Lake Forest College sees many athletes come through its doors, but only a few have made a name for themselves here. With their amazing players, Handball and Women’s Hockey teams are some notable examples. Now, though, we have a diver.
Heath Ogawa ‘19 joined the diving team as soon as he got on campus with one goal in mind: make it to NCAA Nationals as a freshman. Only a week after spring break, Ogawa found himself in Greensboro, North Carolina at the NCAA Nationals with over forty qualified divers at the end of a one-meter diving board.
Ogawa went on to make it to the top eight in the country for All American Men’s Diving before he was short in a new dive that he had not practiced for long. The seven divers he was competing against had nearly twelve years of experience under each of their belts and one little mistake was all that separated him, considering that Ogawa had only five years of experience.
When Ogawa moved to Illinois from Japan, where it is extremely expensive to join extracurricular activities, he was keen on doing some form of acrobatics. Of course, gymnastics was his first choice and he started diving as side gig so he could stay in shape when not on season. However, when he graduated high school, his coach, who coached him in both sports, told him he needed to decide between diving and gymnastics so that he could be the best at one of them. Due to the extremely competitive nature of gymnastics, he chose diving.
Lake Forest College was close to Ogawa’s home and had a diving program; he was sold. Coached by Donna O’Brien, he breezed through the swim and diving season. Continuing his freshman legacy, he took to the three-meter board at the Midwest Conference, and without a blink, he beat the record by some 15 points with 560 points total. When I asked Ogawa how he felt about what he had accomplished he said, “I was happy with my performance but I won’t be satisfied until I bring back the championship title to Lake Forest College.”
