When I began taking diving lessons with Stan, I was an ambitious little 10-year-old with more energy than my parents knew what to do with. They say they knew diving would be the perfect outlet for me because I had always enjoyed participating in my neighborhood swimming team each summer, and because they always had trouble keeping me right side up. Water AND summersaults?! It couldn’t be more perfect. Even so, I don’t think they knew at the time the impact diving would have in shaping who their daughter was to become. Thinking back on my experience in Stan’s diving camp each year, I know my time was well spent for two reasons.

One small (but very important) reason I highly recommend this diving camp, although not related to the athletics, is because many of the friendships I made there I can say endure to this day – eight, nine, some of them even fourteen years later. Strong friendships are built when you’re having fun, and that’s something you don’t always experience with the friends you make in school. I met people with similar interests and goals, and we pushed each other to reach them.The other reason I endorse Stan’s diving camp is because the coaching I received was truly of the highest quality for a number of reasons:

 

Each of the coaches has an incredible eye for detail, which gives them the ability to help you fine-tune your skills to the very best you are capable. All dives are bettered one step at a time and it takes an experienced eye to see each small adjustment a dive may need to be great.

 

Whether you have been diving for many years or are a fresh beginner, the coaching staff fully invests themselves in your individual growth and success. No diver is neither too novice or experienced to deserve their full attention and effort. No diver left behind, so to speak.

The coaching is truly personalized and each diver is coached in a way they will respond to. Sometimes, I think Stan knew me better than I knew myself.

 

Perhaps my favorite memory from diving is a great illustration of this. When I was 15 or 16, I started to feel like I was reaching a plateau as a diver and I became very discouraged. I had a very hard time making my good dives great and an even harder time making new, more difficult dives simply decent. I was in a rut and I don’t think I hid it that well. To get me out of that rut, Stan capitalized on something I don’t think I even realized about myself until years later: if I don’t stand out for being great at something, I love to stand out for being unique. Stan challenged me to learn a 632C, a rare dive that’s virtually never competed. (Think about it. It’s awesome.) I literally heard a few people gasp the first time I competed it and I loved surprising people. It put a spark back into my diving; I was having fun again.

 

A coach who makes it his mission to know his divers that well – well enough to personalize his coaching style to each diver – is a hard find. All good coaches can teach you technique (a necessary quality for any dive to receive high scores) but it takes a great coach to spark the fire that keeps you evolving. Stan motivated me to do better for myself. Not because my parents wanted me to succeed, or even because Stan himself wanted me to succeed, but because I wanted to succeed.

 

For me, diving was never about going to the Olympics, or even diving in college. I loved it, but I always knew my diving career would end when I graduated high school. I went to St. Edward’s University, a school that doesn’t even have a diving program. When my parents and I were discussing my options for colleges, though, and they asked if I might consider pursuing a diving scholarship, I told them the only school I had considered diving at was Trinity University, under the coaching of Stan Randall.