Silence surrounds Drew Bennett, a ball of momentum with fiery red hair, as he launches off the 7-meter platform into the still pool below him.
The next sound Bennett hears should resemble a gunshot as he slices through the water, disappearing from the crowd.
Instead, Bennett hears a smack on the concrete when both of his feet hit the platform mid-air. Bennett has two broken feet by the time he splashes through the water.
A sport as dangerous as platform diving requires immense trust. Divers need to trust themselves and their coaches if they want to not only succeed, but survive.
“He was almost like a father figure, and I knew he cared about me . “
For one pool in Brown Deer, a suburb north of Milwaukee, that coach is Todd Hill, who trains athletes to compete in Division I programs at Power Five universities across the country.
The Walter Schroeder Aquatic Center is home to both Hill and one of two 10-meter platforms in the entire state. Schroeder’s platforms and Hill’s coaching create an irresistible combination of opportunity and excellence that attracts divers from Wisconsin and Illinois. At Schroeder, divers come for the platform but stay for the coach, who is making waves in the world of diving and creating promising futures for ambitious, young divers.
Hill’s smile beams with spirit when he talks about his divers. It is no wonder that these athletes feel unconditional support from him.
“He was almost like a father figure, and I knew he cared about me,” says Bennett, a past member of the Schroeder Diving Team.
Hill was a member of the diving team at UW–Milwaukee from 1996 to 2000. This experience set the foundation for Hill to become the head diving coach for both UW–Milwaukee and Schroeder in 2003. Hill still holds both positions today.
Schroeder was built in 1979 as a gift from the Walter Schroeder Foundation to the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee. When construction finished, Schroeder was the only pool in Wisconsin with a 10-meter platform.
“It was way ahead of the times,” Hill says. “It was one of the elite facilities in the country when it opened up in 1979.”
Today, divers at UW–Milwaukee pile into vans and make the drive to Brown Deer almost every day to use the 10-meter platform and other facilities, Hill says. Before the Nicholas Recreation Center opened on the UW–Madison campus in 2020, its divers traveled to Schroeder to practice on the coveted cement tower.
Schroeder opens its doors to almost anyone in need of a platform. This generosity is especially beneficial for divers from Illinois, a state that doesn’t have any indoor 10-meter platforms.
The Northwestern University diving team typically practices at Schroeder once a week based on athletes’ class schedules, Hill says. The 90-minute drive from Evanston, Illinois, to Brown Deer is worth it for these dedicated athletes.
Northwestern’s divers are not the only people crossing state lines for platform practice at Schroeder.
Lindsay Su, a Wisconsinite who currently lives in Glenview, Illinois, is the parent of a 16-year-old diver at Glenbrook Aquatics. To work with Hill and use the sought-after 10-meter platform, Su drives her daughter to Schroeder every week when the high school diving season is not in session.
No matter the weather, Su and her daughter make the trip to Brown Deer.
“Every Tuesday, rain, snow, sleet or shine,” Su says.
The hours spent in the car and the money spent on road dinners from Culver’s are not just because of the platform at Schroeder. Hill is that extra piece of magic that keeps divers and parents coming back for more.
In high school, Bennett skipped his final class of the day to travel to Brown Deer and train with Hill twice a week. The Madison native currently dives at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and competed at the Olympic Trials in Knoxville, Tennessee, this summer. Bennett owes much of his diving success to the long-term mentality of Hill’s coaching.
“He didn’t care if I won Junior Nationals with Schroeder,” Bennett says. “He wanted me to be in a good mindset and physically under control so when I got to Minnesota I wouldn’t already be broken.”
Hill thinks about his divers’ careers in the long run. Rather than pulverizing his athletes’ bodies with pressure during their time at Schroeder, Hill does whatever he can to maintain the health of his divers so they can have long, successful careers, Bennett says.
“He didn’t care if I won Junior Nationals with Schroeder (…) He wanted me to be in a good mindset and physically under control so when I got to Minnesota I wouldn’t already be broken . “
This is something for which Bennett is immensely grateful.
“I knew he wouldn’t get mad if I messed something up,” Bennett says. “Going into the dives, I could just be myself.”
Hill knows his divers as athletes and as people. He caters to the individual athlete based on their personal needs and what type of coaching styles work best for them, rather than following one-size-fits-all coaching.
For example, Hill knows Bennett is a perfectionist and coaches with that in mind.
“He’s an ultra-motivated athlete,” Hill says. “The thing about Drew is you had to kind of slow him down for his own well-being.”
Not every diver who jumps into the pool at Schroeder is coached the same way as Bennett.
Jan Lanser is a diver at UW–Madison who also competed in this summer’s Olympic trials. Hill coached Lanser at Schroeder throughout his high school career.
“Jan just enjoys the sport of diving and everything that goes along with it,” Hill says.
Even the divers who wear their hearts on their Speedos can lose sight of why they love their sport in the first place. This spring, Lanser reached a point when he decided he wasn’t going to compete at the Olympic trials. His passion for diving was drying up.
Lanser paid Hill a visit at Schroeder in the weeks before the trials, and Hill gave him some tough love that was the push Lanser needed to find his drive for diving again.
“If you don’t go, you’re going to hate yourself,” Lanser remembers Hill saying to him.
Hill’s expression was a loving slap of reality for Lanser, and from that moment forward, Lanser approached the Olympic trials as an opportunity where he had nothing to lose. Lanser chose to dive for himself and nobody else.
“I found doing it for myself again to be the most liberating experience,” Lanser says.
For Lanser, the friendships and memories he made during his time at Schroeder are second to none. One of those friendships is with Bennett.
Lanser watched and listened as Bennett’s feet were shown no mercy by the 7-meter platform in Orlando on that ill-fated day. In classic Schroeder fashion, rather than standing by, Lanser stood up to help his teammate through a painful time.
“Jan, bless his soul. He must have carried me around on his back for days on end, and he didn’t complain one time,” Bennett says.
This type of love for one’s teammates stems from the example that Hill sets in the way he loves his athletes.
To Hill, the divers coming his way are already motivated and determined to succeed. It is his job to make Schroeder a place they want to be.
“My coaching philosophy is that I want kids to enjoy the sport. I want them to have a good experience,” Hill says.
This philosophy is paying off considering the 20 divers that have been a part of Division I programs at Power Five schools during Hill’s time at Schroeder.
The legacy that Hill has built at Schroeder goes far beyond college recruiting and the Olympic Trials. Hill establishes trusted and long-lasting relationships with his divers.
When past divers get engaged, Hill insists that their partners test the Schroeder waters for themselves.
“If you were a Schroeder diver and you want me to come to your wedding, then your significant other needs to be able to jump off the 10-meter platform,” Hill says. “If they can’t do that, I will stand up at your wedding and object!”
The 10-meter platform might be Schroeder’s most notable feature, but Hill’s dedication to his divers and his inspiring approach to coaching is what shapes the bright future for divers at this 45-year-old pool in Brown Deer.
Cover photo: The top of the 10-meter platform looks over the rest of the pool below. Photo by Riley McGrath.
Tile Photo: Overview of the Schroeder Aquatic center. Photo by Riley McGrath.