Diving Coach Dwight Dumais Revealed as Driver of Arizona NCAA Infractions

New details regarding the NCAA violations alleged against the University of Arizona swimming & diving program were made public on Friday after ESPN won a lawsuit forcing the release of documents. The documents were first published by the Arizona Daily Star.

Head coach Augie Busch told SwimSwam last year that he was not accused of a Level I violation, which by deduction of the definition of a ‘major infraction’ meant he was accused of a Level II violation, which was confirmed by new reports. Busch was charged by the NCAA for failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance related to a separate charge levied against the program’s diving coach, Dwight Dumais.

Dumais was charged with running hundreds of impermissible tryouts between October 2018 and September 2019, and Busch ‘did not rebut the presumption of responsibility.’

Violation 7, Level II:

Assistant swimming and diving coach Dwight Dumais allegedly “facilitated contact between a representative of the institution’s athletics interest (booster) and of women’s diving prospective athletes and facilitated contact between local diving club families…which resulted in the provision of approximately $1,207 in preferential treatment benefits; and engaged in over 240 impermissible tryouts” from October 2018 through September 2019 (NCAA.)

These “impermissible tryouts” are the amount of times prospective athletes who were not legal residents living within an undisclosed distance of the sports club and “did not meet any of the exceptions to the legislation” trained with Dumais as part of his diving club.

Violation 8, Level II:

Head women’s swimming and diving coach Busch is “presumed responsible for the violations detailed in Allegation No. 7 and did not rebut the presumption of responsibility. Specifically, Busch did not demonstrate that he promoted an atmosphere for compliance” or  monitor the women’s swimming and diving program from November 2018 through September 2019.  (NCAA.)

The NCAA detailed that since Busch was aware that a prospective athlete was involved in the local diving club run by Dumais he was obligated to notify the compliance of “the prospect’s presence, seek guidance from compliance regarding Dumais’ training of [prospective athlete] and ensure that Dumais completed the institution’s documentation regarding his involvement in a local sports club.

The NCAA first charged Arizona with nine violations in October 2020, five of which were Level I allegations. The details of Busch’s allegations at the time were only vaguely explained as “lack of head coach control. In December, Arizona’s request to put their case through the Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) was granted.

Notably, the program was on probation until January 2021 due to violations committed by former diving head coach Omar Ojeda. As a result of the fallout, the program was stripped of a scholarship for the 2019-2020 seasonCK. This also caused the athletics program to drop the women’s diving scholarship. These recent violations follow a history of similar NCAA violations within the University of Arizona athletics department. Multiple violations for lack of control and compliance could result in escalated sanctions for the swimming & diving program.

Arizona hired Dumais in 2018 after rescinding their employment offer to John Appleman following his suspension by USA Diving due to SafeSport allegations (which has now been lifted.) Dumais had a successful collegiate diving career at Stanford where he was a 5-time All-American and two-time PAC-12 Conference Champion on 1-meter.

Dumais earned a spot on the USA Diving National Team for 6 years (2009, 2011-2015). During that time he won the 2012 U.S. National Championship in the 3-meter synchro event and qualified for Olympic Trials in 2012 and 2016. After retiring, Dumais coached at the Longhorn Aquatic Club, based out of the University of Texas, for 8 years. His older brothers Justin and Troy are both U.S. Olympic divers.

In addition to the swimming and diving team, men’s basketball coach Sean Miller faces the same NCAA charge as Busch for failure to “demonstrate that he promoted an atmosphere for compliance and monitored his staff within the men’s basketball program.”

This resulted in a total of five allegations, three level I’s, one level II, and one level III violation. Two of Miller’s three assistant coaches committed intentional violations involving fraudulent academic transcripts, receipt of cash bribes, facilitating a meeting with an aspiring agent, impermissible inducements and recruiting violations all within an 18-month period,” the NCAA wrote. Due to the severity and amount of the violations Miller is responsible for, his violation is marked as a level I.

Violation 9 places the responsibility on the institution as a whole for the violations from both programs.

Violation 9, Level I

“The institution failed to heighten its monitoring and/or take reasonable steps to prevent non-compliant conduct despite red flags in both men’s basketball and swimming and diving programs. Multiple member’s of the institution’s athletics administration and men’s basketball coaching staff knew that the men’s basketball prospective athlete in Allegation No. 1 had significant academic issues…Additionally, Dwight Dumais (Dumais)…had no previous NCAA coaching experience and noticed compliance on two separate occasions of his plan to associate with a local sports club that included prospective athletes…Further, the institution failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the same noncompliant conduct as its most recent infractions case…when it failed to proactively follow up with Dumais to obtain compliance paperwork regarding his affiliation with a local diving club.” (NCAA.)

Arizona women’s swimming and diving recently finished 6th at the 2021 PAC-12 Championships and their men’s basketball program are currently ranked 5th within the PAC-12 regular season standings.