Our coaches are each highly qualified and experienced in the sport of diving as both athletes and coaches. Rubbing shoulders with accomplished teammates and coaches with experience at national and international championships and even the Olympics is a unique experience that brings out the best in each diver.
John joined the Mission Viejo Nadadores in January of 2022. Since his arrival, the Nadadores have had major success both Nationally and Internationally. The team won two Junior National Team Titles and two Women’s Team Titles and a US Open Team Title. Nadadores athletes have earned individual and synchro honors of 25 Junior National Titles, 2 Junior World Gold Medals, 1 Junior World Bronze Medal, 4 Junior Pan Am Gold Medals, 4 Junior Pan Am Silver Medals, 2 Junior Pan Am Bronze Medals and 3 Gold Medals in the TYR Junior Americas Cup. Coach John has also been the Team USA Head Coach at every Junior International event since he has arrived at the Nadadores.
John came to the Nadadores with 16 years of experience as a Head Diving Coach at various programs. Prior to the Nadadores, he was the National Team coach for The Woodlands Diving Academy. While there, he coached multiple Junior and Senior National Team athletes including 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist Laura Wilkinson, 2016 Olympian Kassidy Cook and Junior World Champion Maria Coburn. Prior to The Woodlands Diving Academy, John spent a year as the International Coach for the National Team divers at Purdue University. There he worked with 2012 Gold Medalist Davis Boudia, 2016 Silver Medalist Steele Johnson and 2021 Olympian Brandon Loschiavo. John spent the prior 5 years as the Head Diving Coach of the Ohio State Diving Club. While there, the program won multiple National Team Titles and coached a multitude of Junior and Senior National Champions and International Medalists. The first part of his career John spent 8 years as the Owner and Head Coach of Dominion Dive Club in Northern Virginia. John built that team into a top 3 program in the country with multiple Junior National Champions and International Medalists.
In total, John has coached athletes to 64 Junior and 6 Senior National Championships as well as medalists at a multitude of Junior and Senior International competitions. John has coached athletes at every major international competition other than the Olympic Games.
John is a graduate of George Mason University with a B.A. in Government and International Politics with a minor in Islamic Studies. He is married to his wife Kelli and they have a son Finn (3).
Coach Lo (Lauren Thiel-Lopez) has been with the Nadadores since the fall of 2022. Prior to her move to Mission Viejo, she was the owner and head coach of East Valley Dive Club in Arizona. During her time in Arizona, she coached dozens of divers to compete at USA and AAU National championships and go on to compete Division 1 at the NCAA level. She has served on different boards and committees for USA Diving over her career, including junior rules representative and an association treasurer and secretary in Arizona. She has completed multiple coaching courses and trainings at the USOPC, including the Coach Accelerator Program, as a representative of USA Diving and has also served as a Team Leader for the 2017 Canada Cup.
In her time with the Nadadores, Coach Lo has helped coach our junior elite team divers to back-to-back National Championships in 2023 and 2024. She is in charge of the strength training programs and oversees our team warmups to aid our team in injury prevention and recovery. In addition to coaching the junior team, she is also the team’s event director and runs the competitions hosted at the MAC.
Away from the pool, Lo enjoys competing in the sport of Weightlifting that she began training in 2021. She also enjoys spending evenings and weekends with her husband, Jorge, and their dog Gannicus (Ganni). She enjoys trying new hobbies and will fill her time away from the pool reading, creating digital art, and dabbling in professional makeup artistry for events/photoshoots.
A Southern California native, Liz Sanchez has coached classical ballet, swimming and gymnastics for twenty three years prior to joining the coaching staff with the Mission Viejo Nadadores in 2016. During her time with the Nadadores, Liz has had the opportunity to work alongside some of the best diving coaches in the nation including Michele Mitchell, John Appleman, Todd Mulzet, Cindy Adams and Oleg Andriyuk.
Since her time with the Nadadores, Liz has developed two National Champions and has coached an athlete to USA Diving’s Tier 3 Juniors squad. She has successfully coached upward of 45 divers to the USA Diving National Championships with athletes competing in the Event Finals more than 25 times. Some of the athletes she developed have gone on to dive at UCLA, Indiana University, San Diego State, Pepperdine, Cal Baptist, TCU, University of Davis, Kentucky, NYU and more.
Liz also served as Head Dive Coach at UCSD for two seasons with one of her female athletes competing in the 1m and 3m Springboard Event Finals at D2 NCAA’s. She has also coached at San Diego Mesa College for two seasons with one of her athletes winning the Men’s 1m Springboard State Championship title.
Liz currently resides in San Diego with her husband and daughter and enjoys spending her time with her family, pets and best friends.
Grayson Campbell joined the Mission Viejo Nadadores in 2023, an already decorated 5 time USA Diving National Champion. Grayson joins our ranks as both a coach and a professional diver. Since joining the Nadadores, Grayson has represented Team USA at the 2024 World Championships on the Men’s 3m event after a 2nd place finish at the 2023 USA Diving Senior Nationals.
Grayson grew up diving in Vienna, Virgina with Dominion Dive Club under Nadadores Elite/High Performance Director, John Appleman, where he won 13 Junior National titles, and 6 Junior Pan American medals. Grayson then attended The University of Texas at Austin where he was a part of 2 NCAA National Championship winning teams, earning 7 First-Team All American honors. In his time at Texas, Grayson was a member of the USA Diving National team competing at the World Aquatics Championships, FINA Diving World Cup, FINA Grand Prix’s, and World University Games earning 2 Bronze Medals for Team USA. A finalist in the 2016 and 2021, and 2024 US Olympic Trials, Grayson will be training with the Nadadores as he looks to secure a spot on the US Olympic Team in LA 2028.
Grayson has always loved sharing his passion for diving, and experiences in the sport through coaching. He brings over 10 years of experience coaching athletes of all ages and skill levels, most recently working with the Texas Longhorn Aquatics club team in Austin, Texas.
Teri Chamoures has been part of the Mission Viejo Nadadores family for over 17 years! Her role has been as a parent, coaching assistant for the Lessons program, and office administrator. Currently she serves as office manager, maintaining payroll, booking travel, and dealing with correspondence and billing. She attended Cypress College where she utilized her education to work in her family publishing business for 30 years.
It wasn’t until her own children; Michael & Makena competed in swimming & diving with MVND that she realized she had to be part of such a great organization! She loves seeing children achieve growing relationships with friends, academic success, and strong moral character through this organization. In her spare time she enjoys hanging out with friends & family, skiing, pickleball, and volunteering at the local animal shelter.
David’s diving career started at 5 years old, and continues to this day as he joined the Nadadores in 2019 as both an Assistant Coach and a Professional High Diver & Cliff Diver. David spent the majority of his JO years with Ed Goodman and Buck Smith at Legacy Diving, and then went on to dive under Adam Soldati at Purdue University. As a Boilermaker, David earned 7 NCAA All American Awards, 2 NCAA Academic All American Awards, a Big Ten Champion Title, 2 US National Champion Titles, and 2 World University Games Bronze Medals. He graduated from Purdue with a B.S. in Health and Human Sciences and his sights set on Medical School; however, after a summer performing in a water stunt show at an amusement park where he took his first dives from 20m, he shifted his plans to pursue the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.
David qualified for the World Series in 2012 and was awarded ‘Rookie of the Year’ that season with 2 podium finishes. His first event win came in 2013 in Malcesine, Italy. David has now competed in over 50 countries, he has 15 podiums, and has represented Team USA in all 6 World Aquatics High Diving World Championships. David is an ambassador for the sport of High Diving advocating for an Olympic berth at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Coaching is as much a part of David’s diving career as competing. He took his first coaching job at 15 years old in his hometown of Sylvania, Ohio, and has continued coaching ever since. He’s coached alongside incredible coaches and programs like Purdue University, Legacy Diving, Eastern Michigan University, The University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and USC. David specializes in strength training and conditioning, high performance, overcoming fear, and cognitive skills development. He loves sharing his knowledge and experience, and giving back to the community that has provided him so many opportunities.
Doe was the program director, manager and co-head coach of Pitt Aquatic Club Divers from 1979 to 2017. She and Julian Krug were instrumental in laying the training foundation for Olympians Karen LaFace (1992), David Pichler (1996, 2000), and Cassidy Krug (2012), plus an Olympic diving coach Nunzio Esposto (2016). They have produced 48 gold medals at the PIAA State Championships earned by 25 different divers. Doe also coached diving teams at Mt. Lebanon, Montour, Chartiers Valley, Quaker Valley and Oakland Catholic High Schools over the years.
Doe’s passion and service to the sport of diving go beyond coaching. She served on the broadcast crews of 9 Olympics: Los Angeles, Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London, and Rio. She is an international certified AQUA diving judge and enjoys officiating NCAA, USA Diving and AQUA competitions. She has served as USA Team Leader to the Pan American Games, as well as Team Chaperone to the AQUA Junior World Championships and Junior Pan American Games. She has been chairman of Pennsylvania Association of USA Diving for decades.
Doe grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, earned her B.A. from Lawrence University, and M.S. from Indiana University. She is an avid hiker here in Southern California, and also enjoys yoga, pickleball, traveling, and lapidary arts.
Makena started diving at the young age of 4 right here with the Nadadores. After 18 years of diving, she unfortunately had to hang up the suit to medically retire her career at San Diego State University. She now has the privilege of returning as a coach with MVND since 2018. Throughout her career she has trained on the US Olympic training team, worked with the best of the best coaches, and it truly shaped her into who she is today.
She loves being back on deck with the little ones and seeing their passion, as it’s a daily reminder of how amazing this sport is, plus a great escape from her day job in the digital world.
Ahmed Elsayed brings over 14 years of experience to MVN, having previously served as the head diving coach at Claremont Pomona Dive Club, where he led 4 different divers to the finals of the USADiving National Championships. His coaching career includes three years as an assistant diving coach at Crown Valley Divers in Laguna Niguel and two years at Rose Bowl Aquatics in Pasadena. He also serves as the head diving coach at Los-Osos High School in Rancho Cucamonga.
Currently, Elsayed is the head diving coach for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, where he contributed significantly to the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams’ sweep of the SCIAC Championships in his first year. His coaching was particularly impactful for the Athenas, achieving a 1-2-3 finish on one-meter and three-meter diving events. He led 4 different Athenas CMS divers to qualify for NCAA DIII National Championships.
In addition to coaching, Elsayed competes in Masters diving and recently won a gold medal in the three-meter men’s springboard event, 2 Silver medals in the One-meter and Platform events for the 30-34 age group, and 2 golds medals in the three-meter and platform Synchronized Men’s events at the World Aquatics Masters Championships in Kyushu, Japan, on August 1, 2023. He is also a three-time USA Masters national champion in springboard and platform diving for the same age group. Elsayed used to be a member of the Egyptian national diving team (2000-2015).
Elsayed holds a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering management from Cairo University and a master’s degree in business administration from Westcliff University. He is a certified World Aquatics judge and holds certifications from USA Diving and AAU Diving.
In 2021 the Board of Directors of the Mission Viejo Nadadores Foundation hired Michele Mitchell to be their first Executive Director.
Her new role came after completing 4 years as the Head Diving Coach at the newly renovated Marguerite Aquatic Complex. A former Olympian for the Nadadores, Mitchell arrived back in Mission Viejo as her legacy job having retired from the University of Arizona after 22 years: 17 as Head Diving Coach and 5 years working in Athletic Administration.
During her tenure as the Nadadores head coach, she expanded the diving program from less than 60 divers to 200+, doubled the budget, significantly increased fundraising, and recruited numerous events, including the first FINA Grand Prix event held in the US in 30 years. Her divers won both individual national titles, and the national championship team title, the first one in 18 years.
Her personal diving accomplishments speak for themselves. Mitchell is a two-time Olympic Silver medalist on the 10-meter platform (1984 & 1988), World FINA Cup and Pan Am gold medalist and a 9x national champion among many other accolades.
She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and an M.A. in Sports Administration. She has served as Chair of the Board of Directors of USA Diving along with many other positions in the organization and Chair of the NCAA Swim and Dive Rules committee. She was a member of the University of Arizona Hall of Fame committee as well as the Gender Equity committee. She has served as a speaker for numerous corporations and has an extensive background in television and radio broadcasting – including the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games.
As Executive Director, Mitchell has been tasked with expanding the Nadadores aquatics programs, rebranding the team, enhancing fundraising, and positioning both the Nadadores and City of Mission Viejo for success leading up to the LA 2028 Games.
She is married to Tim Sutton, a sports television director, and has two children: Ariana, a Captain in the Army, and Dakota, a nuclear technician in the Navy. In her spare time, she enjoys jet skiing, riding bikes and keeping in touch with friends from around the world.
Mike Hilde was born in Whittier, CA in 1984. He dove for the Mission Viejo Nadadores from 1994-2003 winning a combined 5 individual junior national championship events. After diving for the Nadadores he attended the University of Southern California from 2003-2007 graduating with a bachelor’s degree in public policy, management and planning. During his time at USC he qualified for the NCAA Championships each year, scoring in 9 out of 12 events.
After graduating from USC Hilde went to work in the Construction field as an estimator and project engineer. He worked for 3 years in construction and decided to venture back to his roots and get back into the sport of diving. In 2010 Hilde coached for one season at the University of San Diego (USD) before accepting a job to return to Mission Viejo as an assistant coach in 2011. He coached for the Nadadores from 2011-2014 before being named the Head Diving Coach at the University of Michigan. Hilde spent 9 years at the University of Michigan bringing their diving program back up to a top program, not only in the BIG 10, but also at the NCAA Level as well. While at Michigan he also had the opportunity to coach Michigan MBA student athlete Michael Hixon at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, winning a silver medal for Team USA!
Mike Hilde is currently running the MVND Satellite Program down in San Diego, at the Poway Community Center, where he is continuing to build and develop divers in the area.
The Mission Viejo Nadadores foundation is a 501c3 charitable organization. The foundation is financially responsible for the sports of swimming and diving and operate under one EIN number diving has for representatives on the Board of Directors compromise of 16 members. The Board of Directors meet monthly in person on zoom to discuss matters of interest to both sports. The head dive/swim coach are considered leaders of the respective sports an answer to the Executive Director, who then reports to the foundation board. Board members are elected by the membership and have staggered terms of two years. Any member may run for election to open seats each September. All paying members in good standing are eligible to vote in the MVN foundation elections
Our team is an affiliate of USA Diving, Inc., the national governing body of springboard and platform diving in the United States. USA Diving is a successor to the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and is an independent non-profit corporation formed to promote and improve diving in the United States.
