Orlando Florida was alive and kicking with over 600 divers and 1200 entries. As I entered the pool on Wednesday I thought I was attending a swimming meet. The magnitude of the event was just incredible. With five sometimes six events taking place at once, it was like controlled chaos.
The diving itself proved to be very competitive and of higher caliber than I anticipated. To make finals, kids simply could not miss a single dive in prelims, as a National Championship event should be. With 40,50, and sometimes 60 divers in one event the cut to 12 was often only separated by a mere .05 of a point.
The preliminary events were long and often dragged out due to technical difficulties from the wireless score pads being used. However; most these issues were resolved on day two and the rest of the week ran as smooth as one could expect from the amount of divers that attended the event.
Being there for recruiting purposes it was a joy to have all those divers in one place at one time. I had the opportunity to speak with several divers, parents, etc... about the opportunities that Dension had to offer them. Many were impressed that a small school like Denison would send a diving coach simply to watch and talk to prospective student athletes. Once the ball started rolling with the recruiting, it did not stop as I actually ran out of two different brochures.
All in all the trip was a success as many kids that had never even heard of Denison are now at least taking a look this way. Hopefully this is the start of many many good years to come here as the Big Red Diving team begins to truly grow as a team and program.
Carpe Diem
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