TAMPA, Fla. - Imagine deciding one day you want to try one of the toughest and most dangerous sports out there.

Brian Schultz doesn’t have to imagine it. He did it. This Jesuit High freshman decided he wanted to tryout for the Tigers swim and diving team before the start of the school year.

“I wanted to do flips, I guess,” Brian said. “I just wanted to do something fun.”

Brian had fun this season while trying a sport that was incredibly foreign to him at the beginning. And while he progressed throughout the season, there might have been a lot of high school divers who had better form, a lot more experience and potential to dive at the next level. But what Brian lacks in style and execution, he more than makes up for it in inspiration.

“The message he is sending is I want to do the best that I can for the team anywhere that I can,” Jesuit coach Bill Shaffer. “And not everybody can step on a board and learn 11 dives in two months.”

Baseball is Brian’s preferred sport. This pitcher is more comfortable on the mound than he is on the diving board. But there is some carry over between the sports, especially the mental aspect of staying strong and moving past a bad pitch or a bad dive.

“You’re on your own on the diving board. And you mess up, you feel the pressure, cause you think everyone is watching,” Shaffer said. “It takes great guts to get back up there and do the best you can the next one.”

While Brian might look like a fish out of water at times, the pool is literally in his blood. His mother, Mara Schultz was a natural. The former Academy of the Holy Names swim coach lost her battle with cancer when Brain was just two. But the school honors her every year with a Spike and Splash charity event that raises a lot of money for cancer research. 

“I heard she was really good,” Brian said. “I don’t really know much about her swimming career other than that she was really good.”

A Schultz in the Academy of the Holy Names pool seems very fitting. And while Brian still learns all that he can about this sport, he’s honoring his mother’s legacy with every dive.

“ I’ve always been very athletic, so I figured I would do something fun on the side of swimming,” Brian said “Next season I’ll for sure come back.”

“It’s his determination that she would be proud of,” Shaffer said. “Doing anything for the team, giving it his all, in a sport that’s totally a mystery to him, she’d be beaming.”