From the Classroom

12-year old Junior Olympic diver makes a splash at USC

Webber Meade-Sofield is a competitive diver that trains at USC’s Utyengsu Aquatics Center.

Photo of Meade-Sofield with his awards
Photo courtesy of Andy Sofield

For the past four years, 12-year-old Webber Meade-Sofield has, for three hours a day, every day, more or less thrown himself off a 10-meter cliff.

He is a competitive diver.

Who already competed at the Junior Olympic National Championship. Who, at 12, has “so much energy and so much love.” A “love for life.” Who is the “first” to comfort a scared younger diver.

Webber also stands at a figurative precipice: he has been in action at nationals but has not progressed to the semifinals. Are the Olympics anything of a viable dream when the national

semis are yet beyond reach? Or is that just stupid to be concerned with – at 12?

So, the question, as he confronts the years ahead – adolescence, a changing body, the realization that it only gets harder from here—is at once profound and yet elemental:

Who is Webber Meade-Sofield, and how bad does he want it?

Webber diving off in a pool
Webber mid-dive. (Photo courtesy of Andy Sofield)

“When I don’t do well in practice or a meet,” Webber said. “It does affect my daily life and

mood, but when I dive well, it’s the best feeling.”

Webber began diving at 6. He immediately fell in love with the sport’s competitive nature.

“My favorite thing is the adrenaline and the success that you feel when you do dives,” he said.

His early dives were not graceful. Not hardly.

Webber’s father, Andy Sofield, said, recalling those early dives, “Webber tried to do a front flip and completely smacked, flat out mangled it.”

“He got back up and dusted himself off and wanted to keep going and learn how to do it.”

From there, Webber took beginner lessons at UCLA.

Just as he began to improve, the pandemic shut down the world. Training in the pool was not an option, but virtual workouts and masked tumbling sessions in the gym were.

“COVID ended up being a silver lining. Webber probably wouldn’t be as involved in diving as he is,” said Drew Meade, Webber’s second dad. “I’d also say that it in a lot of ways diving kept him sane during COVID.”

Webber’s coach and private trainer, Katrina Young, said, “When you’re in the same room as Webber you know he’s there.”

On the pool deck, Webber can often be spotted taking dance breaks, making others laugh between dives and cheering on his teammates.

She added, “I think that he’s so energetic and has a love for life. It overflows into his diving, relationship with his coaches and relationships with teammates. It’s a very joyful, buoyant energy.”

The UCLA program is female-dominated. Webber, with pool time starting to open, wanted a team with more boys and divers his age.

“When we went over to USC, they had boys across age groups, and we thought that would be good for Webber, to not only have these amazing female athletes as role models, but it would be nice for him also to see these amazing male athletes as role models,” said Sofield.

Döerte Lindner, the Trojan Dive Club coach, said he was immediately welcomed.

“I could not imagine our team without him,” Lindner said. “He has so much energy and so much love, and I really appreciate his personality as part of our team.”

Webber’s dads said he is the “team mascot,” comparing him to “a kaleidoscope of social butterflies.”

Webber trains with divers ages 6 to 18. His parents said this has boosted his confidence.

“With younger kids, he gets to step up into being a role model. With the older kids he gets to not be afraid,” said Meade. “He’s just very comfortable with himself around a lot of different ages and types of people.”

Meade added, “Webber used to shrink and withdraw himself when a classmate would cut him off or he would have a disagreement.”

“With diving, he has to overcome his fears multiple times a day, every single day. It’s just made him extraordinarily more confident. He has a much greater and stronger sense of self.”

Webber, many say, is emotionally driven and given to instinctually comfort those around him.

“When there’s a diver who cries because they are scared of a dive,” Lindner said, “Webber is the first to go over and sometimes he cries with that dive. He’s very compassionate.”

This emotion, they also say, can cut two ways – in particular when Webber is 33 feet up.

Which Webber himself acknowledges.

“The fear is not your normal daily life kind of stuff,” he said.

“It’s more that you’re scared that you might hit the board which could kill you or you flop and that could lead to serious injuries.”

In diving, fear can also lead to regression in a diver’s performance, as with a dive that is now bedeviling him, one he used to do with ease – a back one-and-a-half.

He sometimes freezes on the board. He becomes too scared to jump.

“When you’re younger,” Young said, “and you’re learning, you’re like, ‘OK, I’ll just do what the coach says to do.’ And as you get older, you realize it’s not quite as easy as you thought it was before.”

At 9, Webber was diagnosed with ADHD. His coaches said his energy and emotionality bring up the team morale but can also distract Webber as he tries to clear his mind, overcome his fears and focus on his dives.

“For new dives,” Webber said. “I don’t think about anything. I just go up there and throw it.”

Diving also helps Webber cope with his ADHD, said Sofield.

“It’s almost a form of therapy. There’s a part of ADHD that allows you to really lock in.”

“If you can lock in and start to train yourself, you make something that some might call a disability an ability and superpower.”

Lindner said, “He is hard on himself, like most athletes are,” and has a deep sense of compassion for the people who help him train.

When Webber can’t complete a dive, he obsessively acts it out on land. He goes through the motions and movements of the dive repeatedly until he can shut off the fear in his brain and jump off the board.

“I feel sometimes bad for my coaches when I can’t push through something,” said Webber, “because they work so hard to help me push through things.”

Webber said he can see himself diving in college.

That, though, is far, far away.

This upcoming season – he has big goals.

“I want to make the semifinals at nationals,” Webber said.

“I made it to nationals all the years I’ve tried, but I’ve never made it to the semi-finals, and I’d like to know what that feels like.”

If he makes it to semis, then what?

“We’ll support Webber to take diving as far as he wants to take it,” Sofield said. “For now, I think what’s great is it’s healthy, he’s active. It’s a great community.”

“My biggest goal,” Young said “is to see him walk out on the board with total confidence that he can nail the dive.”

“And whether he does or doesn’t, just seeing that chin-up attitude that I know he carries in his life.”

“I don’t want him to worry about the results.”