Marissa Hyland '24 Recruiting Profile

Hi, my name is Marissa Hyland. I am from Machesney Park, Illinois, and have lived here all my life. Diving has recently become part of my life for 5 months following a 5-year cheerleading career, 7-year gymnastics career, and a 3-year karate career. Gymnastics was a big part of my life until I discovered cheer, the hard work, and determination for competitive cheerleading has been hard. 3-5 days a week for 2 hours. It is a commitment but it is worth it when we compete as a team and win. I am also still doing karate and competing for that sport too. Towards the end of the summer of 2021, I decided to try diving because it looked fun and my friends were doing it too. Diving is a good sport for me because I can pick up things very easily from my gymnastics, and cheer background, it also takes off some strain from my body. I have started diving at my high school, Harlem High School, and have already advanced to the varsity diving team. I have had 5-8 meets so far and have placed 1st,2nd,3rd,2nd,6th,2nd,1st. My diving has improved a lot so far and I cannot wait to see where it takes me.

I have always had a positive attitude and mindset when It comes to school. Academics is one of the most important things in my life, as it prepares me for my future and helps me throughout my life. My courses have consisted with a  combination of honor and Ap classes to challenge myself in academics, I am taking all honors classes, and have 1 AP class. My GPA is 4.5 or higher. My freshman year I was valedictorian and had a 4.5 GPA with all honors classes and one AP class. I strive very hard every day in school to keep my grades up. I also have an opportunity to take a test to get into Rock Valley College as a Junior and graduate as a senior with my Associate's degree and a high school diploma. I want to major in medicine because my dream job is to become an anesthesiologist.  I greatly enjoy time with my family and friends outside of school and diving. Spending time with your loved ones is a very important part of you life. 

The main reason I want to go to college for diving is that it will help me get scholarships if I am very good at the sport and continue to keep my grades up. This will help me pay for college because I will have to have 8-10 years of college to become an anesthesiologist which is a lot of money and dept. My goals for diving are to make it to a college-level team and have fun doing my sport. I am dedicated, hard-working, and I don't get frustrated with myself when I do a bad dive.