John Fox goes to the gym two hours a day, rotating daily training sessions among Aurora, Arvada and the Air Force Academy, just so he can feed his addiction.
“I’m an adrenaline junkie,” Fox said.
And for Fox, a senior at Chatfield, the only sport that can feed his craving is diving — more specifically, twisting, flipping and falling off towers about 33 feet above the water.
“That hooked me in a heartbeat,” said Fox, who maintains a job and a 3.34 grade-point average and has signed a letter of intent with Kentucky, mainly because the Wildcats offer tower diving and not just springboard. In the prep world, however, Fox can compete only on the springboard. And he might be the top aquatic acrobat in the state.
A year after finishing second in the Class 5A state diving championships, Fox has continued to refine his craft. He scored a rare 10 this month in a meet against Ralston Valley.
Fox has more than 11 dives with high degrees of difficulty in his repertoire — from a gainer twister to a reverse 2 1/2.
“Awesome” is the word Chatfield diving coach Kristi Marosy uses liberally when describing Fox. That goes for his work ethic, his mentoring of younger teammates, his natural athleticism and his ability to balance a rigorous schedule.
“It’s like the cartoon ‘Tom and Jerry,’ ” Marosy said. “You know where they flip in the air and then land in a cup of water and don’t make a splash? All his dives are like that.”
If Fox falls funny or smacks the water awkwardly, he only wants more. He recalled messing up a dive off a 10-meter tower at the University of Missouri that resulted in him compressing his spine and coughing up blood on the deck. He shook it off. That’s pain only an adrenaline hound can embrace.
“You struggle with it, you struggle with it, and you struggle with it, forever, and then all of a sudden it just clicks,” Fox said. “I think I’m kind of at that point. Diving is a really mental sport. The physical part matters, but once you get over the mental part of the competition, then you can actually get things going.”
Fox competed in several sports growing up, including diving. With his father, Tony, coaching the Level III baseball teams at Chatfield, John seemed destined to take the diamond over diving.
Then, when Fox was 14, he trained at the Air Force Academy and got his first taste of diving off towers. He quit baseball his sophomore year.
“Me and him really connected through baseball,” John Fox said. “When I quit baseball it was rough on both of us.”
Adding to the strain was Fox’s poor showing at state. A year after placing 10th as a freshman, Fox slumped to 16th and was suddenly full of doubts. But he stayed with it, got stronger and blossomed this year.
Fox will attend a national meet in Houston in two weeks and aims to qualify this summer for the senior nationals. Reaching the NCAA nationals is the goal, while the Olympics remain the dream.
Diving, however, remains the addiction.
