Don Leas

Donald Ericcson Leas was an American gymnast, diver and diving coach who dove for the University of Michigan and coached diving at the Clarion University of Pennsylvania from 1966 to 1990. Divers trained by him won 36 individual national championships and posted 234 All-America placings.

Leas was born on October 23, 1934, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Florence Elizabeth (Leaf) Fisher and Robert William Leas.

Divers trained by him won 36 individual national championships and posted 234 All-America placings.

Michigan State diving, gymnastics team After High School, he dove for Michigan State University under Hall of Fame Swimming and Diving Coach Gus Stager, where he was a Big 10 championship gymnast and diver, graduating in 1957 with a B.S. in Health and Physical Education. Continuing to dive and compete in gymnastics while in graduate school, he was a 1959 Ohio AAU Gymnastics Champion.

Graduate education and coaching He received his Masters from Southern Illinois University where he graduated in 1959 with a Master of Science Degree in Health and Physical Education, coaching the Southern Illinois University diving team during his studies. From 1961 to 1965, he studied for his Doctorate at the University of Illinois, and worked with the University of Illinois Department of Physical Education, where he served as an Assistant Gymnastics and Diving coach. He also coached swimming and diving at Sunset Hills Country Club in Edwardsville, Illinois during this period. In 1966, he coached swimming and cross country for a year at St. Cloud State University, in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Clarion University He was a diving coach for Clarion University of Pennsylvania from 1966 to 1990. Hired at Clarion by Dr. James Gemmell in May 1966, he served as Chair of the Department of Health and Physical Education. He also served a term as Pennsylvania State Chairman of College Health Education.

The Clarion swim and diving team received some funding for scholarships, but raised a significant percentage of its funds by hosting a swimming and diving camp each summer which enrolled as many as 100 divers.

While at Clarion, Leas married Rebecca Rutt, a former swimmer for West Chester College, and the Clarion women's swim coach, from 1979-1987 and a longer serving professor of health education at Clarion.

Diving administration Leas chaired USA Diving, AAU Diving, and USA Diving's Rules, Certification, and Membership Committees. He managed Fort Lauderdale's National YMCA Diving Championships and the FINA Grand Prix for several decades. and retired from teaching at Clarion University in 1997 as a professor Emeritus. He was replaced as diving coach by Dave Hrovat, an All American diver from Clemson University who had coached diving the previous two years at Virginia Tech.

Death He died on April 25, 2019, at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania of an aortic aneurism at the age of 84. He was married to Carol for over twenty years and had two children.

Honors He was named to NCAA's Team of the Decade coaching staff in 1991, and became a member of the Clarion University Sports Hall of Fame in the same year. In 1999, he was the recipient of the Paragon Award by the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He received the Duraflex International Diving Award in 1999, presented for outstanding international contributions in diving. After his retirement from coaching Clarion in 2007, he was presented the Joseph G. Rogers Award for his volunteer work with swimming and diving at the YMCA National Championships.