She probably already did three flips before they took this picture

The next installment in our series of interviews of Columbia athletic teams features an interview by aquatic aficionado Ross Chapman with diver Alyssa Menz (CC ’15). 

Bwog: How’s everything going this year?

Alyssa: Everything’s great, thanks! I was abroad last semester in Kenya doing a tropical biology and sustainability field course, so I wasn’t quite sure how it would be getting back into diving, but it was awesome. We had kind of a rough awakening against Penn for our first meet this semester but I think the team is motivated to work even harder now.

B: How has the team been bonding?

A: As far as with the divers, we’ve had cookouts over at my suite, and we do a team bonding at the beginning of every year. We went and did a ropes course, and it was physically exhausting but also great. You’re really high up in the air and you’re having to work together. We all do breakfast after weight lifting, too. And I tried to reach out to the girls over the summer, so it was nice to have that friendship going into the seasons.

B: That’s a lot of work. So what is it like when you’re together?

A: Usually, travelling with the team is a lot of fun. I mean, you’ve got 32 girls together on a bus who are college students, so there’s a lot of excitement and signing and cheering and talking about personal lives. And with the diving team, sometimes we’ll go up without the swimmers, and that’s also a lot of fun, a bit crazier. Our coach has a lot of world experiences, and our stories and his are really fun.

B: What makes diving exciting or good to come out for?

A: The swimming and diving team has a fantastic record over the last two years. We also had girls go on to compete at NCAA’s, and most of the divers have qualified for NCAA Zones. So the team in general has been winning a lot. It’s exciting to support a team that’s doing so well. As far as diving goes, I honestly don’t know how anyone could not enjoy watching it. It’s people flying through the air, doing lots of flips, looking absolutely beautiful and elegant while they’re doing it, and inside, being really scared. It’s really fun to watch, it’s entertaining, and for me and a lot of my friends it’s our favorite Olympic sport to watch.

B: Do you still get nervous during meets?

A: Definitely. Since I had been gone for about 8 months studying abroad, this first meet really rekindled my love for the sport and for competition and general. There’s something so invigorating and exciting about showcasing what you’ve been working towards, and there’s a physical outcome that people get to watch. I’ve been working a lot with our sports psychologist, since my sophomore year. He is just phenomenal as far as attacking fears that I have, or mental blocks, or inabilities to transfer what I do in practice to meets. That hasn’t just helped me with diving, but translates over into the rest of your life. You’re diving off of anything from 1 meter to 3 meters to 10 meters tall. (I dove 10m when I was younger, but I fractured my back during a jump and it never quite healed, and I haven’t done it since.) There are a lot of things you come up against in diving that are really scary. And it translated over into the real world.

B: I didn’t even know that we had a sports psychologist.

A: Yeah. Dr. Murphy has done a lot as long as I’ve been here as far as building up the programs. The psychologist works with athletes from every single sport and holds different seminars. He has provided almost everyone with a lot of different techniques.

B: Between your sustainable development studies and all of your diving, do you have time for anything else?

A: Every summer I’ve been able to go abroad and conduct individual research or go with Master’s or PhD programs. And I’ve had a couple of internships, one at the Museum of Natural History and one in Florida. And I was in the Undergraduate Recruitment Committee, so I was leading tours for three years, and then I realized that I needed to let one thing go. I’m on the executive board for the Columbia College Students Ambassadors. But I definitely have time for fun too! Being on a sports team, I don’t have the luxury to procrastinate. It’s been great about keeping me on track and making sure that I prioritize hanging with friends when I have that extra hour. So, TV wise, not that up to date with anything, but I think hanging out with friends and performing athletically academically is more important.

B: How did you start diving?

A: So I started when I was 7, just in summer camps at Binghamton University. I was a gymnast, and then I quit when I was 11 because it was 25-30 hours a week. And when you’re 10 or 11 years old, that’s not what you want to be doing. I also was interested in a lot of sports, I played lacrosse and basketball and soccer and softball and diving. And then when I got to middle school I narrowed it down to basketball, lacrosse and diving, and in high school just to lacrosse and diving. And then I realized that if I wanted to compete nationally, I had to focus on one, so at the end of my sophomore year, I decided to commit myself to diving. But I’ve been doing diving ever since I was 7.

B: Wow. Did you do as much stuff out of sports then as you do now?

A: I actually did more. I played the violin for 15 years and would play in lots of different concerts and in a trio, so we played around the county where I lived. And I was in Mock Trial, and National Honor Society, and Math Honor Society, Spanish club, so I was always really busy. I’m an only child, so I think I really craved being around other people, so that’s sort of how I focused my energy.

B: You’re making every other Columbia student look bad.

A: No! Thank you, but what I’ve seen here is that every single person is so talented in so many different ways. I feel really fortunate that, with diving, I’m able to have an outlet and continue to do one of my passions in college, and I think some people aren’t quite as lucky. But it’s really inspiring to be here and see people, like famous rock climbers and so many up and coming musicians that are here. Everyone here is honestly really talented.

B: If you could have a lot of fans show up to one event, what would it be?

A: I think our home opener against Brown on January 24th would be great! Brown is our homecoming, and we’re hoping that alumni will come back and support us. As the first meet in the home pool, there’s nothing that can beat having the stands packed and a lot of excitement and people cheering and making signs. It’s good to have people realize that there are other sports excelling a lot here at Columbia. I think having the student body realize all of the hard work that we put in outside of academics is good.

B: Do you have a message you want to get out to students?

A: Just please come support us! We have a lot of talent to show off and have been working really hard. We’re all really excited about this season and would love people to see all the talent we have here on the team. I think that in everything we’re giving back to the school, athletically and by our performance, we’d love to have all the support and pumping up we can get. There are some meets where there are only a handful of parents, and that’s really demoralizing. There’s nothing like having a huge crowd supporting you to make you perform better.

B: Oh! Are there free things at your meets?

A: Yes! So actually, just like volleyball, we have one meet where we give out free shirts at the beginning to however many fans. And everyone wants to accumulate as many t-shirts as possible, especially if they’re free. I think that might be connected with our first home meet.

B: Which is more pressure, an NCAA competition or finals week?

A: I think finals week. I have not quite yet figured out how to deal with anxiety regarding academics as well as I do athletically. In diving, I have the whole team for support, and I’ve had a lot of test runs. Academically, you’ve got one or two midterms, and then a final. And NCAA anything is more fun, a lot more fun to prepare for than finals. Athletic competition is really stimulating. Academically, you’re really just competing against yourself.

[Interview edited for brevity]

A really complicated diving maneuver via Columbia University Athletics/Gene Boyars