You probably don’t know Syracuse has a diving team. Few people do.

But diver Ricky Rodriguez is used to that.

‘People will talk to me, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m on the diving team,’ ‘ Rodriguez said. ‘They’ll be like, ‘We have a swim team?’ ‘

Rodriguez, a junior and the oldest member of the diving team, refuses to let this faze him. Instead, he deals with another problem. Last year, Rodriguez was the only diver, male or female. Now, he has six new teammates and has been thrust into the role of leader.

His performance this season has backed that up. On Oct. 19 against Colgate, Rodriguez won the 3-meter competition. Last weekend, at the Thomas Murphy Invitational at Loyola College, he finished third in the 1-meter and second in the 3-meter.

Still, Rodriguez doesn’t believe his experience gives him an edge over his teammates.

‘It’s funny because it’s an environment where they don’t see me as the oldest,’ Rodriguez said. ‘They’ll mess around with me as much as I’ll mess around with them during practice. I’m usually there to help them out, but for the most part we don’t really hold any hierarchy or something like that.’

Indeed, last weekend, freshman Dewey Schultz beat Rodriguez in the 1- and 3-meter, and redshirt freshman Tony Campagna topped Rodriguez in the 1-meter as well.

‘All of us are pretty much at the same level,’ Rodriguez said. ‘We all have different things to work on.’

Perhaps Rodriguez is modest. Because he is the only SU diver with collegiate experience, the younger divers look to him for advice.

‘He’s pretty much a second coach,’ Campagna said. ‘I give him a lot of respect because he was the only diver last year, and he stuck through everything.’

‘He dove last year, so he’s been through the whole routine and everything,’ Schultz said. ‘And us being newcomers to the team, he kind of sets the rules and tells us everything to do because he’s done it all before.’

Acting as a coach to his teammates is not new to Rodriguez. At Long Beach High on Long Island, he helped coach his school’s girls’ diving team.

Last year at SU, Rodriguez walked on to the Orangemen and qualified for the Big East Championships, where he failed to reach his goal of finishing in the top 16.

‘I must have dove the worst I’ve ever dove,’ Rodriguez said. ‘I definitely think I’ll do better this year. Last year, it was a hoax that I got (to the Big East Championship).’

Last summer, Rodriguez stayed in Syracuse and dived every day to work on his weaknesses and prepare for this season.

‘For the most part, I’m pretty much at the level I want to be,’ Rodriguez said. ‘Just all the little things that make the dives look better and make it better judged. I just have to work on those things.’

‘He needs to learn to get graceful and point his toes, but he’s got great athleticism,’ diving coach Jeff Keck said. ‘He’s a great jumper, and he spins pretty well. He just needs to learn to be in control, and he just has to put time in.’

Maybe then SU’s divers will start getting more recognition. But Rodriguez has accepted that diving will never be on the same level as other SU sports.

His greatest satisfacation, though, would come if a diver appeared on the swimming and diving team’s official poster.

‘That,’ Rodriguez said, ‘would top the cake.’

Published on November 4, 2002 at 12:00 pm