Palmer senior draws inspiration from brother

PALMER — One of Michael Provo’s most fond memories of high school was winning the diving competition at the 2006 Palmer Invitational. After brother Joe Provo followed in his footsteps with a Palmer Invite win in Saturday’s diving finals, Michael said he can share that memory with his younger sibling.

“I was excited,” the 23-year-old Army specialist said when he heard Joe put up a personal-best 371.30 points in the win. “I started diving when I was about 11, and I still dive now. … I think that was the only event I took first in all year (in 2006).”

That both are Palmer Moose through and through makes the shared feat even more special, Michael said.

“We’re both from Palmer and to do that at your home school is a great way to finish off diving for a high school,” he said. “Out of all the meets, that’s probably the one that means the most to anybody from Palmer swimming or diving. It’s your home, your pool. It’s just a great feeling to win at the place your practice every day.”

Michael pulled off his only Palmer Invite win as a senior. Joe’s win Saturday was his first at his home meet as well, and he’s also a senior. Joe said it also gives him something he’s always wanted — to accomplish success as a high school diver like his brother.

“Whenever he dove in high school, I always looked up to that,” Joe said. “I would think, ‘man, this is a really cool sport.’ I learned how to dive from being around him when he was a senior.”

After he graduated with the class of 2007, Michael stayed around to help coach the Palmer squad. Now that Joe’s a senior, Michael said he sees how his brother has matured as a diver.

“The first couple years in high school diving, you don’t have the coordination and you’re not quite mature enough to really focus on diving,” he said. “By the time you get to your senior year, your body’s caught up with you and mentally you’re able to perform to the best of your abilities.”

Joe agrees, saying the mental toughness it takes to score consistently high kicked in for him near the end of his junior campaign last year — ironically, also at the Palmer Invitational. During the first day of diving, Joe hit his head and back on the diving board on one of his attempts and was taken from the pool in an ambulance.

He returned to the competition the next day.

“I got back on the board the very next day for semifinals,” he said. “I wouldn’t really say that was hard for me. It was a little nerve-wracking. Diving is something I’ve always loved, and hitting the board just comes with being a diver. I was a little nervous, but I think it was good for me to (experience) that.”

Joe began his training as a diver earlier than Michael, something Michael said shows in the progress his younger brother has made. He also said picking who was the better diver as a high school senior is difficult. Joe has Michael on score by about 50 points, but the sport judged dives and their difficulty differently when Michael was competing.

“Who’s the better diver?” Michael asked rhetorically. “That’s a tough question. We have completely different diving styles. There are things he does way better than I did in high school, and things I did better.”

Joe was more succinct, saying he still has some catching up to do to equal his older brother.

“If we’re going by points, yeah, I’ve done more, but he has me by skill,” Joe said. “They judged diving more harshly when he was in school and he did harder dives than me.”

Like Michael’s favorite dive, a back 1 ½ summersault with 2 ½ twists.

“That dive right there was probably the most fun I had on the diving board,” Michael said. “I always felt comfortable doing it.”

That’s a degree of difficulty Joe said he hasn’t done yet.

“That’s one dive I cannot do,” he said. “I kind-of have tried it. It’s not a dive I want to do, it’s pretty hard.”

Joe said his go-to dive “would have to be my forward two summersaults in the pike position. I’ve always nailed it, but that’s the dive I hit my head on the diving board with last year, too.”

The sport has given brothers more than six years apart in age a common tie, both Michael and Joe said.

“I think diving has brought us a lot closer,” Joe said. “We’ve butted heads on it a lot of times, but it’s brought us closer because it makes us so connected with each other. Most brothers, when they get advice from their brother they just go, ‘I don’t need to listen to what you’re talking about.’ But when he gives me advice, I listen. He’s been a great influence on who I’ve become as a diver.”

Stationed at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Michael doesn’t get to see his brother dive often, but he believes Joe has a ton of potential to score even better than he did this past weekend.

“As long as he can keep doing what he’s doing, I’m pretty confident he can be top 5, top 3 (at regions and state),” Michael said. “I think he’s got the potential.”

Joe said winning the Palmer Invitational was great, but there’s still another goal he hasn’t reached as a Moose diver — the school’s all-time record.

That record is held by Matthew McDaniel, who posted 410 points at a meet in the 1993 season. It would be a big jump to better that, Joe said, but he believes it’s within his grasp.

“I think it’s incredibly in reach,” he said. “I reviewed my dive sheet and my scores, and there are a few dives I can clean up. So, I think for me to get that record, I need to work on the list I did for the Valley Invite and polish it up.”

Contact reporter Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.