Keegan MacDonald is a senior here at Clearfield High School who is a diver on the swim team who just recently broke a 45-year-old diving record. I asked him a few questions, and this is how it went.

The first thing I asked was how he got into diving. He said, “I used to be a big flip kid so when the diving coach mentioned it to me, I was very interested since 5th grade.” The second thing I asked was what he finds most challenging about the sport, and he told me that the most challenging thing was “not having any other guy divers to dive against until States.” He also told me about his most difficult dive being a forward 2 1/2, and he mastered it by doing it over and over again until it became muscle memory.

I asked him how he recovers after a dive that doesn’t go as planned and he said he just gets over the embarrassment and focuses on his next dive. Next, I asked him about any misconceptions about diving, he let me know that a big one is that it is simply just not fun, but that’s actually far from the truth if you get to know your teammates and coaches well. I asked him about any goals he has/had within his sport and he said, “My goals were to place top 5th in States, which I ended up getting 4th.”

Lastly, I asked Keegan about any advice he could give to anyone starting out in diving and he told me this: “My advice would be to make as many friendships and memories as you can, because soon enough it will all be over.” I think I can speak for most of the students and staff at Clearfield High School when I say that we are proud of you, Keegan.