Justin Corres '18 Recruiting Profile

    It takes a lot to be a high level, successful athlete. It requires patience, positivity, communication, and obviously hard work. I started off as a gymnast with my dad as my coach. This is where I started to learn these qualities. In gymnastics and diving, you have to do the same skills over and over again to perfect them. This is where patience comes in. One has to wait and work hard to improve, it does not come overnight. I learned this patience quality in my 2 years of competitive gymnastics where I won state championships my last year.

I was recruited to my high school diving team my sophomore year shortly after I stopped gymnastics and that marked the start of an incredible journey. I faced many challenges my first year diving. I did qualify for state championships my second meet ever and break the school record in the middle of the season, but I had much to learn. I learned to cope with my fears in diving, and that there is no diver who has not been scared, the only successful ones are the ones who overcome those fears. I was faced with a big obstacle my first year diving, I developed a habit of landing next to the board on my reverses. There were practices where I was scared out of my mind to do any kind of reverse, but I kept doing them over and over again making corrections until they were executed precisely. I was rewarded with the skill of how to do a correct reverse. I learned so much from this first season of diving, hard work can get you anywhere with patience and dedication. Fear is bitter sweet, it either means Forget Everything And Run, or Face Everything And Rise. Those who choose the second one have a much better future, I learned that choice was the right one in my first year diving.

My second year of high school diving is currently the highlight of my diving career as of now. Three new divers joined the team and I was named team captain of the divers. I learned much more about leadership and being a role model this season. I already knew how to succeed, I just had to put those attributes that make a great athlete I mentioned before into play. These three divers were all new divers and I had to lead them and teach them how to be successful. I remember one of the first practices, one of them told my coach "I can't do it" and he moved onto a different dive. I talked to him after practice and I told him the attributes that make up a good diver and how we never give up so easily like he did and he understood. I also displayed these attributes during practices and they all saw and they all caught on. During all this time of leadership I barely even noticed I had become so much better myself and my reward for all that hard work was placing second at the class s state championship which means getting my name up on the wall in the gym. You can imagine how happy I was. Along side all this hard training in diving I was studying and doing homework for my honors and AP classes. I learned a great deal of time management with my diving commitment along with my difficult classes while working a part time job coaching gymnastics. I believe that I can excel in college diving along with my academic plans of majoring in aerospace/mechanical/electrical engineering, I will be able to manage my time well and thrive. As a leader that knows what makes up a successful diver, I think I would be great for your team.