Coaching Staff
Wes Mattice
Head Diving Coach
Wes Mattice was hired as the head diving coach at Florida State in May of 2024.
Mattice arrives in Tallahassee following a head coaching stint at NC State, where he led divers to the NCAA Championships in each of his three seasons at the helm (2021-2024), while helping the Wolfpack take home the ACC Championship in all three seasons.
Arriving in Raleigh, North Carolina in May of 2021, Mattice produced 41 ACC-scoring performances including six championship finalists, a bronze medalist and one gold medalist. NC State also had divers represented at the NCAA Championships.
In 2024, Mattice coached rookie Bayleigh Cranford to the ACC platform title, where she edged out Else Prassterink of Louisville (313.20) with a score of 313.80. Cranford went on to compete in the event at the NCAA Championships. Mattice also guided Renato Calderaro to bronze at the 2023 ACC meet as a freshman before qualifying for nationals.
In his first season, Bayne Bennett qualified for the NCAA Championships in 2022, marking the first time since the 2017-18 season the Wolfpack had a student-athlete on the boards at nationals.
Prior to NC State, Mattice served as the head diving coach at George Washington after a stint training youth divers. He served as a coach for the USA Diving Junior National Team.
Mattice was the 2020 Atlantic-10 Men’s Diving Coach of the year after guiding Peter Nachtwey to the Most Outstanding Diver awards in both 2018-19 and 2019-20. The men claimed the team title in 2019 and the women earned a program first A-10 Championship victory in 2020.
In his three years at GW, Mattice helped divers claim two golds, two silvers and three bronze medals, while guiding 18 top eight finishes.
Mattice coached for USA Diving in Rockville, Maryland, where he was part of the team that competed at the 2015 Pan American Junior Championships in Cuba, 2018 Junior Worlds in Kiev, Ukraine, 2019 Junior Pan Am Games in Canada and the 2019 USA Grand Prix in Mission Viejo.
Mattice graduated from Southern Connecticut State with a degree in Studio Art. He served as the facility director and coach of the Montgomery Dive Club and was coach of the Whirlwind Dive Club in Connecticut.
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Athena Miller
Associate Head Coach - Swimming and Diving
Athena Miller joined the Florida State swimming and diving staff in May of 2022.
Miller brings a wealth of experience to Tallahassee after serving one season as the associate head coach at the University of Pittsburgh in 2021-22. While with the Panthers, Miller coached all training groups where she saw six school records set over the season.
Miller joined the staff at Pitt following a stint after serving as the assistant coach at the United States Air Force Academy for four seasons. During her tenure, Miller coached three Mountain West Senior Swimmers of the Year, including Jinan Andrews, who was the 2018 Mountain West Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She also coached 17 swimmers who earned All-Conference honors and the team broke six school records and had 70 swims ranked among the all-time top 10.
Additionally, six school records were broken and 17 captured Mountain West All-Conference honors, while 70 swims ranked were among the all-time top 10.
The program also earned CSCAA Scholar All-America recognition, 23 earned Mountain West Scholar-Athlete honors, and 54 were named Academic All-Mountain West.
The Falcons won 13 duals in 2019-20, which were the most since 2016.
Prior to Air Force, Miller spent the 2016-17 season at Dartmouth College after she was an assistant at Duke for the 2015-16 season.
While with the nationally-ranked Blue Devils, Miller primarily worked with the sprint group, helping Maddie Rusch set a new school record in the 50 free at 22.15. In fact, 33 school records were broken over 18 events that season, while seven women and seven men qualified for the NCAA Championships.
Miller spent three years as the head coach at Defiance College for both the men’s and women’s programs, after starting her collegiate coaching career at Malone as an assistant coach in 2009-10, where she helped established the first men’s and women’s swimming and diving team in program history.
At each stop, Miller coordinated administrative and recruiting duties, and spearheaded fundraising efforts for various causes all while improving alumni relations.
Miller graduated from the University of Mount Union with her Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with an emphasis in management/economics in 2008. She went on to earn her Master’s in Psychology with an emphasis in sport in 2012 from Capella University and her MBA in 2015 from Defiance.
Miller also graduated from the NCAA Women’s Coaches Academy in June 2017.
Steve Wood
Associate Head Coach - Swimming and Diving
Steve Wood was promoted to associate head coach ahead of the 2023-24 season. Wood returned to the Florida State swimming and diving staff as an assistant coach after serving three seasons at UNLV.
“I could not be happier to work with Steve again,” FSU head coach Neal Studd said. “As a volunteer for us, he was just amazing and since then, he has really proved himself at UNLV. I love how well he connects with the student-athletes and his passion for what we do.”
Wood was the volunteer assistant coach for FSU from 2016-18, before heading to Las Vegas to be an assistant coach for the Rebels, where he experienced a number of roles. He recently was the primary coach for the middle distance group, which saw major improvements and played a role in taking home both the men’s and women’s conference titles in 2020-21.
After finishing the 2020 meet in fourth place, the women took home the Mountain West trophy, edging out the University of Nevada- Reno on the final relay for the win with a total of 1,349 points. It was the first Mountain West title in 16 years and second in program history.
The men claimed its first Western Athletic Conference team title in six seasons with an all-time conference record of 907 points. It was the third WAC title in school history.
Before his time in Tallahassee, Wood served on the DePauw University staff for one season after spending three years as the head coach at Francis Howell for both the boys’ and girls’ squads. He was also an assistant for the Rex-Plex Sharks club team.
Wood is a graduate of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in sports administration and a minor in coaching. He swam all four years for the Salukis where he was a captain, earning second team All-MAC as a junior and senior while specializing in the IM and breast events.
A native of O’Fallon, Missouri, Wood is married to the former Meredith Martelle, who was a part of the ACC Championship-winning team back in 2006 at Florida State. The couple have a daughter, Quincy.
“Meredith and I are both very excited to be heading back to Florida State,” Wood said. “We had an incredible three years at UNLV, but the timing and opportunity seemed right to come back to FSU. We are excited to help continue building on the success that Neal and the rest of the staff have had in recent years. Florida State swimming and diving is truly a family and we are excited to be bringing ours to Tallahassee. Go Noles!”
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Steve Barnes
Associate Head Coach - Swimming and Diving
Steve Barnes was promoted to the associate head coach for swimming and diving ahead of the 2023-24 season. Prior to his arrival in Tallahassee, Barnes worked in athletics administration at Ithaca College, his alma mater, after nine seasons as a coach at Penn State. He spent three years as the associate head coach following six years as an assistant coach.
Both the men’s and women’s programs at Penn State placed in the top 30 at the NCAA Championships in five out of seven appearances. 2016 Irish Olympian Shane Ryan earned two medals at NCAAs during Barnes’ tenure. Along with Ryan, two more Nittany Lions competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics; both Melissa Rodriguez and Gabe Castano competed for Mexico.
In 2020-21, Penn State scored points at the NCAA Championships for the ninth-straight year, eight of which were under Barnes’ direction. The 2018-19 season featured the first individual NCAA National Champion for the PSU women’s squad.
Prior to his time at Penn State, Barnes spent four seasons as the head coach of the Wabash College swimming and diving program. Wabash earned three top-four finishes in four years at the North Coast Athletic Conference Men’s Championships under the direction of Barnes. Two of his swimmers claimed All-American honors at the 2011 NCAA Division III Championships.
Barnes previously spent three seasons as Kalamazoo College as an assistant coach. During this time, the program set an NCAA record, 39 school records, 36 individual and relay conference titles, 17 conference records, 59 NCAA B-cuts and 16 NCAA A-cuts, and nine individual top-eight finishes at NCAA Nationals. Barnes was named interim head coach for January through March 2008 as head coach Kathy Milliken was on maternity leave.
While a student at Ithaca College, Barnes was a four-time All-American and team MVP. He was named a 2005 ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-American honoree and was selected as Athlete of the Year at Ithaca College all four years, 2002-05. Barnes also earned CSCAA Scholar All-American honors for four consecutive years. He currently holds records in the 500, 1000, and 1650 freestyle for Ithaca and was a member of the record-setting 800-yard freestyle relay team. Barnes obtained a Master of Science in exercise science from Ithaca in 2006 while serving as an assistant coach for the program.
Ben Zajic
Assistant Swimming and Diving Coach
Ben Zajic comes to Tallahassee from FAU where he has coached since 2020. In his second year with the Owls, the men’s team earned silver at the CCSA Swimming & Diving Championships where two of his swimmers were named Most Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet and Most Outstanding Freshman of the Meet. The men’s program broke nine program records and 12 freshman records that season.
In the shortened 2020-21 season, FAU’s men’s team finished second at the CCSA Swimming & Diving Championships with a program-record 22 medals at a conference championship under the direction of Zajic.
Previously, Zajic was an assistant coach at the University of Nevada – Reno for the 2019-20 season in which the Wolfpack finished second at the Mountain West Conference Championships.
Before rejoining collegiate athletics, Zajic was the lead national and administrative coach for the Kansas City Blazers. Zajic previously coached at the National’s Capital Swim Club under American Swim Coach Association Hall of Fame member and six-time USA National Team Coach, Pete Morgan, in which he instructed National Junior Team members and Summer National Qualifiers. During his time with NCAP, the team was ranked first in the USA Swimming Club Excellence program, earning Gold Medal Status.
Zajic also worked as a volunteer coach at George Mason University during his time with NCAP. The men’s team was the runner-up at the 2018 Atlantic-10 Championships, featuring three individual champions and seven NCAA provisional standards.
Zajic was a four-year member of the Lafayette College swimming & diving team as he obtained a Bachelor of Science in biology and psychology. In 2017, he earned a Master of Science in kinesiology from East Carolina University. Zajic is a Certified Clinical Exercise Physiologist by the American College of Sports Medicine.
Kyle Cormier
Assistant Swimming and Diving Coach
Kyle Cormier joins the Florida State Swimming and Diving staff as an assistant coach ahead of the 2023-24 season.
Cormier brings over a decade of coaching experience to Tallahassee after competing professionally. In addition to coaching, Cormier will be responsible for operations.
Cormier joins the Florida State staff after a one-year stint at Florida International University, where he was the volunteer assistant. In just its first season in the American Athletic Conference, FIU finished second behind six-time defending champs, Houston by just 11 points at the championship meet.
Prior to the 2022-23 season with the Panthers, Cormier was the head coach and CEO of the City of Mobile Swim Association from 2017-2022. Under his instruction, CMSA achieved USA Swimming Bronze Medal Club of Excellence status each year, while he led 17 athletes to earn collegiate swimming scholarships. He also coached 14 Alabama High School stats champions, four of which set state records.
Cormier served as a graduate assistant at Missouri State University (2014-16), where he was tasked with spearheading the sprint group. His sprinters helped win five conference championships, while qualifying two swimmers to NCAAs. Additionally, Cormier oversaw the recruiting operations, and he also worked in marketing, promotions, tickets sales and compliance.
Cormier began his coaching career as the head senior coach of the Little Rock Dolphin Swim Team in March of 2013 where his group helped earn Silver Medal status from USA Swimming in 2013 and 2014. He swam professionally for the Mecklenburg Aquatic Club from 2010-12.
A two-time U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier (2008, 2012), Cormier enjoyed a successful career at South Carolina where he was a two-time All-American and team captain for three seasons. He was All-SEC in 2009 and selected as the USC’s MVP in 2007 and 2009.
Cormier set the school records in the 100 free (43.21), 200 free (1:34.09) and 200 IM (1:45.49). His 200 free is still the second-fastest in program history, while his 100 free mark stood for 12 years and is still the third-fastest all-time.
Following the 2008-09 season, Cormier was nominated as the Male Athlete of the Year for all student-athletes at USC.
Cormier graduated from South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in hospitality administration/management in 2009. He went on to earn a Master of Science in sport and fitness Administration/Management in 2016 from Missouri State. He is married to Alexis Cormier and the couple have a daughter, Sunday.