MARQUETTE, Mich. - As the 2023-24 swim and dive season quickly approaches, senior diver
Izzy McCabe plans to make big waves in her final year.
After having a friend suggest trying out diving for the high school team in McCabe's freshman year, the life-long gymnast decided to take her up on that offer. The biggest challenge she had to face was learning to land on her head after avoiding that for so long in gymnastics, as well as working on timing due to the extra height.
Diving for Northern wasn't her first choice, but visiting the campus changed her mind rather quickly, prompting an almost instant "I told you so" from her mother. McCabe's college life has been a whirlwind of adventures, from sunset paddle boarding by blackrocks and jumping off of the infamous lakeside view as the sun fell past the horizon, to beach bonfires where bonding with the team feels so incredibly natural.
Being asked to describe one's self is never easy, but McCabe seemed to come up with an answer rather quickly, "I'm definitely someone who's always going to be laughing and trying to make other people laugh. I don't know if there's been a time where I don't have a smile on my face."
She went on to say how she's always keeping an eye out to make sure everyone is having a good time on the pool deck. "If I see someone kind of being down about a dive, I always want to go up to them and try to turn it around," said McCabe.
With her teammates being her inspiration, McCabe seems to get the best of both worlds by being a role model while also learning from her role models. "They all come back even stronger, and seeing how much they can come back is insane. It makes me want to work harder too. If they're working hard and I'm working hard, then as a team we can all come back stronger," said McCabe.
She also mentioned that her biggest motivator is knowing her potential, "Knowing I can do something makes me want to do it. Knowing that I can do better makes me want to do better." Almost as if the challenge of beating her own scores is just as rewarding, if not more, than placing first in a meet.
That strong and healthy mindset is one of the biggest challenges that McCabe thinks athletes face today. "It's hard being a student athlete. Waking up at 5 a.m., going to a morning practice and it doesn't go well, then force yourself out of that mindset to take an exam, and then go to an afternoon practice and put the rest of your day behind you," said McCabe.
This year, the swim and dive team has a new staff member, one who will be making a different type of impact on them all. "We have a mental health performance coach, which is super helpful knowing that we can talk to someone who is a professional and was an athlete. Being able to talk to someone who has gone through the same issues is definitely going to be helpful," said McCabe.
These mental blocks are inevitable for athletes, who are bogged down with striving to be the best swimmer/diver, teammate, student, friend, child, and any other titles that they may hold. McCabe's advice for athletes dealing with these mental blocks is something that her coach had passed down to her. "After a bad dive or even a bad race in swimming, you give yourself two minutes and within those two minutes you take out all your anger and get mad at yourself. And once those two minutes end, you have to be ready for that next event or dive," McCabe said. This gives her time to stew over her mistakes and what she could have done better, then it's time to shake it off and move on to the next event and put those thoughts into action.
Speaking of putting thoughts into action, McCabe's plans for this year include working hard throughout her final season and ending the year with her teammates feeling like she was someone they could always count on for advice and smiles.
