Coach Bios
Mark Butcher
Program Director and Head Coach
Coach Mark began his coaching career in 1998 when he formed a small diving club called Crown Point Diving Club, in a small town 35 miles southeast of Chicago, Illinois. In 2001 Coach Mark was invited to move to Indianapolis to help grow the Indianapolis Starz Diving Club as the first Satellite Coach. During his tenure in Indianapolis, Coach Mark coached and mentored numerous US Diving Junior National qualifiers and finalists, and was named the Starz Diving Club Coach of the Year in 2005. While in Indianapolis, Mark was fortunate to work with some of the greatest minds in diving, including current USA Diving National Training Center Head Coach, John Wingfield. In November of 2005, Mark moved to Oklahoma City and formed Dive Oklahoma. In his short tenure in Oklahoma, Dive Oklahoma produced many Junior National qualifiers and finalists, and 1 US Diving Senior National finalist, and finished 5th as a team at the US Diving West National Championships. Since taking over as the Program Director for the Santa Clara Diving Club, Coach Mark has led SCD to excellent finishes at Regional, Zone, Senior Preliminaries, Age Group National, Junior National, and Senior National competitions, including two Age Group National Champions. Mark was also recently named the Diving Coach for the San Jose State University Spartans.
Assistant Coach Zach Whitaker
Coach Zach began his diving career while in high school with the Indianapolis Starz Diving Club in Indiana. He went on to dive in college at Ball State University in Muncie, IN. During his four years diving at Ball State University, he qualified for the NCAA Zone Championships on two occasions in both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard events. Coach Zach also earned several awards including High Point Diver of the year twice and Academic All-MAC team twice. He was also voted as team captain his senior. Coach Zach began coaching at Fishers High School in Indiana upon graduating with his bachelor’s degree. While at Fishers, he helped to start a new diving club called Fishers Diving. Coach Zach developed the lessons program for the club in addition to coaching the high school team. During his two-year stint at Fishers, he coached seven IHSAA State qualifiers including two IHSAA State finalists. As an assistant coach for Santa Clara Diving, Coach Zach hopes to help bring the program to the forefront of the nation level while teaching safe and fun diving to everyone.