The 2016-17 season will be the ninth for Donna O'Brien as the Foresters' diving coach.
Under O'Brien's direction, Heath Ogawa was an All-American as a freshman in 2016, placing eighth at the NCAA Division III Championship Meet off the 1-meter board. He was also 13th in the 3-meter competition. Ogawa set program records in both events in 6-dive and 11-dive formats. O'Brien also coached Christina Pekar to three consecutive appearances in the NCAA Championships and she earned All-American honors in both diving events in 2015. In addition to Ogawa and Pekar, three other Foresters have qualified to compete at the NCAA Central Region Diving Meet in the last four seasons.
Ogawa won a Midwest Conference title and set the league's 3-meter diving record in 2016, giving Lake Forest nine diving titles in the last five years. Pekar was named MWC Women's Diver of the Meet in 2013, 2014, and 2015 after teammate Sam Gardner earned the award in 2012. Individual Foresters have placed among the top three at the conference meet 36 times in O'Brien's first eight seasons. They have also earned 688 points at the last five conference meets, including 164 by the women alone in 2012 when the team captured an MWC title.
O'Brien has also been co-head coach at the Windy City Diving Club since 1997. The club attracts high level divers from all over the Chicago area and its most famous pupil is Christina Loukas, a United States Olympian on the 3-meter board in 2008 and 2012. She also works with the Arlington Heights Park District and Palatine Park District, where the Windy City Diving Club trains.
O'Brien was a diving coach at Palatine High School for 29 years and directed athletes to 40 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Meet appearances, 11 trips to the state finals, five IHSA sectional championships, four conference titles, and two National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association All-American performances. O'Brien was named IHSA Diving Coach of the Year in 2002 and was inducted into the Palatine High School Hall of Fame in 2014. She has served as a diving judge at the state meet several times and is a certified FINA international judge.
She also coached the divers for four seasons at Harper College, where her athletes made several appearances at the National Junior College Athletic Association meet and claimed a national title.
Among her other coaching and instructing experience are 10 years at the Schaumburg Diving Academy and stints with the Palatine Park District and Inverness Country Club.
O'Brien graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in education in 1983 after making three appearances at the national meet. She placed among the top three at the Big Eight Conference Championship Meet in one or both diving events each of her four seasons on the team. She was also a two-time IHSA State Meet finalist in both diving and gymnastics representing Arlington High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
