By Kayla Hallac, Online Editor-in-Chief

Kids, don’t try this at home just because it worked out OK for Gray Miller.

“I don’t have any (athletes) in my whole career of coaching that I’ve had start by sending me a video of them diving off a Coke machine into the pool,” Miller’s main diving coach, Keith Kopecky, said with a chuckle. “Oh, it was hilarious.”

As a young boy, Miller climbed up a ladder to the top of a Coke machine next to his family’s hotel pool for one of the most memorable dives of the freshman’s career. (Check out the video here! Gray Miller Coke Machine)

“I started diving with a coach two years ago, but I would always dive off a board at my house when I was younger,” Miller said. “When my mom would be at work, my dad would pull a bunch of tables on the side of the pool and I just started to dive off of them and it sparked my interest.”

This sport isn’t offered or coached locally, but Miller took his passion and ran with it. He is the only high school diver on the Outer Banks, and the only diver in the N.C. High School Athletic Association eastern 1A/2A region. 

Miller trains twice a week for about two hours in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with about 20 others at K2 diving. The coaches at K2 help improve Miller’s skills for competitive meets.

Thanks to COVID-19, the practice time has been cut from about 25 hours a week to about three and a half. Yet even with this limited practice time, Miller has been able to make progress. He placed sixth in the recent NCHSAA state championships in 1-meter diving.

“I’m always proud of doing my best and there’s people who practice every single day five days a week,” Miller said. “I always place really high near those kids considering I only practice two days a week.”

Miller’s coach added that Miller has several important qualities that make a great diver.

“When he started, I think he didn’t really know that he had the talent, and he’d go to some of the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) or USA diving meets and he wasn’t as confident,” Kopecky said. “As he progressed and got to harder dives and started beating the people that beat him, he started to gain a lot more confidence, and with that came the desire to train harder and do better.”

His natural ability to dive comes from his passion and inspiration, including his dad and older sisters Hayley and Shelby, who were well-known members of the FFHS cheer teams.

“I’ve always looked up to him because he’s a really hard worker, and my sisters taught me flips when we were younger so I’ve always been really acrobatic,” Miller explained. 

Being acrobatic has allowed Miller to pick up his own diving style. Miller claims everyone has a different way they execute a dive and he describes himself as graceful and with ease. That’s a style he works on whenever there’s anything to jump off. This could be a bridge, a diving board, a stack of coolers or, of course, a Coke machine. 

“He found ledges on the post of a bridge in the OBX and did dives off of them; even though he can’t always make it all the way to Virginia to practice, he still finds ways to dive,” teammate Faith Pearson said.

Miller said he enjoys the feeling that goes along with each and every dive.

“I joke to my mom that I’m an adrenaline junky and a daredevil,” Miller said. “I’ve always been super crazy and I like to do crazy things, so it’s kind of a scary feeling, but it’s a good scary feeling.”

This rare attitude is important for divers. Without it, it’s hard to spontaneously jump and flip from heights, which explains why Miller is so unique in the community. Being the only diver in the region isn’t as rewarding as it might seem.

“I think it’s kind of bittersweet,” Kopecky said. “It’s nice that he’s the only fish in the sea, but I’m sure he’d like to have a little more competition, and he doesn’t get that until he comes up to our meets.”

On the other hand, the freshman already is being noticed by college coaches who go to the meets he attends, which is important for his future.

“I would love to go to the Olympics, but I think getting an education and being on the dive team would be really good,” Miller said.

Reaching either of those goals would be quite an accomplishment after that leap of faith into the hotel pool.

“I’m always one of the loudest cheering for him on the pool deck,” Pearson said. “It is so cool being able to see Gray do great at meets because he is not only my friend, but he is also so invested in diving, and I think it is so awesome to see him succeed in something he has put so much time and effort into.”

Junior Kayla Hallac can be reached at 22hallacka85@daretolearn.org.