Almost everyone has some memory of jumping off a diving board during their childhood. For most people, it ends there. However, for senior and diver Konner Minuth, it didn’t stop there. Minuth is the only diver for the DHS swim team this year, and he has been one of the few divers throughout his entire high school career. “[Having other divers on the team] sort of inspired me more to try harder dives,” Minuth said. “And it was really good, because I'm not the only one, you know, so it's like, other people do this.” Before he started diving, Minuth spent his time as a gymnast. At 10, he began trampolining and doing acrobatics. It wasn't until eighth grade that he started diving. During his time at DHS, he has made the All State team for Michigan. In his 2025 season, Minuth made Saginaw Valley League (SVL) first team.
“A lot of it was practice that I did year round and all that to get to the level I wanted to be at so I could really get my technique down, because diving has so much technique involved with it,” Minuth said. “When I first started it, I was doing like, some harder flips, but I didn't have it super clean, so that's why I went to a lot of dive clubs. I went to Oakland, I went to Eastern Michigan, I went to Oxford high school and all that training each summer, and that pretty much helped me get really good. And then from there, I did great at regionals and that allowed me to qualify for state.” Former DHS student Allison Nussear is currently the diving coach for the swim team. Nussear works to help Minuth with his mental state during meets. She said Minuth exhibits an immense amount of skill as a diver and rarely needs help correcting his dives but its rather his mindset that needs correcting. “It is extremely nerve-wracking and mentally challenging for most divers at big meets so we've been kind of trying to work on that,” Nussear said. “I don't know how to explain it but like it's not PTSD, but you know after effects from this year with Konner about being really hard on himself he has come extremely far he's been working super hard towards this and obviously he does get extremely nervous during meets I feel like normally during every sport people get nervous during meets but I mean I think that he's come a long way since that last meet.”
Athletes all take different approaches on how they deal with nerves during a competition. The pressure they put on themselves, the fear of failing and balancing the demands of being a student athlete can all factor into how they perform during a competition. “I sort of treat it like practice, like it's just practice, I ignore everything else around me,” Minuth said. “And I sort of turn off my brain like right when I take off the board. I think ‘walk down the board,’ right, and then right when I'm on the head, just shut my brain off, do my flip and then I just think about the entry and what comes right before.” During his career as a diver, Minuth has dealt with numerous injuries. Most injuries for divers occur when they make contact with either the water, or the board. “I've hit my head on the board my freshman year,” Minuth said. I cut it a little bit, mild concussion, not too crazy, mild. My junior [year] I hit my feet twice on the board, and, like, one of which was, like, right before regionals. And that kind of sucked, but I was good, though, [it] wasn't the worst.” An injury can be a hard thing to come back from, as many athletes will stop training in order to properly recover. Fear of reinjury or loss of practice can lead to poor performance during competitions. Despite this, Minuth was able to put in hard work and he placed first at Tri-City Championships and first at the 2025 SVL Championships, which ended the regular season. Starting the road to State Championships, Tri-City Championships took place on Jan. 15 and 17 at the SVSU Ryder Aquatic Center. Minuth started his day earlier than the rest of the team to compete for diving and placed third in the prelims and second in the finals. Minuth and the swim team will attend more regional meets this season, including the Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association (MISCA) meet at Calvin University before ending their season with SVL Championships in Grand Blanc. “I did get a PR, which was good, and then my front two and half pike, that one, I went a little bit short on, just because [of] my hurdle, and it's in the morning, right, I don’t dive as good in the morning,” Minuth said. “A lot of dives I did pretty good, most of them. I'd say three or four of them, I wish I would have done it better. I still got a PR and now I'm just gonna focus on those 11 dives for like the rest of the season and all that. I might make a couple slight modifications, maybe do a couple easier dives that I just do cleaner, just to try and get more points, just so I don't risk it, you know?” After Minuth graduates he hopes to continue his diving at Saginaw Valley State University or pursue powerlifting at Northwood University. As of now, Minuth will be the last diver at DHS for the boys swim team, but he hopes to see more people take the opportunity to pick up diving in the future. Nussear hopes to get more people involved with the sport as well. “You should definitely try it if you're extremely interested in diving,” Nussear said. “I think that kind of putting yourself out there and you kind of it's I mean it is a brave sport I mean it's kind of scary at times but it's really just about kind of experiencing and putting yourself out there so I mean if you're interested I would definitely talk to someone about it or at least try it out and see if it works out for you.”