Head diving coach Liyi Wang has made some indelible marks in his 16 seasons at Wright State. In 1991-92, he coached the North Star Conference Diver of the Year, Jodi Train, and helped her earn 1993 Mid-Continent Conference Female Diver of the Year honors as well. In 1994, Amy Hutchinson was the Mid-Continent Conference's Female Diver of the Year and then won the same award in the MCC in 1995.
In 1997, Jared Bitner and Karen Lesh were named as the MCC Divers of the Meet for the men and women, respectively. The tradition continued in 2002 as Roberta Borkowski was selected as the MCC Diver of the Meet and Trevor Downing was chosen as the Horizon League Co-Diver of the Meet.
Prior to coming to WSU, Wang was an assistant diving coach at Princeton University for two years. Born in Shanghai, Wang was an accomplished diver himself as a member of the Shanghai diving team from 1960 to 1971, earning fourth place in the 1965 Chinese National Games. Wang then coached the Shanghai divers for six years and spent 10 years at the helm of China's national team when three of his female divers were World Cup champions. Wang also led China's Olympic squads in 1980, 1984 and 1988.
Wang graduated from the Shanghai Physical Education Institute in 1966. He was awarded the Chinese All-Sports Honorable Award, which is the highest award given by the Chinese Sports Federation.
Wang resides in Dayton with his son, Pei Chang Wang.
