WESTON DIVER WHITRIDGE GIVEN ALL-AMERICA HONORS

Author(s):    Marvin Pave, Globe Staff Date: August 11, 1991 Page: 10 Section: WEST WEEKLY

WESTON -- Brad Whitridge says he used to "fool around" on the diving board at The Country Club in Brookline. But,in this case, fooling around meant double flips that were so impressive, word got back to Weston High swim coach Pete Foley and the team's diving coach Jim Kelly that they had a varsity prospect living in their town.

So, Foley that winter pulled Whitridge out of his junior high wrestling practice for a couple of days to see what he could do on the board. "I was impressed right off the bat," Foley said. "He had a poise and a presence on the board. You could tell he was a heck of an athlete -- very graceful and natural in the air.

"It was like watching a dime drop in the water."

Nothing Whitridge has done since has changed the opinions of Foley or Kelly.

Whitridge, who broke school diving records in his sophomore and junior seasons, and who won the New England Age 16-18 diving competition in April, was named to the All-America first team recently by officials of the Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association, who made their decision after watching films of the candidates.

"He's one of the hardest working and most dedicated athletes I've ever been associated with," Foley said, "and he's caught the eye of several Division 1 colleges."

Whitridge, who is entering his senior year at Weston High, also has been a member of the Boston Area Diving team, an affiliate of US Diving, since the summer after his freshman year. As a high school freshman, he set a school record for most diving points by a first-year varsity member, but there were other sports that beckoned at the time.

"I had made the varsity football team as a sophomore," said the 5-foot- 9-inch, 150-pound Whitridge, "but I broke my ankle very early in the season and missed the rest of the season. Coach Foley and coach Kelly didn't expect me to make a major contribution to the team that winter.They sort of counted me out and hoped I'd be ready my junior year, but I rehabilitated quickly. I even surprised my therapist. Plus, I was really determined to dive well because I had set the freshman record and had finished sixth in the state high school diving competition. That kind of whetted my appetite."

So, two winters ago, Whitridge made his comeback from the injury and set school varsity point-scoring records in dual meet (six dives) and championship meet (11 dives) competition. This winter, he broke both records as Weston received its sixth top-10 national ranking in the past 10 years.

(Dives are scored by three judges in dual meets and five judges in championship meets. Scores are determined by taking the judges' scores and multiplying them by the degree of difficulty of the individual dive. For example, if a diver scored 18 points in one dive and the degree of difficulty was 2.5, the score is 45 for that dive.)

Whitridge's school record in dual meets went from 256.25 points as a sophomore to 286.35 points last winter; his record in championship meets went from 401.30 to 493.80.

Meanwhile, Weston's swim team finished with a 15-1 record in dual meets, captured the Medford Invitational and was third overall in the state championship meet. Whitridge finished third in the state high school diving competition as a sophomore and second this past winter to fellow All-America Matt Chichella of Acton-Boxborough High, whom he defeated in the New England championship meet.

Whitridge gave up football after his sophomore season, but has made the varsity tennis team and played first doubles last spring. "But," he said, "diving is now No. 1 for me." Last summer, he attended the University of Texas diving camp and this summer, he went to a camp at the University of Michigan, where he trained with the Boston Area Diving team alongside the Michigan varsity, which is led by former US Olympic coach Dick Kimball.

"It was an incredible experience," said Whitridge, who has put Michigan at the top of his list of colleges. "I learned a lot on all three boards -- the 1-meter and 3-meter boards, and 10-meter tower."

He left for Michigan the day after his high school classes had ended and spent three weeks in Ann Arbor. He competed in a Junior Olympic regional competition that qualified him for zone competition in the 16-18 age bracket at Eastern Michigan University.

"I didn't make it to the nationals. I missed by a couple of places and I didn't perform as well as I could have," said Whitridge, who won the 1-meter and 3-meter board competition in the Bay State Games' scholastic division a week after he returned to Massachusetts.

Whitridge trained for another week before going to the University of Pittsburgh two weeks ago and the senior zone qualifying (age 18-35) for the national diving championships.

He had to finish in the top four against more experienced competition and was realistic about not doing so.

"It was a great experience," he said. "I went off the high and low boards, and I was happy overall with my dives. I wasn't outstanding, but I didn't blow any dives, either."

Whitridge first got on a diving board in New Hampshire when he was 6 years old.

"It was pretty standard. I jumped in head first but I never knew there was a sport involved at the time. I didn't think about competing until coach Foley and coach Kelly took me aside while I was in the eighth grade. Coach Kelly who also coaches at Boston Area Diving has been a great teacher and a great influence all these years."

Whitridge found out he was named to the All-America team in late June, and "was very surprised. It's very rare that they take two All-Americas from the same region in the same category."

Whitridge will give diving a rest for now. He will start training for the high school season in September.

He has a distant dream, of course, of making it to the Olympics. "But my more immediate goal would be to make the US National team sometime down the road while I'm in college," he said. "And even more immediate would be winning the state meet for the first time."

For now, Foley said, Whitridge can rest on his laurels. "He's an All- America and that puts you in a very elite class. For someone who didn't have any formal diving training until he was a freshman in high school, Brad has come very far very quickly."

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