Former NCAA All-American and Big Ten Diver of the Year Darian Schmidt is in his tenth season (2026-27) as the Mustangs’ head diving coach.
Throughout Schmidt's nine seasons with the Mustangs, he has claimed eight conference diving coach of the year honors on the men's side. While in the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2024, Schmidt was recognized as the Atlantic Sun Men's Diving Coach of the Year. Prior to that, Schmidt earned six consecutive American Athletic Conference Men's Diving Coach of the Year honors (2018-23) and was awarded an AAC Women's Diving Coach of the Year in 2021. In total, Schmidt has coached his divers to 18 conference championship titles.
He has guided Luke Sitz (1-meter (2025, 2026), 3-meter (2026)), Parker Hardigree (1 meter, 2022), Peter Smithson (Platform & 3 meter, 2020), Bryce Klein (3 meter, 2018) and Johanna Holloway (Platform, 2020) to All-America honors, and also led Smithson (2023, 2022, 2021, 2020), Hardigree (2019), Klein (2018), Nicole Stambo (2022) and Holloway (2021) to AAC Diver of the Year awards. Most recently, Schmidt most recently coached Luke Sitz to earn both ACC Diver of the Year and CSCAA Diver of the Year in 2026.
All three program diving records have been shattered while Schmidt has been at SMU, with Sitz owning both the 1-meter record (429.75) and 3-meter record (495.30) and Peter Smithson holding the record on platform (419.50). The Indiana native has coached six Mustangs to conference diver of the year honors.
In the 2025-26 season, SMU's diving program has reached new heights. Under Schmidt, all four male divers earned at least one NCAA Zone Cut, with Grant Cates and Luke Sitz advancing to the NCAA Championships.
Sitz put on a clinic at the 2026 NCAA DI Men's Swimming & Diving Championships, coming back to Dallas with a national championship and a silver medal. On 1-meter, the diver put up a score of 428.10 to win SMU's first national title in the event. Sitz secured a silver medal on 3-meter after breaking the school record twice in a single day. At the finals, he posted a mark of 495.30, the highest 3-meter score in SMU history and just 2.45 points from a first-place finish.
Earlier in the season, Schmidt also coached Sitz to success at the conference level, with the sophomore nabbing SMU's first individual ACC Championship. On 1-meter, he threw down a then-school record of 429.75 to place first. After scoring a 420.60 on 3-meter, Sitz earned a bronze medal. Throughout the 2025-26 season, the All-American was awarded five ACC Diver of the Week honors, bringing his career total to 11.
The 2024-25 season was highlighted by Schmidt's development of standout freshman Luke Sitz. During the regular season, Sitz earned podium finishes in every event he competed in. He also won six ACC Diver of the Week accolades, the most by a single diver in a single season in the history of the award.
Sitz's accomplishments would continue into the postseason, as he earned two medals during the ACC Championships. He opened it up on 3-meter, earning silver to become the first member of the program to earn an ACC medal. The success would continue on 1-meter, with Sitz earning Bronze to earn the second medal of his career.
The Prosper native would later punch his ticket to the NCAA Championships on 1-meter and 3-meter and placed seventh on 1-meter to earn First Team All-America honors. He became the first Mustang diver to earn First Team All-America accolades since Phillips Griffin did so on 3-meter in 2006 and the first on 1-meter since Ali Al-Hasan in 1997.
The seventh-year coach helped the duo of Tyler Coffey and John Dymond secure conference championships in both the 1-meter (Coffey) and 3-meter (Dymond) in 2024. Dymond went on the qualify for NCAA Zone Diving in Houston.
Schmidt help lead Hardigree to All-America honors in 2022, marking the first time a Mustang has achieved the honor through competition, 2020 accolades were based on qualification due to COVID-19 pandemics cancelation of the Championships, since Klein in 2018.
In 2020, Smithson became the first Mustang to earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championships in multiple events since 2015, when Devin Burnett did so on 1 meter and platform. In 2023, Smithson also became the first Mustang diver to qualify for the NCAA Championships all four years since Bryce Dumais (2000-2003). On the women's side, Holloway became the first diver to qualify for the NCAA Championships since Audra Egenolf in 2010.
In 2021, Smithson automatically qualified in all three diving events and became the first men's diver to qualify for multiple NCAA Championships since Klein (2016 & 2018), and the first to earn back-to-back bids since Burnett (2012-13). It was also the first time a duo (Smithson, Hardigree) qualified for the Mustangs on the diving side since Philip Griffin and Brice Dumais did so in 2003.
Five Mustangs have won 20 conference championships including a sweep of men’s events in 2021 and 2022. In 2019, the Mustangs qualified multiple divers for the NCAA Zone Championships on the women's side for the first time since 2010. Overall, Schmidt has helped Mustang divers to 63 all-conference honors.
Schmidt came to the Hilltop after a season at AAC member East Carolina, where he coached four Pirates to the NCAA Zone B Championships, one school record, 11 AAC Finals appearances and 11 career-best performances. On the men's side, ECU won the AAC title.
During the 2014-15 season, Schmidt served as a student assistant coach at Indiana, and from 2009-16 he served on the staff at the TriSynerG Dive Camp with three-time Olympic coach Jeff Huber and 2012 U.S. Olympic head coach Drew Johansen.
As a student-athlete at Indiana, Schmidt was a four-time All-American and four-time Big Ten Champion. In 2013 and 2014, he was named the conference Diver of the Year, while earning Big Ten Diver of the Championships honors in 2012, 2013 and 2014. A member of the U.S. National Diving Team from 2013-16, Schmidt was selected for the Olympic Performance Squad from 2014-16, was a member of the 2015 World Championship team and was a five-time member of the Grand Prix team.
A native of Bloomington, Indiana, Schmidt earned his bachelor's degree in liberal studies from Indiana in 2015.
