When Mount Carmel senior Eric Correa was growing up, diving wasn’t even on his radar.

Correa figured his future was in gymnastics. He trained with the Olympic Development Program and was a star on the trampoline, competing in several junior national championship tournaments.

“I won the national championship for my age level when I was 10 or 11,” he said. “I wanted to stick with gymnastics, but I was getting a lot of injuries from it. I had bulging discs in my back and tendinitis in my feet. When I was in seventh grade, my parents made me quit because they were worried about my health.”

Correa’s parents suggested diving, but he was hesitant at first.

“I really didn’t want to do it, but they pushed me into it,” Correa said. “I got really good, really fast, but when I went to my first national competition I didn’t even make it to the finals. I was like, ‘What the heck is this?’ I was so used to winning. That motivated me to stick with it and keep getting better.”

Diving has definitely worked out for Correa. He’s a two-time state medalist, including a runner-up finish last season, and has committed to continue his career at Arizona.

He’ll be looking to win his first state championship when the state swimming and diving meet begins Friday at Evanston. Correra qualified by winning last Saturday’s St. Ignatius Sectional with a score of 543.60, the third highest sectional mark in the state.

It’ll be Correa’s fourth time competing at state. After a sixth-place finish as a sophomore, he took second behind Niles North senior Maxim Royzen last season.

Correa knows he’s capable of winning a state title this weekend, but he’s trying to think about it less and less as the meet draws near.

“Every day, I think, ‘What if? What if I actually pull this off?,’ but I’ve got to stop doing that,” he said. “I don’t want to focus on just the result. If I can go in there and hit my dives, whatever happens, I’ll be happy.”

Correa’s career at Mount Carmel has been especially impressive considering that there were no divers competing in the program when he arrived.

The ceiling above the small pool in the basement of Mount Carmel is too low for Correa to practice, so he travels after school to train with the Windy City Diving Club.

“Typically, I’ll get off school around 3 and my practices aren’t until 6,” he said. “I’ll go help out our swimmers at our practices at Mount Carmel, or I’ll try to get some homework done, or sometimes I’ll just take a nap in my car, then I’ll head up to UIC.

“I don’t get home until 9, and sometimes I still have studying to do, so it’s draining. It’s worth it, though.”

Mount Carmel coach Matthew McGuire said Correa’s work ethic is second to none.

“Before he was driving himself, he’d come down and hassle everyone for a ride to UIC after school,” McGuire said. “He was always determined to get there and put in the work.

“We do elaborate warmups for our swimming practices, and Eric has come down several times and led the workouts. He’s like having an assistant warmup coach.”

McGuire said Correa has the repertoire to be a state champion this weekend.

“He’s doing two dives that I call ‘big boy dives,’ ” McGuire said. “They’re NCAA Division I-level dives. If he nails both, he’ll be well on his way to winning it.”

Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.