Cool and composed, sophomore diver Derek Rand stands with nothing but a skinny slab of metal between him and the flat surface of the water below. He stands calmly, focusing on each minor detail of the upcoming dive and the irony of how he nearly plunged to his death 11 years ago.

Coming from a family of boaters, Rand found himself on the water for a large portion of his childhood. When he was 8 years old and enjoying a day of boating on his uncle’s yacht, he had a competition with his cousin to see who could jump off the boat first without looking. He did what most other 8-year-olds would do and dove off blindly.

Twenty feet below him sat a Jet Ski, stationary in the water. Rand unknowingly descended upon the vehicle, smashing his head on the Jet Ski. What followed was horror for the Rand family. Rand did what his mother called a “dead man’s float.”

He was medevaced out of the water and spent two days in the intensive care unit nursing a major concussion. Amazingly, Rand was able to walk out of the hospital a couple of days later, something that the doctor said not many children can do when they have that kind of injury.

Fast forward 12 years later, and Rand leads the diving team with six wins this season, including an eighth- and sixth-place finish in the 1- and 3-meter diving events, respectively, at the Upper New York State Collegiate Swimming Association Championships last weekend in Syracuse, N.Y.

“At first when I started diving I thought it was pretty ironic how that happened to me and I found this sport jumping into water off of high heights,” Rand said. “I feel like everything that happened that day was just a little overdramatized.”

Not for Rand’s mother, Diane Rand. She said the incident crosses her mind constantly.

“He’s hit the board a few times with his head as he’s progressed,” she said. “He keeps doing it. The last time he hit the board with his head was when he was a junior or senior in high school, and I said, ‘You’re not diving anymore.’”

Ignoring his mother’s wishes, Rand continues to dive. Since making the transition from gymnastics to diving when he was a child, Rand has continually set his sights high.

Rand started doing gymnastics when he was 3 years old, but when his family moved from New York to Connecticut later on in his childhood, they could not find a suitable gymnastics facility. So he made the switch to diving.

“It has a lot of the same basics, but when you go from gymnastics to diving, you have to add half rotations to put the acrobatic stuff onto your head,” Rand said. “In gymnastics it’s all about landing on your feet.”

On the pool deck Rand tends to remain fairly calm during meets and seldom gets in the faces of teammates to pump them up. Rand does everything he can to clear his mind and focus on the task at hand, senior Andrew Longcore said.

“He’s probably one of the most focused kids on the team,” Longcore said. “He knows what he has to do, and he just does it in practice. He’s always smiling. He really tries to keep a positive attitude and stay relaxed in practice, which really helps him out.”

Back on the board, Rand clears his mind and walks toward the edge, preparing to plunge into the still water below. The Hill Center Pool is dead silent with all eyes on him. Rand bounces once and jumps as high as he can. He waits for the twist, brings it around, flips and waits for his fingertips to  pierce through the surface of the water. He successfully completes his favorite dive: a front one and a half with a full twist.

“Pressure definitely affects competition,” Rand said. “I just focus on what I need to do in the dive to make the dive go well.”

Rand has done just that all season long. Perhaps Rand’s biggest accomplishment up to this point during the regular season occurred Jan. 30 in Ithaca’s meet against Alfred University. Rand won the 1-meter dive over Alfred’s three-time nationals diver, senior Kameron Chambliss.

“It was a great feeling to beat him,” Rand said. “I out-dove him in the meet — definitely a feeling of things to come.”

As a sophomore, Rand has plenty of time left at Ithaca. Longcore said Rand has only begun to tap into his full potential, something that Head Diving Coach Nate Brisley has worked on with Rand.

“Nate has really worked with him to unleash his potential and really push him towards the dives he’s capable of,” Longcore said. “Once everything starts clicking, he’s going to be unstoppable.”

Rand said competing in nationals would be a dream come true.

“I definitely want to make nationals one of these years and be able to go to Minnesota and compete with all of the big-time divers,” he said. “Something that drives me is the personal feeling of being able to say that I was able to go there.”

Rand credits the team as a whole for his success as a Bomber. Rand said his team members, who dyed their hair blond before shaving their heads for states, have a strong sense of unity.

“The camaraderie of the team is just amazing,” he said. “It just pushes everyone to try harder for each other, and it definitely pushed me this season.”