Michael Crinion tried out for the diving team before he even tried the sport.
Michael Crinion, a senior at Albion College, grew up playing goalkeeper in soccer.
So in spring 2013, when he heard the men’s swimming and diving team was looking for divers, he thought he would be a natural: Goalkeeping, after all, involves diving. That summer, he went home to Jenison, Michigan, with a plan to teach himself to dive – and not exactly the old-fashioned way. Crinion watched YouTube – hours and hours of YouTube, from clips of Olympic masters to how-to’s produced by the Indiana University Diving Camp.
When the exercise science and music double major returned to Albion in fall 2013, he headed to the pool to put his knowledge into action, and the coaches noticed him perfecting his form. As a sophomore, all that fine-tuning – not to mention YouTube-viewing – paid off, and Crinion placed fifth on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards at the conference championships. This year, after sitting out his junior season because of rigorous courses, he hopes to top that performance.
