On Campus: Emory Junior Keith Diggs

By Brian Savard

SELINSGROVE, Pennsylvania, September 6. EMORY junior Keith Diggs stands next in line for the On Campus series that previews the most elite Division III swimmers in the country.

Diggs, a Vienna, Va., native, competed in the 2007 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. He placed 13th in the 200 IM (1:53.83), fifth in the 400 IM (4:00.88) and 25th in the 100 backstroke (53.27). Diggs earned a gold medal by competing on the first-place Emory 400 medley relay (3:23.13), and he also swam the anchor leg of Emory's ninth-place 200 freestyle relay.

At Emory, Diggs is studying political science with a minor in music.

What is your favorite movie?
Monty Python and the Holy Grail

What one song psyches you up the most before a race?
"New Millennium Cyanide Christ" by Meshuggah.

Activities on campus (other than swimming)?
I coach twice a week for ECSC, a winter swim camp for local kids at Emory's pool.

Collegiate awards won (both academic and athletic)?
CSCAA All-America, 400 IM (2007)
CSCAA All-America Honorable Mention, 200 IM (2007)
CSCAA Academic All-America (2006, 2007)
Emory College Dean's List (Spring 2007)
2-time UAA Athlete of the Week
Collegeswimming.com National Collegiate Swimmer of the Week

Where do you see yourself five years from now?
Living somewhere very warm. Perhaps in law school, perhaps teaching, perhaps something else (I suppose that just about covers everything). I'm really quite focused on the two years I have left at Emory.

What made you choose the college that you attend?
Jon Howell and the whole team did a knockout job recruiting me, and I really felt that I would be at home at Emory. It's a great school with a really deep swim team, which was something I was looking for coming from a small club program. The location is a nice bonus, too – Atlanta has lots to offer, and I love that I can go to the outdoor pool on Halloween or April Fool's Day.

At what point in your swimming career did you realize your talent as an elite swimmer?
I never really realized my talent so much as found a sport I wasn't terrible at and decided to stick with it. I started when I was 10 on the advice of a lifeguard who saw me swimming laps one evening and immediately I was scoring points for my summer league team, which was a great change of pace from five years of being a benchwarmer in the more popular sports such as soccer or baseball (I tried basketball for two seasons and scored three points combined). That winter, I simply decided to drop everything else and go to swimming year round. I never looked back and it's been an awesome ride so far.

What are your goals for the 2007-08 season?
To have an even better season than the last one. Make NCAAs before the December taper. Get under 4:00 in the IM and shoot for the school record while I'm at it. Get good at a new event. Learn to swim 200s. Be the guy who trains distance but does the sprints too. Get somebody else on the team to like death metal.

What advice would you give to a high school swimmer with your talent looking at colleges?
Use swimming to get yourself into a good school, because that's what will count more in the long run. Don't go chasing after a scholarship at a crappy school. Find a place where you like both the coach and the team and will have lots of people around you who are every bit as committed and talented as you are.

What is the most difficult challenge that you've had to overcome in your swimming career?
Senioritis. It was never severe; my grades didn't suffer and it wasn't like I was about to quit swimming or anything, but it was enough that I didn't train as hard or as often as I did junior year and it showed in my times. I knew I would survive in the long run, but it was the first year that my times got slower instead of faster, and that was difficult to deal with. Looking back I wish I had trained hard all that year; I'd probably have my high school record in the 500 to show for it had I done so.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use