diving/college

Question
As a high school coach in an extremly limited diving location (midwest--we are in Michigan's Upper Peninsula--10 hours driving from Detroit), where do you suggest sending a talented but inexperienced diver for college so that he may possibly continue a diving career?

Answer
Cindy -

Since you state that your diver is inexperienced I am going to assume that he has not been diving very long and only on the one meter. In that case, I am going to tell you about college diving in the U.S. but not the highest level which is NCAA Division I schools. Examples are University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Michigan State. These and other Big 10 schools have high level diving programs that he may not be ready for as it takes a lot of experience with high degree of difficulty dives to compete on these teams.

I am going to suggest that he look at NCAA Division II and III schools where someone with his ability level could have a more successful college diving experience. Go to www.ncaa.com and scroll down the home page to the bottom where you will find "Fast Links". Click on either Division II or III and when you get to that page, click on 'select a sport'. That will take you to Men's Swimming where you can find schools with diving programs. Best way to find them is to look up results of National Championships for one and three meter events.

College diving is now 6 optionals only. There are no more voluntary or required compulsory dives like high school. You can use lower d.d. dives as optionals but you won't compete well with divers using higher d.d. optionals. When you look at results, remember the score it is for 6 dives total.

You should also look into schools that belong to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. This is the other collegiate athletic governing body that most people do not know about. Sports are much easier at this level and it does not take much experience to compete in any sport. Go to naia.org. Select a sport and then click on "Top Times" for diving results. You can get an idea where your diver lines up by looking at results. Just take an 11 dives high school score, drop the voluntary dives and see what score he has for 6 optionals.

The final choice is the National Junior College Athletic Association. Go to www.njcc.org. The best school with diving in this organization is Indian River Community College in Ft. Pierce Florida. The team is coached by an old friend of mine, Dave Suba. This school could be the perfect fit for someone like your diver. Dave is great with divers with not that much experience. Go to www.universities.com and in the search box type in the school name for more info. This universities website is also an excellent source for general info on all schools in the U.S.

I have given you a general answer to your question because I do not know his grade point average or SAT score to be able to name specific schools.

There is also the "NCAA Clearinghouse" that all athletes have to apply to to see if they are academically eligible to compete on a varsity team. If he is not academically eligible to compete, then he can still be on a team but just practice only. This is called a "Red Shirt" season where in your freshman year, you just train and watch meets.

I hope I have helped you understand more about college diving. Good luck with his pursuit of a higher level of diving.

Tom Trapp