The divers on the swimming and diving team lost their coach — Mike Finneran — when the University terminated his employment on Dec. 13. But for sophomore Scott Blackwelder, it was more than the loss of a coach.

“I was kind of a no-name as far as diving goes in high school, and Mike just kind of found me, gave me a shot. I was a recruited walk-on,” Blackwelder said. “He was the person that got me started in collegiate diving, so losing him was real tough. He’s been with me since the beginning. The adjustment’s hard, and it’s hard to lose somebody that you’re really close to.”

But almost immediately after the University discontinued Finneran’s employment, Becky Benson volunteered to help the team as a diving coach. Within a week of Finneran’s departure, Benson, who was a diver for Finneran in college, was working in a paid position as the interim diving coach.

According to swimming and diving coach Brooks Teal, the flexible hours of Benson’s architectural office job and her connection to Finneran — she was a diver for Finneran at both South Carolina and Alabama in the 1980s — landed her the interim post.

“We were just fortunate that she was able to drop what she was doing and help us out,” Teal said.

The key, Benson said, for her is to maintain a sense of stability for the divers.

“I’ve come in and [I] coach in a somewhat similar way to how he [Finneran] coached and understand where he was trying to go with this team and just try to make a smooth transition for the kids so that their season isn’t disrupted more than it had been,” Benson said.

Junior diver Natalie Swisher said the sense of continuity between the two coaches’ styles has helped. But she also noted the team’s mentality as an important factor in the transition.

“The divers are pretty close-knit because we’re around each other all the time,” Swisher said.

While she and some of her divers spoke of the similarities between her and Finneran, Benson said the practice workouts she gives the team are a little more intensive.

“I work them out a little bit harder, I think, than Mike. Mike is a very laid-back coach. So I think my workouts are a little bit longer and have more volume to them,” Benson said. “But all the other things are pretty much the same.”

Blackwelder said another difference between Benson and her predecessor is her outgoing personality in practice.

“She shows a lot more emotion in practice than Mike. Mike was very calm and didn’t show a lot of emotion. That’s not to be said that he was emotionless, but he expressed his emotion in a very unique way,” Blackwelder said. “She’s very emotional about practice. When you do a good dive, she’ll stand up and cheer.”

And while she’s doing all she can to help the team as it competes in the ACC diving championships this week at Duke, she said she will have to wait to find out if she will be retained as the full-time diving coach next season.

Teal also said that while she is a candidate, any decision on her future with the program will have to wait until the end of this season.

“Right now we’re just trying to focus on getting through the end of the season,” Teal said. “And we’ll take a hard look at that at the appropriate time.”

But for now, Blackwelder said he’s just glad to have a link with the coach who gave him a chance.

“If there was any coach besides Mike that I’d be going to ACCs with, I’d pick Becky because she’s known Mike for so long that it’s almost like having him there,” Blackwelder said. “So it’s good.”