Dedicated athletes who work hard are at a high risk for sports related injuries that can be discouraging, but DHS senior Sean Scarrey turned his gymnastics injuries into the start of his future in diving.  Since he began his diving career, Scarrey has worked hard to place 3rd in state and 11th in nationals and continues to work to further his experience and skill.

“He was very good, but qualifying for state and going all the way to a state champion or top five in state are two totally different levels,” DHS diving coach Doug Foerch said about Scarrey’s level when he began diving as a freshman.

Scarrey began diving after he suffered from injuries related to gymnastics.  The transition was made easier by the skill he had in his previous sport and helped him get a head start in diving.  Understanding of the body’s position is important to both sports, along with basic skills such as flipping, twisting, and being able to take risks.

“I love it a lot more than gymnastics,” Scarrey said. “Gymnastics was kinda like my life and now with diving I have a life outside of diving practice as well as in diving.”

Scarrey is involved in club diving at Glenbrook Aquatics when he is not in season at DHS.  The two are organized and ran differently; club practices are more intensive and the meets are more important, but Scarrey says he improves more during the DHS diving season.

“I always like doing the high school practice because the atmosphere is a lot less stressful and I always improve more when it’s not a very stressful environment, whereas club, it’s big meets, there are a lot of very good divers and it’s much more stressful,” Scarrey said.

Foerch credits Scarrey for being able to help out his teammates with their dives because he is able to use his knowledge of the mechanics of diving in order to explain why certain dives aren’t working and what can be done to improve them.  This year, Scarrey has stepped up in practice more and Foerch claims Scarrey is the best student coach he’s seen.  Although diving is scored individually, the team works together during practice.

“We work together a lot because sometimes the coach can’t really see everything and with my experience, which is a lot compared to some of the other guys, I’ll nitpick their dives and see what I think about it,” Scarrey said. “We all help each other out a lot.”

Throughout his four years at DHS, Scarrey has rocketed from being around 25th in the state to being 3rd.  His skills have improved with practice and help from teammates, especially former teammate Ryan Church, and his mindset has matured to help him set goals for the future.

“He’s much more focused and goal oriented of where he wants to finish,” Foerch said. “And then his difficulty level of his dives has gone up probably twice what it was when he came in.”

Scarrey is looking to become a Division 1 collegiate diver and possibly continue on to the NCAA diving championships and later olympic trials. College recruits have been watching Scarrey since this past summer and he has been looking into scholarships for diving. Currently,  Scarrey is looking at the universities of Iowa, Colorado, Utah and Louisville.

“He definitely wants to see how far he can go now,” Foerch said.