When people think of competitive diving, many see it as a terrifying sport. On their journey from the platform to the water, divers perform acrobatic tricks that requires strength, flexibility, and air awareness, all the while trying not to smack their head or foot on the board.

Stand out freshman diver Cole Tremewan knows this fear all too well. While he’s walking up to the platform, he said, he wonders, “Am I going to get hurt… it is hard to work past the fear of getting hurt.”

Pioneer Diving Coach and former Pioneer diver Emily Stalmack says facing the fear of a painful bad dive plagues all young divers. “[Diving] takes a lot of courage,” she said. “The biggest challenge that many divers face is fear.”

Not only is diving scary, there are also a lot of other things that could go wrong. Last year Tremewan hurt his back diving off a 10 meter platform. He was out of diving for three months and had to go to physical therapy in order to recover. It was hard for him to come back because he could not do everything that he could before the injury. Since athletes always have the chance of getting injured, it is important that they have faith in their coaches. Stalmack described the 10 meter jump as the equivalence of a three story building.

“You have to be able to trust your training and your coaches that it’s the right call to go up. Then you have to find it in yourself to actually go off the side of a three story building,” said Stalmack.

Tremewan came back from his injury and is impressing in his freshman year. Stalmack says Tremewan’s leadership is one of his strong suits.

“He’s already showing up to be a strong leader. When he knows that he has to do something, he will make sure that everyone else is doing it to the same standard. He will call people out on that and he’s really supportive of his teammates,” she said.

Tremewan is a fierce competitor, according to Stalmack. “A lot of freshmen come in and they’re really nervous, kind of scared of the competition no matter how many meets that they’ve been to,” she said. “Cole gets in competition mode and he loves the sport. He’s ready to have fun during the competitions, and he really gets into the zone.”

Tremewan has competed nationally every year since he’s been a part of Legacy Diving. He is currently ranked 16th nationally and the highest he’s ever been ranked is 9th. “Already being ranked 9th is a big deal for his age. In terms of high school, he is going to be one of the top competitors,” said Stalmack.

Being a diver takes a lot of determination. Unlike swimming, which is based on a time, diving is based on perfection. Judges score divers based on how well they perform multiple aspects of a dive and with that comes a lot of pressure. According to Tremewan, diving can be both physically and mentally exhausting because, “you’re working out, but you’re also performing for people.”

Although there is a lot of pressure that comes with diving, Tremewan has learned to deal with it, “The diving doesn’t really bother me because I’ve grown up with it,” he said.

Tremewan has been diving since he was 8 years old. When he was a kid, he “did crazy stuff like flipping,” so his neighbor suggested that he join a swim and dive club. He now participates in Legacy Diving year round. During the summer, he practices nine hours a day, four or five days a week. Since he is on the diving team at Pioneer, he needs to cut down his time at Legacy during the school’s dive season. Instead of four or five days a week, he goes once or twice, but it’s not much of a loss. He feels like he is part of a bigger team while he’s diving for Pioneer. “Everybody’s the same age (at Pioneer) and at Legacy they’re all from 8 to 18,” said Tremewan.

College diving is already on Tremewan’s radar. He plans to continue diving for the rest of high school and all through college. While high school diving consists of 1 meter boards, college diving includes one meter, three meters, and platform. Platform could be five, seven, or ten meters. Ten meters is the height that a lot of people see in the Olympics and although Tremewan has no plans to go to the Olympics, he still needs to practice it for college diving.

For Tremewan one meter is not scary, but ten meters is much different. “High school only does one meter, but I do USA Diving so we go all the way up to ten meters,” said Tremewan.

Although Tremewan has been diving since he was 8, he plans on stopping after college. When a younger person is exceptional at a sport, people tend to wonder if they plan on going to the Olympics. Tremewan does not want to go to the Olympics because it puts a lot of pressure on the athlete. Athletes who train for the Olympics train all year round and not just during the summer. Tremewan finds it impressive that people want to go to the Olympics. “It shows a lot of devotion to your sport,” he said.