Alexander Poulin '23 Recruiting Profile

By accident I discovered diving in 2012. I was watching the 2012 London Olympic Games and saying to myself, “This looks easy!” I quickly realized that diving presented itself with both mental and physical challenges. What I have realized over my eight years of diving is that through hard work and determination you can realize your goals. 

I’m a 5-time qualifier for USA Diving Nationals but its been a challenge to get to where I am today. I look forward to continuing to push my athletic boundaries and become a top diver for a University.  As a Sophomore in high school, I maintain a heavy schedule that consists of 5 days a week of training with my dive team, personal strength training sessions and maintaining my grades in school! My club is currently an hour away from my home so I spend a lot of time studying on the trips out and back home to keep up.

In the summer, I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to participate in two-a-days at the University of Michigan with their college team. While there, I’ve grown to love all aspects of diving, especially Platform.  I was able to get 9^th place at the 2019 USA Diving National Championship Finals in Platform and continue to look to increase my diving difficulty to eventually compete at USA Diving Senior Nationals in 2021 or 2022. 

I have learned that Diving is both an individual sport and a team sport. Being an older member of our Club team, I have started to mentor some of the younger divers and help them grow their confidence so we can keep our sport going.  I learned that motivation from teammates is the key to success. My teammates and I motivate each other to learn new skills, new dives, apply corrections and most importantly grow as a team. My team has given me support and growth as an individual and has taught me what it means to be a leader. That inspiration to become a leader has helped me keep my teammates moving forward and thriving in competition.

I am looking to work with local High Schools in the Detroit Area to start doing small diving clinics with under privileged kids before Covid-19 hit and stopped us in our tracks.  My goal is to continue working towards this once we are out of the pandemic.

My Academics are currently taking up a lot of my focus during the pandemic. My academic goals are to maintain a 3.9-4.0 GPA throughout my high school career. I plan on pursuing pre-medical in College with the eventual goal of going into Pediatric Medicine, Cardiology or Plastic Surgery.  In my downtime, I like to play the Cello, something I’ve been doing since I was 6 years old and continue to play in Honors Orchestra in my High School. I also love to work on Old Cars with my dad. He has an old 1966 Charger and my Mother has a 1959 Impala that is our newest project.

I’m looking forward to being a part of a successful team, and a team that will motivate me both academically, and in the pool.