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Video:: Making School History:: One Dive at a Time

Making School History:: One Dive at a Time

All is quiet, the only noise being the sound of the filter system, as Steve McCusker, walks onto the diving board.

He takes a deep breath and walks to the edge.

The chlorine stained blue board bends under his weight.

He bounces up and down and then in one fluid motion pushes himself off the board into a series of twists and flips.

The sight of the dive is heart stopping and yet graceful.

He enters the water smoothly, making only a small splash.

He comes to the surface of the water and looks to his Coach Doug Mariano, who offers a few words of criticism before Steve gets out of the water and starts the process again. Six days a week, two hours a day.

McCusker started diving 4 years ago, when he was a freshman.

“I swam in middle school and when I came to high school I just wasn’t interested anymore,” said McCusker, “So, I started diving and I fell in love it.”

This season in particular Steve has had enormous success on the board.

He is ranked second in both the NVL and in the State Class S.

McCusker is now the only boy in Woodland Diving history to  be an All-State Diver.   This title makes him the only male diver to go to State Opens, a championship diving meet where All- State divers from all over Connecticut compete against one another.

McCusker is one of 2 divers from Class S who will be diving at State Opens.

The only other Class S contender is Scared Heart’s Pete Gallino, ranked number 1 in Class S and just so happens to be McCusker’s biggest competitor.

“It’s fun competing with Pete, it’s always a challenge,” said McCusker, “I always push myself when I’m diving against him because I want to one up him so bad. I haven’t done it yet, but I’ve come close.”

In fact, McCusker has come very close to beating Gallino. Going into the last round of States, McCusker was just a head of Gallino.

“I had no idea I was in first until the last round!” said McCusker, “Doug told me not to think, talk or worry about scores, so I didn’t. He sent me to the bathroom when they would announce scores so I wouldn’t know.”

This season was McCusker’s first one working with Coach Mariano and according to McCusker it has had a big influence on his diving.

“I could get up there and try to dive my way a thousand times and it just wouldn’t work. But I do it Doug’s way and I nail my dive every time the first time,” McCusker commented.

According to Mariano, when he first started working with McCusker he had to get him to buckle down and focus.

“He was kind of all over the place when I got here,” said Mariano, “But once he got focused he was able to buckle down and do everything that he had to do to reach all of his goals.”

Hitting almost all his goals, McCusker still has one last thing on his mind, breaking Lindsay Boland’s record of diving 11 dives with a score of 342.8.

“I’ve come within 10 points of that record and I know I am going to break it at opens,” vowed McCusker.