Gorgeous sun-tanned girls with gigantic sunglasses, a ridiculously good football team, “The OC,” Laguna Beach (both the show and the actual beach) and a record-setter at BU. It’s been a good run for Southern California exports lately.
It’s 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 5, and freshman diver Brian Lawler, a native of Orange County, Calif., has just been rudely awakened by junior teammate Megan White.
“It starts by me calling Brian in the morning to wake him up,” White said of the now-routine events that transpire on the day of a meet. “Then we go and have breakfast at West Campus. We like to get to the pool usually 15-30 minutes before we are required to be there so that we aren’t feeling rushed. Then we both go heat up our backs, turn on our iPods, warm up, stretch out and then hit the boards.”
Lawler, an experienced diver of six years, had no idea that hitting the boards in his second-ever NCAA Division I competition against the University of New Hampshire would turn out like it did. Would be so decidedly not routine.
But once the meet began, a surprisingly relaxed Lawler had the feeling something special was in the air at the Fitness and Recreation Center as he executed dive after dive to near perfection.
“I had a pretty good idea that I had been diving well,” Lawler said. “In the back of my mind I thought that I was probably going to break it.”
Then, on his final attempt from the three-meter board … nothing. No splash. Not an errant bit of water and barely a sound.
Wait for it. Wait for it.
The scoreboard flashes: 382.05. Tops in the BU record books.
But what’s shattering one 25-year old school record (Mark Graham’s three-meter score of 352.35) when you can break two? Brian’s next dive from one-meter up gave him a score of 337.80, topping Greg Voloshin’s old mark of 324.60 set in 2000.
“On the three-meter I pretty much knew I had broken the record, but on the one-meter I had no idea,” Lawler said. “After I broke the school record, when I hit the water and popped up and everyone was cheering, it was a really good feeling.”
His performance against UNH earned Lawler the America East Diver of the Week award – the first recognition of an individual on the swimming and diving team this season.
Same time next week sound good? And the week after that, perhaps?
It sounded very good to Lawler, as during the team’s next two meets he continued his assault on perfection. Against UMass-Amherst, he scored 12 points for the Terriers, and against Stony Brook University, he finished with 311.20 points in the three-meter dive, and was 90 points better than his closest opponent in the one-meter dive, with a score of 290.04.
Lawler has already accumulated three America East Diver of the Week awards, the most of any freshman diver to attend BU.
“It’s nice to be appreciated and recognized,” Lawler said. “Diving is a really mental sport. It’s not endurance, so you want to be in a good state of mind. You want to be focused.”
You don’t have to look too far back in history to find another BU diver with an incredible amount of focus. Four-time America East Outstanding Male Diver Victor Paguia left a legacy that few thought could ever be touched when he graduated last year. But Lawler is quickly catching up.
“When Victor graduated last year, I think the team and [diving coach] Agnes [Gerlach-Miller] were worried that we might not find someone to fill his shoes,” White said. “He won both boards at conferences all four years and set records. Everyone at BU thought Victor was God, but seeing a freshman come into the program and break two outstanding team records … I think it speaks for itself. It’s pretty damn amazing.
“Brian is a much prettier diver, as we describe it,” she added. “He has better form and perfection.”
Perfecting his diving at BU would have never been possible had a certain series of events not occurred.
“My mom signed me up for lessons, and when I was in high school I started getting better and better,” Lawler said. “We actually moved to Orange County where I could train. After that I started with a good club diving team, and now I’m here. Moving down to a different area and everything, a lot of sacrifices were made. I owe it all to [my parents].”
And BU owes it all to Harvard diving coach, Keith Miller, who just so happens to share a last name with BU’s coach due to more than coincidence.
“I was talking to Harvard, and their coach told me that Ivy League schools don’t offer scholarships for sports,” Lawler said. “He also mentioned that his wife was a coach at BU, and she had a full scholarship available, and after that it was pretty much the perfect situation.
“In a way, getting a scholarship was not only a way I could repay my parents and help them out but also a reward for working so hard,” he continued. “It’s funny how it all came into play. If you were to ask me a year from last summer I wouldn’t have been looking at BU. It’s all kind of like fate I guess.”
Whether its fate or simply really good luck, Lawler is happy to be at BU doing what he loves.
“For me, diving is a way to escape everything else I have in my life. All the stress of school and whatever is going on in my life. When I go to practice I get to put it all behind me. I try to clear my mind, so when you do a good dive you feel rewarded.”
Of course, another big part of that reward is being able to interact with teammates, and grow as a unit on a daily basis.
“Brian takes on the world with a glass-half-full outlook,” said senior swimmer Kila Englebrook. “He works hard at practice and in the meets and there is no doubt about his dedication to the sport. Just the same, Brian is a dedicated friend. Talking with Brian for five seconds makes you feel a thousand times better. He can take on tough everyday life situations just as he would approach a tough competitor – with a positive and focused mindset.”
That’s not to say that he still can’t get made fun of for being from ground zero for teen drama.
“I get that all the time,” Lawler said. “It’s pretty funny, people will go ‘Do you know the characters?’ and all that. I kind of expected it.”
But the coast-to-coast change hasn’t presented as big of a problem for Lawler as some may think.
“I guess you could say I’m fickle about it,” Lawler said. “When I’m here I wish I was there, and when I’m there I wish I was here.
“The weather and the people are a little different, but everybody’s so nice here,” he continued. “I like it here and I like it there.”
It’s pretty obvious, however, that a lot of people like him here.
“After my best friend transferred this year to Northeastern [University], Brian has definitely replaced that spot. I’m just really happy that he’s here,” White said. “That’s why it’s so nice to be on a sports team here at BU, because everyone bonds really well, kind of like a family. It’s like a home away from home.”
And for Lawler, he’s left the home of beaches, tans and constant temperatures behind. But he kept one thing, one very important thing – the water. And that’s paradise enough.