{"id":13017,"date":"2025-02-17T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T17:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=13017"},"modified":"2025-02-17T13:35:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T18:35:26","slug":"trust-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=13017","title":{"rendered":"Trust fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

When TCNJ diving coach Eric Blevins left home in Virginia for college in the Midwest, he brought along a thick drawl that earned him the nickname \u201cCountry,\u201d and an unmistakable zest for life. <\/span><\/p>\n

A natural athlete who played football and wrestled in high school, Blevins could often be found doing backflips on the campus quad. His energy and agility caught the attention of a swimmer who suggested he join the dive team. <\/span><\/p>\n

Blevins was surprised \u2014 his skills at the time were strictly land-based \u2014 but also intrigued: How hard could it be? <\/span><\/p>\n

The answer (very, very hard) arrived a month later when he washed out of his first competition with dismal results. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018Well, that\u2019s not going to happen again,\u2019\u201d he says. <\/span><\/p>\n

Blevins began skipping lunch to spend extra hours at the pool, his days soon defined by classes and chlorine. By season\u2019s end, he beat his nearest competitor by more than 100 points; by graduation, he\u2019d twice been named a Division III All-American and collected a record-breaking eight conference titles for Grinnell <\/span>College. He\u2019s driven not by a sense of competition \u2014 well, not only \u2014 but by the unexpected joy he discovered in pursuit of the perfect dive. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDiving really changed my perspective about sports and competition and life,\u201d Blevins says. \u201cYou get out what you put in. It meant so much to me <\/span>that I wanted to give that back.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Since arriving at TCNJ in 2018, Blevins has won the Metropolitan Collegiate Conference Diving Coach of the Year award four times and sent divers to the NCAA regional championships and beyond. Last spring, senior Ethan Weiss earned a <\/span>spot to compete at the 2024 Olympic Trials Qualifier in Indiana. The key to the team\u2019s growing success is in part the determination of its athletes. But Blevins\u2019 approach \u2014 at once rigorous <\/span>and exuberant \u2014 is equally critical. <\/span><\/p>\n

On a recent fall day, a carefully curated playlist, from Lady Gaga and Britney Spears to Pat Benatar, rose above the steady churn of splashing waves. The upbeat mix is intentional, one way to offset the intensity of the dives themselves, a series of somersaults and twists and backward flips midair. Blevins stood parallel to the boards, delivering detailed feedback in a playful tone that, too, is no accident.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Eric
Photo credit: Michelle Gustafson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Square it out! <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Push through your toes! <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Pull your shoulders in! <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s gonna be a nice bruise! <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI personally thrive more in a positive, fun atmosphere, especially in a sport that\u2019s so mentally taxing,\u201d he <\/span>says. \u201cSo that\u2019s how I coach. Diving is fun. That\u2019s the whole point.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Creating that atmosphere requires more than just delivering critiques with a smile. Blevins spends hours outside of practice conjuring the details he believes help his divers succeed, from assembling the 500- song, profanity-free playlist (\u201cNot easy!\u201d) to hosting ugly-sweater holiday parties and epic Halloween scavenger hunts. And then there are his infamous workouts. <\/span><\/p>\n

On “Vegas Day,” the divers roll dice to determine drills and repetitions. For \u201cHell Mile,\u201d the team runs laps while drawing from a stack of Blevins\u2019 handwritten notecards that might add 100 burpees to the challenge. During \u201cDiver Jeopardy,\u201d they tackle trivia questions about diving history, sports trivia, and Blevins himself; each mistake earns a special exercise. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very, very creative what this guy comes up with,\u201d says Weiss. \u201cAnd it definitely brings us all together because he does it all with us. He\u2019s not a coach who\u2019s like, \u2018Do this, do that.\u2019 He\u2019s right there doing the workout with us.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The method to his madness, Blevins says, is to build camaraderie \u2014 and serious core strength \u2014 so the divers challenge themselves. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so much more fun to try the hard stuff that you\u2019re afraid of if you have that kind of support system,\u201d he says. <\/span><\/p>\n

Growing the team\u2019s success is one piece of Blevins\u2019 mission to spread the gospel of the sport. In 2018, he founded the Jersey Diving Academy, whose lessons and competitive club team draws young divers from across <\/span>South Jersey. <\/span><\/p>\n

Beth Evaldi \u201926 first met Blevins when she joined the JDA club team during high school; the attention he paid not only to divers\u2019 abilities, but also to their fears, was part of the <\/span>reason she chose to go to TCNJ. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very hard when you have a more intense coach,\u201d she says. \u201cIf I\u2019m struggling to get a dive off, Coach Blevins will come talk to me afterwards. And the first thing he says is, \u2018So what\u2019s going on in your head? Talk to me.\u2019 Other coaches just expect you to go do it and don\u2019t really focus on that aspect.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout practice, the divers use Blevins\u2019 voice as a beacon, asking him to call out when they\u2019re midair to signal when to spring up and out of a tuck. They trust him not only because he is their coach, but because he\u2019s also <\/span>a competitive diver. <\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2015, Blevins has competed in five World Aquatics Masters Championships, winning two gold medals along the way. He will travel to his sixth competition in Singapore this spring with hopes of getting \u201cback on the podium.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Blevins understands that <\/span>serendipity \u2014 the backflips on the quad, the suggestion to check out the dive team \u2014 led him to the sport that became central to his life. So, he continues to welcome beginners to his <\/span>teams, hoping they might find their lives changed for the better, too. <\/span><\/p>\n

Josh Bouchard \u201927 had never touched a diving board before he joined TCNJ\u2019s team last fall. Blevins patiently helped him build his skills. Now, Bouchard is astonished to find himself doing reverse dives off the <\/span>10-foot board. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe makes everything feel like it\u2019s possible,\u201d he says. \u201cSometimes you smack the water, but you trust him. So that\u2019s why you trust yourself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coach Eric Blevins\u2019 enthusiasm springboards his divers to success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":307,"featured_media":13074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-campus","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13017"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13099,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13017\/revisions\/13099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}