DIVING INTO GREATNESS
We are thrilled to start off a new decade by celebrating a
standout springboard diver.
Calie Brady’s interest in diving came from watching her two older sisters, Kiersten and Erin. In 2006, Erin began to practice her dives at “a new place,” also known as the Beede Center. Calie, an aspiring gymnast barely out of preschool, grew more intrigued, so asked her parents if she could join her sisters on the springboards.
Soon after, she was working with Boston Area Divers. Known better by its acronym, BAD is a private springboard diving coaching organization for five to 18 year olds that has produced more high school and national champions than any other program of its kind in New England.
A background in gymnastics is indeed favorable, yet it is Calie’s lack of fear that lands her on one podium after another. Would-be divers with a fear of hitting their
heads on the board leave the sport before achieving greatness. Calie, just 17 and a junior at Middlesex School, has channeled that fearlessness to podium positions locally, nationally and abroad.
Calie’s favorite category of dives is twisters; she’s been perfecting a 1½ backflip into a 2½ twist for five years. She’s obviously doing something right as she accrued Gold medals in both the 1m and 3m boards at this summer’s AAU’s National Dive meet and synchro diving championships.
She also took home the Gold in the 1m and silver on the 3m at the Junior 2019 Irish Open Diving Championships. She continued piling up medals in Montreal at the CAMO International meet with Bronze medals on both the 1m and 3m.
What’s it like approaching the board in front of a live audience and panel of judges? “I try to make my head blank and rely on muscle memory,” Calie said. “And then I just concentrate.”
Though Calie is reaching for the same glory as her competitors, she has made many solid friendships among them. She counts former BAD teammate Kate Mullin, now a diver for Duke University, among her supporters. “We motivate each other,” Calie said.
And it just may be Kate’s motivation, combined with the support of family and her own self-drive that will allow Calie to also become an NCAA diver. And we have it on good authority that colleges are taking notice. Meanwhile, Calie continues to plug away at a serious academic schedule at Middlesex, where she’s also a member of the squash and track teams. Despite even that, Calie tweaks her schedule to accommodate her favorite pastime, movies.
Join us in wishing Calie great success in her diving endeavors with all its twists and turns. We have every confidence we’ll be seeing great things from this successful young athlete.
