Swimming/Diving, Baseball
Favorite athlete: James Michael McAdoo
Favorite team: UNC Basketball
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning states
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: At Senior Zones at Virginia Tech last summer, my legs buckled in my hurdle, and I landed flat on my back on the board in front of a bunch of college coaches, some that I had planned to visit in the fall.
Music on iPod: I have all kinds of music.
Future plans: I plan to go to the University of North Carolina, I’m going in undecided
Words to live by: ‘Victory is reserved for those who want it the most.’
One goal before turning 30: Get a job I enjoy and start a family
One thing people don’t know about me: I love math
Roll back the calendar 12 years.
Ozzie Moyer, then an adventurous six-year-old, enjoyed nothing more than going off the diving board during his summer visits to the Harleysville Pool with his mother and siblings.
“Before I could even swim across the deep end, I would try to go off the diving board,” the Souderton senior said. “The lifeguards actually asked me if I passed the deep water test, and I didn’t.
“I tried to pass it. I swam it all crooked because I couldn’t swim in a straight line, but I just kept going off the diving board anyway.”
Moyer never lost his passion for diving, and he wrote his name in the record books when he captured the coveted gold medal in diving at the PIAA Class AAA meet last week.
“As far as I’m concerned, for Souderton diving, he’s a once-in-a-lifetime talent,” coach Todd Bauer said. “I have had a couple of coaches tell me they can’t wait to swim against us because their kids like to watch Ozzie dive.
“He’s fun to watch, and he definitely raised the level of the program, no question.”
Moyer’s emotions when nailed his 11th and final dive at states to ensure the gold were a combination of jubilation and relief, a moment he had a chance to relive when the state meet was televised several days later.
“You can see on the TV that I was excited because after the dive I swam super fast to the edge and I got out and was all smiles,” Moyer said. “I looked up at the scoreboard.
“After I saw 68 points, I threw a little fist pump. I looked up at (my coaches), and they were just hugging each other. It was just awesome.”
Making the accomplishment especially remarkable was the fact that it came on the heels of a second place performance at districts – Moyer’s fourth consecutive second place finish in the district meet.
“That was definitely the toughest loss of my high school career,” he said.
Instead of letting that loss define him, Moyer was right back on the board the next day.
“He didn’t take any time off, and that’s a credit to him,” diving coach Bill Hence said. “A lot of kids – four years in a row of finishing second would have gotten discouraged, and he didn’t. He knew what the grand prize was.”
And Moyer knew exactly what it would take to win the grand prize, so when he found himself in the same spot at the state meet as he had been in at districts heading into his final dive, Moyer was ready.
“At districts, I was in a good spot to win it, and I screwed up,” he said. “That’s where losing kind of teaches you – I thought, ‘All I have to do is not do what I did at districts.’
“I came out of the dive a little bit differently. I didn’t come out so early. I held on a little bit longer, and I knew as soon as I went in that it was awesome.”
Everyone watching also knew that Moyer – the first of a group of potential top four medalists to dive - had nailed his inward two-and-a-half.
“He did his dive, and it was so good everybody in the stands knew nobody was going to catch him,” Bauer said. “It was just beautiful, and the whole crowd went crazy.
“We knew he had sewn it up at that point.”
“It was a great day,” Hence added. “It’s the culmination of a lot of years of hard work on his part. I think it shows his self confidence and belief in himself, and he’s always had that belief that working hard is eventually going to pay off.”
In one unforgettable day, all the pressure that followed Moyer since he set foot in the pool as a freshman was gone.
“Actually, this year was definitely the most pressure I have experienced, especially at states,” said Moyer. “Connor Kuremsky, the kid that won states, was a sophomore when I was a freshman, so I had three years of him winning states.
“I knew this year would pretty much be my only chance to win. The whole year everyone was like, ‘You’re going to win states. You’re going to win states.’ My coaches would say, ‘There’s a blank banner up there that says guys’ diving.’ There was actually a lot of pressure to win something that mattered.”
That’s not to say Moyer didn’t have an impressive resume before winning the state title – he did. In addition to his four second place district medals, Moyer finished fourth at states in each of the last two years after finishing seventh as a freshman.
“The program was just waiting for Ozzie because we hadn’t had too many guy divers that were state-caliber divers,” Bauer said. “Having Ozzie there – he’s like another coach. He’s so cognizant of the sport of what’s going on and what should be going on.
“When he got second at districts, I said to Ozzie, ‘Districts is about getting there. States is what matters most. I’ll take a second at the district meet for a first at that meet any day.’ That helped him put things in perspective.”
Long before competing for states at the high school level was even a thought, Moyer – who had taken gymnastics – was hooked on diving. He began diving competitively in meets when he was six years old.
By the time he was eight, Moyer had not only won a diving competition at the Keystone State Games but qualified and won a title at nationals.
“It was a big deal at the time, but looking back now, it wasn’t really that big of a deal,” Moyer said. “It wasn’t USA Diving, but it was still pretty cool.”
Moyer admits there was a brief phase when he was around 12 or 13 when he lost interest in diving, preferring baseball and football instead. All that changed when he went to a diving camp at Clarion when he turned 14, and his passion was further fueled when he joined the high school team as a freshman.
At the end of his sophomore year, he joined the Centennial Aquatic Club that practices at La Salle. Several days a week his schedule would include leaving his high school practice, eating a quick dinner and then heading to La Salle for club practice. He reaped the dividends for his efforts, qualifying for nationals through those USA Diving meets while also excelling at the high school level.
“It used to be the dive team would be our excuse for why we wouldn’t win a meet because we didn’t have any divers,” Bauer said. “Now they’re the reason we’re winning because our divers are so great.”
In a glowing advertisement for just how far Souderton’s diving program has progressed, Moyer was joined at states by teammates Tyler Wenzel, who finished 10th, and Matt Evers, who finished 13th.
“That was one of the best parts of the whole thing,” Moyer said. “We all push each other, we all coach each other. They’re both awesome, and I was really thankful we could all make it.”
An honors student, Moyer is playing baseball for Souderton’s varsity this spring, and while the final chapter of his high school diving career was nothing short of storybook, he will write the next chapter at the University of North Carolina. Moyer, the recipient of a scholarship, is uncertain of his major but is interested in something related to the study of the body that would prepare him for pursuing a career in physical therapy.
UNC, according to Bauer, is inheriting a student-athlete who is a winner both in and out of the pool.
“It’s unbelievable how infectious his personality is,” the Indians’ coach said. “Teachers in the building talk to me about how nice a kid he is, all the kids respect him, coaches from other teams love him and so do the other athletes, even his competitors. Everybody just adores him.
“When he won, everybody was going up to him, giving him high fives and hugging him. Unless you were one of the four kids that were in the running for states, you were cheering for Ozzie. He’s a genuinely nice kid. He’s the type of kid you would want to marry your daughter. He’s a coach’s dream, that’s for sure.”
A coach’s dream who lived out his own dream when he captured a state title.
“I was driving home (from states) with the boys,” Hence said. “We were just talking about life and how excited they were. We were coming up to the school, and Ozzie said, ‘You know, Bill, if you want to keep driving, you can.’
“None of them wanted to turn into the school, and here it is a Thursday night at 12:30 in the morning. I’ll be honest - there was a huge part of me that just wanted to keep driving around in circles. It was such a special moment.”
A special moment in a special day that ensured the blank boys’ diving banner hanging in Souderton’s gymnasium will be blank no longer.
