Player of the Pack: Isaac Morris

Isaac Morris is a sophomore diver on the swimming and diving team majoring in graphic design.

Cheyenne Alexis: Can you talk about your success this season?

Isaac Morris: It was a lot of hard work and a lot of fun.

CA: How was it making NCAA championships?

IM: Zones was a lot of fun, it was really hard. There were a lot of good people there. It was a good meet just to practice competing with a lot of really good people and getting some more experience.

CA: What is your favorite thing about diving?

IM: I really like how it’s very mental and also physical. Like, there’s a lot of physical strength and flexibility, but also it’s very mentally challenging and you have to be pretty focused and very aware of what’s happening.

CA: What made you decide to dive at USD?

IM: I really enjoyed the team on my recruiting trip. I also really like Kris (Jorgensen) and his coaching style works really well with me. I also really like the campus, it’s really nice here — it’s not too big, not too small.

CA: What are you looking forward to next season?

IM: I’m really excited to meet all the freshmen — we have a lot of freshmen coming in. So, we’ll have a much bigger diving team, that’ll be exciting. I’m pretty excited for going another year, putting in more hard work.

CA: Are there any challenges with diving?

IM: A big challenge is the mental part: “Can I do it?” or, “Will I be able to do it well enough?” I think the mental challenges come a lot during meets when you’re focused on you have to do your best, but there’s also all these other people here who are really good and, “Am I better than them?” The mental part is pretty challenging. Also, in the pool, I feel like I’m making a correction, I’m doing my best, but maybe I’m not doing it or maybe it’s the wrong correction.

CA: Can you talk about your team dynamics?

IM: I think this last year, we got (along) together really well and we’re all really good friends. I’m excited to see next year… we’re getting four freshmen, so that’ll be exciting because we’re basically doubling our team. We’ll see how the dynamic changes. I’m excited to see that, get some new blood.

CA: Can you talk about how next year you’ll be acting as a team leader, being a junior?

IM: I think next year it will be really important for Tristan (Gens) and I to step up and sort of lead, because we’ll have a lot of people looking to us to figure it out. Being a freshman is hard, so just making ourselves available if people need to talk or being a little more motivating in the weight room or more positive in the pool, just keeping morale up.