Perhaps one of the hardest things Zach Schering had to do in his diving career was not compete last season while redshirting (2024-2025).
 
Schering – then a senior and coming off All-American performances on the one- and three-meter boards – spent his time training and training and training some more, his sights set on a national championship in 2026.
 
"For nine months I kind of just felt like I was doing it [training] for nothing," remarked Schering. "It was hard because I wasn't competing."
 
 "The biggest challenge isn't so much the diving, it's the training with no benefit," diving coach Heath Calhoun said. "There's no competition, there's no checkpoints along the way. It's not like wrestling, where you can still go compete unattached and get that checkpoint and get that competitive fire going.
 
"He dealt with that pretty well for the most part, especially the first semester, he was working super hard. The second semester he kind of hit a roadblock, struggled, was getting a little burned out."
 
Schering not only trained but also used the time to complete his undergraduate degree in Business Management and simultaneously start work on an MBA through the university's accelerated program.
 
"I got in touch with Stephanie Adams and Chad Smith [both Business professors], they've been amazing, so I started my master's my senior year," said Schering. "I had a lot of stuff going on my senior year. Basically, I was finishing my undergraduate [degree] and starting my graduate [program]."
 
"It was extremely difficult at times. With those higher academics you have to perform at a higher level because that's what's expected of you. Balancing that with diving was extremely difficult."
 
Schering persevered, coming into this season all the better for working through those academic and athletic challenges.
 
"It was a big test. It was really a learning experience," he observed. "I definitely think it made me who I am today. It really shaped my mental discipline. I really got to see what a year of straight grinding does. It was a really good learning experience for me and it really shaped my discipline."
 
The Massillon, Ohio native started the 2025-26 season on fire – winning the one- and three-meter diving events at the season-opening Don Leas Diving Invite (Oct. 10) and Clarion Diving Fall Classic (Oct. 11).
 
He won the one-meter event in meets versus IUP (Nov. 1) and Davenport/IUP (Nov. 8). Against Bloomsburg (Nov. 10), Schering won both the one- and three-meter competitions.
 
Additionally, he was part of Clarion's three-person entry at the WVU Diving Invitational that defeated three similarly structured Division I teams (Nov. 22).
 
Schering is a five-time All-American – three times at three-meters and twice at one-meter.
 
Noted Calhoun, "He's pretty talented, but what sticks out is he works super, super hard. He stays and does the extra work. He buys into how we like to try go about doing things.
 
"He's really good at twisting, really good at somersaulting. He's one of the most talented divers that's come through the program."
 
For Calhoun, Schering's contribution to team chemistry is just as important as his diving ability, "The mark of a good athlete is somebody that leaves the program in a better place than when they got there. Zach, along with a couple other individuals, is a major factor why our team is where it is now, why the team culture has progressed in a positive manner."
 
Added Schering, "I love this team, I truly mean that from the bottom of my heart. I don't think any other team has what we have.
 
"I tell everybody I could have got a full scholarship to anywhere, but I turned it down. What this place has done for me, how its pushed me, the coach I have, and the athletes that are around me; I think this team is different than any other team in the country."