Campbell Worsley '21 Recruiting Profile

I can imagine as a coach, when you look at my DiveMeets profile, you may wonder, “What’s the story here? This kid had years of successful competitive diving on a national level from 2012 to 2016, and then he seemingly dropped off the face of the earth, only to resurface at USA Diving Regionals in 2019.”  Allow me to shed some light. 

The short story… so yes, I dove intensely and competitively for five years, and then decided to step away from the sport I loved.  Why?  I simply wanted to have the time and space to try new things for a while, things I’d put off because of my year-round commitment to diving.  I loved diving, sure, but it was limiting at a time in my life that I still wanted to explore new things.  

After a healthy break that allowed me to pack in some wonderful other life experiences, I’ve now circled back to diving, happily committed and enthusiastic about my future as a college diver.  After three years away from the pool, I have quickly progressed in the level of difficulty of my dive list and am currently training back and reverse 3 1/2 twisters in addition to perfecting a full pike list on 3 m and tuck list on 1-meter. Bottom line?  I love diving; it brings out the competitive edge that drives me to make each dive better than my last, and I am hoping to be a great addition to a swim/dive team at a college I am excited to attend.

Now for the longer story.

When I was 13 years old, after diving competitively since I was 8 years old and annually making it to nationals on 1 meter, 3 meter and platform, I made the difficult life decision to step away from diving.  Simply put, I felt like there was a lot of life I was missing.  Time with friends, trying new things, wondering “what if”.  So, I stepped away for a while, trusting that I’d know when and if to come back to it.

And I did indeed try many new things during that break. For example, I…

Learned how to pole vault as a freshman at the Community School of Davidson, made the state championships, and was named Outstanding Freshman for our school. 

Travelled to Honduras and was part of a team of men who built a 500-foot-long, 12-foot-high cinderblock wall in five days for an orphanage located in Pena Blanca, Honduras.

Washed over 36,000 plates and 100,000 utensils for campers as a volunteer member of “the pits crew” serving for a month in the kitchen at Young Life’s Crooked Creek Ranch in Colorado.

Ran cross country as a sophomore (after not once in my life having run over a 1.5 miles).  By the end of the season, I had dropped my course time by 5 minutes, and I ended up on our state championship team.  We together won third place in the 1A/2A State Championship.  I was named Most Improved Runner for that team. 

Tutored children in Benin City, Nigeria as part of a team of volunteers serving the Davidson, NC and Nigeria-based organization Access to Success.

I spent time with friends, both old and new, and experienced the life of a “normal” student.  It was great - I made some wonderful memories and I don’t regret any of it. That said, I realized I missed diving, the training, the discipline, the friendships of my teammates, and the competition. I knew I was ready to go back to diving, re-energized, committed, and not burned out, like I might have been if I hadn’t stepped back for a while.

I started diving again in the winter of 2019.  High School state championships were coming up, followed by Regionals for USA Diving.  I convinced my school to start a diving team so we could compete at States. I caught back up quickly from my time off and was ready for a competitive high school diving season and the upcoming USA Diving season.  I was so excited to be back in the pool.  

And then I broke my foot at school during gym, which took me out of the pool for a frustrating six weeks, making me even more eager to get back in the pool. I ultimately missed states, ending up competing at regionals (where I qualified for zones) and then my season was over as I already had made a commitment to a month serving as a volunteer at a Young Life camp in Colorado, which was during USA Diving Zones. 

My 2019-2020 season was going according to plan.  I won the NC 1a/2a State Championship.  I was increasing daily in practice the level of difficulty of my dive list.  Everything was on track towards my goal of peaking at USA Diving regionals, zones and nationals.  And then Covid happened and everything stopped.  Like most people, I’m going to be glad to see 2020 wind down in December; it’s not been a friend to anyone. But my commitment to diving remains solid and unwavering.

We are now back in the pool, thankfully, and building back up to where we were before everything stopped almost three months ago. Realistically, we have no idea if there will even be a USA Diving nationals event this year.  So, without the opportunity to showcase my abilities to colleges coaches in competition, I hope that my “story” explains my journey and you can see from my highlight reel where my abilities lie, as well as understand my potential growth as a diver with additional time and practice. 

So why would I be a strong recruit?   If you are looking to recruit a diver who knows what it’s like to compete at the highest level, who has untapped potential to explore, who will do the work, show up on time every time, give his best at every practice and every meet, and who will bring good energy to the team, then, well, I can confidently say that I’m your guy.