Despite coming from a small high school with limited exposure, senior Mitchell Brown is making waves in the diving world and has just secured an offer from the University of Virginia. Brown’s remarkable achievements, including breaking records, have earned him a well-deserved spot on Virginia’s diving team. This exciting news reinforces the power of talent to shine, proving that excellence knows no limits, even in the context of a school.

Brown as well as other students have hopes for going to Division One but usually fall short due to the lack of marketing, exposure, and money. But in Brown’s case, he pushed through all of these boundaries and made himself known.

“I feel like I’ve always had good status since my early diving days and in the diving community overall,” Brown said. “But it’s been more difficult where schools in Ann Arbor are more prone to getting looks and offers.”

After a decade of the diving record staying stationary, many attempts were made in the hopes of breaking it, but the odds were finally broken and a new record is on the board, with Brown’s name on it.

“I feel like this record isn’t an everyday thing because the person who broke it before me went to Division One,” Brown said. “It’s pretty hard and it also took me four years to do it so it’s not easy.”

Compared to other schools in the area that are more exposed to big-time colleges and universities, Chelsea is in the dark. The schools that tend to have a bigger fund pool, coaching, training facilities and just overall higher status are normally kept in the spotlight. So the fact that a student from a lesser-known school like Chelsea is scoring high, and is attracting a big-time prestigious college offer is super uplifting and impactful.

“Coming from a small school I think it’s a great opportunity to see me as well as other people succeeding in big ways where people from small schools can get big college and university offers,” Brown said.