Matthew Nickerson was one of three Central Bucks South seniors recognized at a special news conference on Friday, Dec. 11. The CB South senior has accepted a scholarship to dive at LaSalle University. Photos of all three signings will be posted in the Photo Gallery.
Matthew Nickerson – LaSalle University (Diving)
Major: International Business or Political Science
Final list of colleges: LaSalle, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Boston College
Reasons for choosing LaSalle: “I really liked the coach there, and I like his coaching style. I like the facility they have. I sat in on classes on my official visit, and he was talking about how the international business goes to China for two weeks, so it would give me an opportunity to study abroad and also play a sport. Some of the other schools I was looking at wouldn’t give me that opportunity.
“(The college process) was a little stressful trying to decide whether to commit early to LaSalle or wait it out to see if I got accepted to the other schools, but this is a big time relief.”
When did the idea of diving in college become a reality? “Actually, up until two years ago, I thought I was going to be playing baseball in college. I have actually been to camps at Cornell, Brown and Princeton for baseball, but I had a lot more offers in diving. I felt I could take that to the next level rather than baseball.”
CB South diving coach Cheryl Choe says: “He absolutely loves the sport, and you can tell. He’s excited to try new dives, and he listens very intently to learn how to make the dives better. It’s one of the hardest things for any athlete to actually make the corrections, and he does everything he can to make the corrections. That’s what makes him good, that’s what gives him the potential to be even better.”
CB South swimming coach Jeff Lake says: “In my first year, we had awesome swimmers, but we had no divers, so we’d give up 13 points every meet. To have Matt dive for us the past three years and now his fourth year has been awesome because he’s been first, second or third pretty much in every single one of those meets, and that’s awesome. He’s been able to score points, and he really helps out the team.
“Matt is a person who’s a nice guy. He’s a captain this year, and normally you don’t have divers that are captains because it’s one event, and sometimes there’s seclusion from the team because you’re practicing in a different end of the pool, but Matt has always been very involved with the team. He’s a great kid with a great personality and a leader of the team. Obviously, his hard work has paid off.”
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