Karla Helder Diving Coach Sixth Season Email: kmhelder@buffalo.edu Phone: 716-645-2659 Office: 91 Alumni Arena

Karla Helder is in her sixth season as the men’s and women’s diving coach at the University at Buffalo and has helped the Bulls produce notable accomplishments in the diving program.

While at UB, Helder has been instrumental in developing a strong diving program that featured new school records for both the men’s and women’s teams. In her previous three seasons, she has coached an ECAC men’s champion and two All-Mid-American Conference divers and six regional qualifiers and for the past two years, has helped lead UB divers to the NCAA meet for the first time in school history.

A two-time NCAA Division II National Diving Coach of the Year, Helder came to Buffalo after nine seasons at the University of California at Davis, where Helder coached four national champions to four separate titles and 36 All-Americans. She was named PCSC Men’s Diving Coach of the Year in 2000 and 2003 and she also earned the conference’s Women’s Diving Coach of the Year award in 2001.

Helder has earned 30 national diving titles herself.  Most recently,  at the 2008  U.S. Master’s Nationals, Helder won her age group events, and setting two new American records, breaking her own set in 2004. In May of 2008, Karla traveled to Perth, Australia to compete at the World Master’s Diving Championships. She won broke both the 1-meter and 3-meter world records in her age group (50-54) on her way to winning 2 gold medals. In 2006, she set the world record for the 45-49 age group on 1-meter.

In addition to UC-Davis, Helder has coached at Chico State and Clemson University. She was also the coach for the Venezuela Junior National Team of Anzoategui in 1991. At the 2003 Junior Olympic Summer Nationals, she coached a 10-year-old to double golds on both one and three-meters, as well as leading her diver to two new 13-and-under records in those events.

Helder, a former two-time NCAA National Champion on the three-meter, is a 1982 graduate of Chico State University. In 1999, she was inducted into that institution’s athletic Hall of Fame.