Chairman of the Board: Colquitt County Diver Bo Bridges Is an Elite Talent and Potential Olympian
When you’re a youth diving phenom with designs on being an Olympic competitor, you don’t have a lot of idle time. Especially in summer, one’s days are packed with workouts, travel and championship meets. But for Moultrie’s Bo Bridges, there’s nothing else he’d rather be doing.
“A lot of people ask me, ‘You don’t get vacations?’” says Bo, a rising junior at Colquitt County High School. “I look at it like, ‘Well, I feel like I’m kind of on vacation. I’m in the pool every day.’”
Bridges is the ITG Next 2021-22 Georgia Male Diver of the Year, presented by Sterling Group Orthopedics, and the 2022 GHSA Boys 1-Meter Diving State Champion in Class 7A.
In the state championship meet, held at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in February, Bridges posted a score of 725.10 to give Colquitt County its third straight boys title. Fellow sophomore Ruth Anne McCranie won the girls competition to make it a clean sweep for Colquitt. Bridges’ gold medal came a year after he finished second as a freshman to teammate Carson Tyler, who set the state record with an 878.95 score.
“It felt great to represent my hometown and my school,” Bridges says. “To come in with my teammates and sweep the boards, it was awesome.”
Bridges trains at Moultrie’s Moss Farms Diving, where he’s been under the tutelage of head coach John Fox for seven years.
“When you’re in it day to day, it seems like a slow burn, but then when you look at it in hindsight, you realize, ‘I’ve been coaching this young man seven years,’ and it’s unbelievable the progress he’s made,” says Fox, who presides over a state-of-the-art diving facility that’s lauded by coaches across the nation. “You think about some of the tallest mountains, and that’s what Bo has summited. It’s been really fun to watch that.”
Bridges began diving at age 7 after he tried a number of other sports, including baseball, football and soccer, but found them wanting. He decided to give swimming a shot, and when he saw a local diver, Parker Hardigree, go off the 3-meter board, he was intrigued.
“I thought that was pretty cool,” Bridges remembers. “It looked fun. I looked at my mom and said, ‘I think I want to try that.’” Within a week, he had transitioned from swimming to diving and “clicked with it,” he says. “I fell in love with it.”
Since then, Bridges has been consumed with the sport while steadily developing into a top-tier talent. In addition to his high school heroics, he was a Platform finalist at the 2021 USA Diving Junior Nationals. This year he won YMCA national championships in 1-meter, 3-meter, and platform.
Fox analyzes Bridges’ strengths in terms of physicality and personality: “I think he definitely has what it takes to be an elite athlete. He has the athleticism, the ability to move his body, aerial awareness and such. And he’s determined, he is very focused on detail and he does his best to heed advice. Even though sometimes that’s a hard thing to stomach, he’s done really well at receiving that and implementing it.”
Bridges agrees – he has no problem with criticism. In fact, he’s plenty hard on himself.
“I think the reason I love diving so much is that it’s a very technical sport, and I’m a perfectionist,” he says. “When you’re in the air, it’s all you – you’re making the movements.”
As one of the older divers at Moss Farms, Bridges has taken on a mentor role to the many younger boys and girls who come through the program.
“A lot of the little kids will ask me, ‘What about this dive?’ or, ‘How do you keep a good attitude?’ and I try to talk to them like they’re my age,” he says. “I just try to connect with them and encourage them on a diving level and treat them like I do any other teammate.”
Those efforts aren’t lost on Fox, who says, “I have a team of 65 kids, and he’s definitely one of our top leaders in the program. Most of the young children aspire to be like him. That kind of speaks to his general leadership qualities and his heart.”
Bridges is equally selfless with his peers, always encouraging them and celebrating their triumphs. One of his fondest memories, he says, came at the 2021 USA Diving Junior National Championships, where he and Tyler shared a special moment.
“It was my last dive, and he told me, ‘Rip this one,’” Bridges recalls. “I went in and ripped it, did awesome. Then it was his turn, and I said, ‘Why don’t you rip this one?’ And he said, ‘No problem, I got you.’ And right before he did it, he was on 10-meter, he looked down at me and smiled, then turned around and crushed it for perfect 10s. He was leaving for college right after that, and we were sitting there talking, and we started hugging each other, and next thing you know we’re falling on the floor and crying like babies.”
Events like the Junior Nationals are part of the journey toward qualifying for Team USA, which is very much Bridges’ goal.
“Ever since I found out you can go to that level, my mind has been set on going to the Olympics,” he says.
Fox says the 2024 Olympics are a possibility for Bridges, and the ’28 Games are even more likely. He’ll meet increasingly stiffer competition, particularly as he begins competing in international events. He’ll also need to decide where to compete in college; as a high school junior, he’ll soon be hearing from coaches eager to land his talents.
“The recruiting process is going to be really important, so that he ends up at a place where he can continue his development,” Fox says.
So the road ahead is full of challenges, and it’s a daily grind. But Bo Bridges embraces it all.
“I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” he says.
And why should he? To do otherwise, he would be like a fish out of water.
