There is no doubt that taking up a sport requires a considerable amount of work and dedication, with athletes training long hours for competitions. However, it is not only the time athletes devote that earns them medals, but also the phenomenal leadership of the coaches inspiring people to win. One of these individuals is Jessica Diez, whom Yorba Linda High School welcomes as the new coach for the swim and water polo team. This year, she has become a part of the Mustang community and aspires to lead both teams to success. With her skilled coaching experience and philosophy, Coach Diez is sure to make a splash as she heads into the new year.
Playing water polo and swimming has always been a part of Coach Diez’s life. When she attended Esperanza High School, she was a part of the 2012 CIF-winning swim team. After she graduated, Coach Diez attended Long Beach City College, where she played water polo for two years before graduating from Long Beach State University with a B.A. in history. She began coaching men’s and women’s teams at Esperanza while pursuing her athletic and academic goals.
After graduating, she worked in college athletics as an academic mentor and student-athlete development coordinator at several prestigious institutions, including UCLA, Baylor, and Texas A&M-Commerce. Upon returning home in 2021, she resumed coaching at Esperanza with the mindset that “if you build on the fundamentals, work as hard as you can every day, and play for your teammates, success is sure to follow.”
Coach Diez is excited to work at YLHS and believes it can be the future of PYLUSD aquatics. With her strong foundation and previous experience in coaching, she will build her legacy upon the values she shares with the school, including the Mustang Way: respect, responsibility, and integrity. She plans to do so by upholding her coaching philosophy: “Coaching goes beyond winning championships. While that is always the goal, what is more important to me is what types of people these student-athletes become. I care deeply about helping students progress holistically rather than strictly as athletes. So, the “little things” matter to me – being respectful to their coaches, teachers, teammates, and anyone around them, learning to work together, showing up on time, persevering, and exemplifying what it truly means for the STAMPEDE mindset. If you put the work in, do things the right way, and set the standard of greatness, championships [will] come.”
Students should remember to apply this philosophy in their everyday lives. There will always be aspirations to pursue, but achieving them requires continual self-improvement. As the year progresses, it may become challenging to balance your responsibilities to yourself and others, but by keeping Coach Diez’s outlook in mind, you can strive to be the best version of yourself.
Delivering an empowering message to her water polo and swim teams, Coach Diez (S) expresses, “As [this team] gets better and stronger, our community will see the standard these athletes hold themselves to. The goal is for our athletes to place as high as they can at the conference meet and get their best time of the year. The greatest thing I get to see as a coach is watching athletes grow into strong men and women who are achieving their own goals, and I am very excited to be a part of such a strong educational system…as a first-time head coach at a place where my beliefs and values align.”
