Sophomore Deontez Brown, one of the swimming team’s varsity divers, has been crowned as the diving champion of the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference this season. The MIC swimming and diving competition took place on Jan. 10 at Pike High School, where Brown competed against all five other schools in the conference.
The moment Brown won the MIC diving title means a lot to him.
“Winning MIC made me feel excited for myself because last year, coming from no [diving] coach and doing my own dives with my teammates, and then coming to win MIC, I saw a bigger improvement with my dives,” Brown said.
Diving Coach Jared Hilt felt that same excitement seeing Brown succeed.
“It was very reassuring,” Hilt said. “I have long told Tez his potential and that with the proper training, he could be a fantastic athlete. That day, he showed up and rose to that potential.”
Brown and his coaches have worked very hard this season to improve his diving skills and to overcome off-days, which helped him win MIC. Head Swimming Coach Jason Tillage makes sure to focus on the mental side of the sport to keep Brown’s head in the right place.
“When he has a bad day, I walk up to him, I let him know, ‘Hey, it's not the end of the world,’” Tillage said. “You're gonna have hard days in life. It's how you come back from them that’s going to help you.”
Similar to Coach Tillage, Coach Hilt has worked with Brown on improving his dives and technique while helping him maintain a strong mental game.
“Aside from regular training, we’ve worked on focusing his mindset, keeping his goals in front and center and pushing past adversity,” Hilt said.
Brown and his coaches have now set their sights on sectionals and have high hopes for the tournament.
“My goal is to at least try and make it to regionals this year,” Brown said.
Sectionals are just around the corner, with the two-day competition on Feb. 19 and Feb. 21. Brown hopes to put on a great performance in the sectional competition and has been working on more difficult dives to use in the tournament.
“He works really hard, so they're just working on cleaning up some higher degree of difficulty dives,” Tillage said. “He’s worked on three or four dives that he’s going to slowly add into his dive list before sectionals.”
Seeing him grow over the course of this season, Coach Tillage and Coach Hilt are very proud of Brown, not just for his athleticism but in all aspects of his life.
“He’s a phenomenal athlete, phenomenal student and a phenomenal person in the community,” Tillage said.