William Tennent senior Ian Forlini has signed a letter of intent to dive at the University of Georgia. To view photos, please visit the Photo Gallery.
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Ian Forlini – University of Georgia (Diving)
Major: Business/Sports Marketing
Final list of colleges: Georgia, Tennessee, Cal-Berkeley, Arizona State
Reasons for choosing Georgia: “By the end, it came down to Arizona State and Georgia. Overall, it just felt right at Georgia. I really liked Arizona State, and not that Georgia’s academics are known for being the best, but it’s a good school for academics, and besides diving, I knew I wanted a school that was good for academics. The overall feel of the school and the team unity between the swimmers and the divers and the level of their swimming program – besides Cal-Berkeley – was the best out of the four also.”
What was the progression that led you to diving at the collegiate level? “I was always diving my entire 
life, but even going into high school, I was never like, ‘Oh, I wonder where I’m going to college’ or thinking about diving in college. I knew I was going to, but it didn’t really cross my mind until my junior year when I started talking to coaches, and it really became a reality. I was always more focused on what was happening than worrying about the next couple of years.”
Coach Lisa Forlini says: “When I was coaching swimming and he was young, he just loved the diving board, and I couldn’t keep him off it. From the time he was little – at three years old, he was climbing up on the diving board. At the age of five, he was competing in summer league stuff and doing things with the Suburban Aquatic League. He just really loved it and always wanted to do it.
“From an athletic point of view, in all the years I’ve coached, I’ve had very few athletes that are so mentally strong. He amazes me how he can shake things off. If he has a dive that isn’t a good dive, he’s able to shake it off and move right on to the next dive and produce a better dive than the one that he struggled with. It’s almost like when he struggles, it kicks him into a different gear, and he is so mentally strong. I’ve seen athletes get angry and have it affect their next performance. He just isn’t that way. He’s very calm and collected. I just had a parent at nationals say to him, ‘You always seem so level.’ It is very true. He’s an extremely level athlete. He’s very even keeled, and that has to come from his love of the sport. He just really loves what he does. He’s very excited about going to college and very excited about diving at Georgia.
“He’s very dedicated, very committed. In all the time when he was young, I never heard, ‘I don’t want to go to practice.’ He never wanted to skip. Kids usually want to get out of it a lot. If he had said, ‘I don’t want to go tonight,’ I would have said, ‘Okay’ because he never missed. He’s very dedicated to what he does.”
Coach Jamie Forlini says: “Knowing him my whole life – he’s a very driven person. Even when he was young, I remember at summer swimming when he was five, he did not want those eight-year-olds going ahead of him. He did whatever he had to do to be successful. He’s very internally motivated. He just needed to do the best that he could do. It didn’t matter about the time or place or the scoring in a diving situation. He just wanted to be happy with how he did. With his work ethic, it just came along with the talent he was given, and he was very blessed that way. He’s a rare animal to be able to swim as well as he does and to dive and to be so knowledgeable in both areas of aquatics and just love them both. As a swimming coach, I always wonder just how good he would be if he had swum, but it’s okay because I know that he enjoys what he does.
“He’s just easy. Forget that I’m the parent – as the coach, he is such a coach’s dream because you can get advice from him, and he will give an honest answer, whether it’s a good move or not a good move in swimming or in diving. He can critique what he does, and he can put things in a way that if you’re not getting across to the team, he’s able to convey your message. His ability to see the technical parts of things is well beyond his years.
“I have been coaching for over 30 years, and he’s probably in the top two or three in terms of knowledge and understanding. He may be the top one. He’s probably the easiest one I’ve ever been able to work with and get a lot out of. As an athlete, he knows what he needs to do, so we don’t have to say boo. I’m going to miss him next year. He’s just fun to have around because he has a great sense of humor. He’s very easy going but very internally motivated. He just wants to please himself and get the most out of it.”
About Ian:
Favorite food: Chipotle
Favorite movie: Anchorman
Favorite music: Country
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