Zhihua Hu is the diving coach for Fordham University's men's and women's swimming and diving program in Bronx, New York, and has held that position for nearly 30 seasons. In 2025-26, he was named the Atlantic 10 Men's Diving Coach of the Year after Fordham divers set school records on both boards in both the men's and women's events. That season, David Vargas earned Atlantic 10 Championship Most Outstanding Men's Diver honors by winning the one-meter and three-meter titles and claiming First Team All-Atlantic 10 recognition, while Katie Laverty scored in both diving events and established Fordham women's records on both boards.
Hu has coached several of the program's most significant recent diving achievements. In 2022-23, Millie Haffety became the first Fordham woman to win an Atlantic 10 diving event, taking first in the three-meter competition while also setting school records in the one-meter and three-meter dives. Haffety and Lilia de Oliveira Pelaez both qualified for the NCAA Zone A Diving Championship that year. Molly Dunn qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving Championship in 2019 and 2020, Natalie Ortof reached the NCAA Zone Diving Championship in 2022, and Wendy Espina-Esquivel qualified for the NCAA Zone A meet in both the one-meter and three-meter events in consecutive seasons while earning back-to-back Second Team All-Atlantic 10 honors in the one-meter dive. In 2017, Espina-Esquivel, Stephanie Kerkeles, and Christopher Craig all scored at the Atlantic 10 Championships.
