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Phoenix Rising
Kobena-Marcus J. Collins '01 coaches divers from the Milwaukee Public Schools to success in and out of the pool.

By Mike Conklin

Kobena-Marcus J. Collins '01, who has coached several divers from Milwaukee public schools all the way to the state championships, is pictured here at South Division High School in Milwaukee. Behind him is Carlos Rios, showing why he is one of Collins's star divers. (Photo by Mike Miller)

Carlos Rios takes great pride as a diver on the Riverside University High School diving team in Milwaukee. He recently capped four years of participation by placing fifth in the Wisconsin state championships Ñ the best finish by a diver from his school in 15 years.

Deonte Wilson, a senior at Bradley Tech High School in Milwaukee, labels his diving participation a life-altering experience after qualifying for state finals the last two years. He says the study halls and counseling that came with it were instrumental in his acceptance this fall to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Rios and Wilson hail from different schools, but the same person, Kobena-Marcus J. Collins '01, was key to their success after taking charge of the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) diving program three years ago. It was a return to his old neighborhood, where he once was a successful diver for Riverside.

One of the first things Collins did to energize a moribund program was organize the Milwaukee Phoenix Diving Club, which brought together all MPS divers to train as a unit, marketed the sport as a formative opportunity, and still allowed participants to represent individual high schools.

"The big thing at first was getting everyone to overcome their rivalries from being from different neighborhoods and schools," Collins says. "It took patience. We had to come together. The sport is perfect in many ways for this, because it requires discipline to succeed and also gives my athletes an identity they can take pride in. I know I did."

Diving isn't a high profile sport in large, urban school systems, and that was a big part of the attraction, says James Hortman, one of the club's four college-bound seniors this season. "Not many minorities dive, so I feel like we're opening a whole new world," he says. "My friends think it's cool to be going in a whole different direction. We're like a family, and Coach Collins is our mentor."

His mentoring begins at weekday practices, which start early at 5:45 a.m. during the seasons Ñ August to November for girls and November through February for boys. There also are mandatory study halls on Sundays and optional team meals. The bonding grew as participants made sacrifices together, Collins says of the divers, some of whom switched from being swimmers, gymnasts, and even break dancers.

These sacrifices have translated into success for the new club. In 2008, the three MPS divers who qualified for the state tournament became the largest number ever from the city to reach that plateau. The club also drew attention from local media. Before this year's Wisconsin high school championships, several divers were featured in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The article pointed out their goal is to someday produce the first title winner from the city's public school system since 1950.

"That's why we picked the name Phoenix for our club because we're rising from the ashes," says Rios, a senior who in 2006 became the first diver from a Milwaukee city school to qualify for the state finals since Collins did it in 1997 and placed fifth this year. "I never thought of diving before high school — I was a break dancer. Now I love it. When I'm in the air, I feel like I'm free without a care or worry in the world."

Collins, who Rios calls "a second father," was a star in football, baseball, and diving at Riverside, on Milwaukee's East Side in a racially mixed neighborhood. He also was a top student, making National Honor Society and the honor roll in addition to being elected to student council.

Collins visited Lake Forest College several times before deciding to enroll after attending the school's Multicultural Weekend. "Like most freshmen, I thought I knew a lot when I arrived and pretty much tried to go my own way at first," he said. "I learned you need to ask for help, to go to professors and others with questions, and then everything starts to open for you."

He squeezed much from his liberal arts education. In addition to football and diving, he helped manage the Measure of Our Success mentoring program for three years. As a senior he participated in Semester at Sea and was selected to Senior 25. His travels as a student included China, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, and Cuba.

Nowadays when he's not coaching, Collins, 30, helps students prepare for their own college experience. He is an academic advisor and member of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Trio & Pre-College office and works directly with public school students in programs geared to improve math and reading scores, to increase knowledge of college requirements, and to get parents more involved.

Through this federally-funded initiative, Collins follows students in selected schools from sixth and seventh grade through graduation. His office is in North Division High School, but his reach extends throughout the MPS system — all the way to diving.

His future plans include organizing a Phoenix parents club, increasing participation among girls from the half dozen who competed last fall, and, of course, having a diver win the state championship for the first time in nearly 60 years. "My passion," he told a WITI-TV reporter in Milwaukee, "is to give back to the community, to work with youth, to help them like people helped me." 

Freelance writer Mike Conklin, a 35-year journalist with the Chicago Tribune, currently teaches full-time at DePaul University.