highschool, then reached new heights at Chabot College in Hayward as one of many high two group faculty divers in California, incomes JC All-American honors two years in a row. From there it was on to San Diego State, the place he graduated with honors whereas twice being named group Most Valuable Player. It was there the place Tonne began his Masters diploma and commenced his collegiate teaching profession.
 
After 5 years at San Diego State, he took over the Cal diving program in Berkeley and guided the Golden Bears for the subsequent 20 years. Success adopted Tonne to Berkeley, however after 20 seasons at Cal, he jumped on the alternative to return to UC Davis.
 
The relaxation is historical past.
 
“Phil’s retirement signals the end of an era at UC Davis,” displays present UC Davis swimming and diving head coach Matt Macedo. “Phil has impacted so many various lives in his many years of teaching diving. The women and men who’ve labored with Phil have all the time appreciated his ardour for the game and for his optimistic influence on their lives.
 
“My relationship with coach Phil, which began in 1998 as a student-athlete at Cal, has truly come full circle and to be able to work with him these past five seasons at UC Davis nearly thirty years into our relationship has been special. I am eternally grateful for all he has done for our program and am excited to hear about the time Phil will spend with his son and grandchildren in retirement.”
 
Along the best way, Tonne has additionally served as head coach of the Diablo Divers in Walnut Creek, overseeing the careers of 23 North Coast Section champions, one nationwide age-group champion, 11 Junior Olympic individuals and 6 senior nationwide performers.
 
He additionally coached a younger man on his youth membership group who went on to win a bronze medal on the 2012 London Olympics. As to what makes an ideal diver, Tonne says it is just like many different sports activities.
 
“There are a lot of the normal variables,” he explains.
 
“Commitment, flexibility, coordination. But God-given talent is the best.”
 
Tonne says that the perfect issues about teaching “are the people you meet or coach or mentor and their parents. I am still in contact with divers I coached at the beginning of my Cal stint. I had some great finishes throughout my career, but it’s always been about the journey, more than the results.”
 
Spoken like a real coach who believes very a lot within the student-athlete mannequin at UC Davis.
 
ABOUT UC DAVIS ATHLETICS
UC Davis, ranked No. 2 amongst public universities by the Wall Street Journal within the worth of a faculty diploma, is dwelling to 40,000 undergraduate college students and 12,000 workers. Ranked high within the United States in agriculture and forestry in addition to No. 1 in veterinary drugs, UC Davis is positioned in a real California faculty city nestled between world-class locations such because the San Francisco Bay Area, Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe. Over 650 Aggie student-athletes compete in 25 Division I varsity sports activities, with 16 sports activities transitioning to the Mountain West Conference starting in 2026–27.
 

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