Erin Dannemiller, left, found friends she needed immediately on the swim team when she got to Centre College.
A few years ago diver Erin Dannemiller could not have envisioned being on a college swim team much less winning events in two of the team’s first three meets to open her sophomore season.
Yet Dannemiller is now a successful diver for Centre College and has already been honored as the Southern Athletic Association Diver of the Week this season.
She didn’t start diving until her freshman year at Mount Notre Dame in Cincinnati. The 4-foot-8 Dannemiller had been a gymnast until her father encouraged her to try diving. However, after two seasons on the high school team, she opted to take a break her junior year because she felt “burnt out” before deciding to come back her senior season just for fun.
“I ended up going to state which I did not expect,” she said.
Most of her friends were applying to colleges in Ohio and she did the same. However, after participating in the state meet, the University of the Cumberlands reached out to her about diving. That led to her reaching out to schools, including Centre and coach Dean Brownley. She visited Centre College and Transylvania on the same day but immediately knew Centre was the school for her.
“I didn’t think I would be here. I didn’t think I would be diving,” she said. “I had never heard of the school until I started searching.”
Her twin brother, who attends Miami of Ohio, was a baseball player. Dannemiller started in gymnastics before switching to tumbling/trampoline but there are no college opportunities in that sport that took a huge time commitment and eventually led to her move to diving.
She doesn’t think her size impacts her diving.
“I flip kind of fast because I’m very small, so I feel like it’s a good thing. I don’t love being short, but what are you gonna do?” she said.
Ironically, Dannemiller says she’s never been a strong swimmer.
“I don’t even really know how to do freestyle,” she laughed and said. “I actually get scared when I dive. Every day at practice, I get scared. It kind of helps that all of us (divers) are in the same boat. We are all kind of scared but you just have to do it.”
Not surprisingly, she prefers the one-meter diving board and is not a fan of the three-meter board even though she competes in both events.
“Three meters is a lot scarier and higher where there is a higher impact and it hurts more,” she said. “I could never do platform diving. It’s way too high.
Dannemiller has learned to “trust” diving coach Woody Franklin to help ease her fears and says other teammates do the same thing.
“He knows what he’s doing and you have to be like, ’He’s telling me to do it so he knows I can do it. He wouldn’t tell me to do it if I couldn’t do it.’ I just have to trust him. I don’t always love it but it is what it is. Sometimes I still struggle. There is one dive on three meter that I just cannot get myself to do, and I don’t know why, but I just can’t do it.”
She counts on sophomore diver Ben Reynolds for support since he has similar fears/struggles. She says they find ways to support and encourage each other to make sure they find a way to make the divers they need to do.
Dannemiller admits it also took her a “long time” to adjust to life in Danville since she was used to bigger schools and a bigger city. She said friends, including her oldest brother at Ohio State, were at bigger schools that were not as demanding academically.
“I definitely struggled, I’ll admit that,” Dannemiller said. “I see my friends on (football) game days and weekends having fun and I am getting up on Saturdays and going to the library to study. That was definitely hard on me but I have accepted that this is best for me and will help me a lot more in the long run.”
Dannemiller, 19, loves the new athletic facility and swimming/diving area. The bigger pool area has simplified practice schedules which were difficult for her with class conflicts at times last year.
“I think everyone on the team would tell you how grateful we are to have this facility,” Dannemiller said. “It has definitely changed my experience this year from last year. I love diving but I also love the people I do it with here. I want to get better but I just love being at practice and stuff with my teammates. Of course, I would love to get a (NCAA) regional cut this year but I don’t think about that too much because then I won’t get mad at myself if I don’t get it.”
Dannemiller knows the Centre swim community’s impact is hard to explain.
“Almost all of my friends are swimmers and divers,” she said. “I walked in and had friends the first day. As a senior in high school, I was scared just thinking about going to a big school because I was overwhelmed about not being able to find a friend group. I still have friends at bigger schools who struggle with that. So for me, it’s definitely been nice to be part of a team and I have truly grown to love it here.”
