By Tommy Pelle
Anders Logas and the rest of the UMBC diving team were preparing for a normal day of practice. It was Feb. 5, 2024, in Catonsville, Maryland, two days after a loss to the Naval Academy. Logas and the team had their sights set on the America East Conference Championships in two weeks’ time. The Retrievers were the defending conference champions for two years running and were looking to knock off the projected favorites from Binghamton University.
At the 2023 AEC Championships, as a freshman, Logas was the conference champion on the one-meter board. He also became the first Retriever diver since 2015 to compete at the NCAA Division I Championships. In his sophomore season, Logas missed most of the year as he recovered from a torn ACL in the offseason. In just his second meet of the season, Logas placed first on the three-meter board in a diving meet against Frostburg State and Salisbury State. It was safe to say that Logas had knocked the rust off. An injury that could end someone’s career was just another steppingstone for Logas en route to more success.
“I really just love the sport,” Logas said. “I’m also really competitive, so that is a better way to channel that energy.”
The boat-like port windows at the UMBC Aquatics Complex let little sunlight protrude. On that February day, the team had completed its stretching, put on alternative pop music and proceeded to get practice going.
With only three diving boards hanging over the pool, there was a lot of waiting involved. Logas and his teammates waited their turn, holding conversations not related to diving in the slightest. They were heavily invested in which animal fits whom the best.
Once it was his turn, Logas ascended the ladder towards the three-meter board. Just under 10 feet above the water, Logas stood on top the board visualizing a reverse-two-and-a-half flip, a dive he completed earlier in practice. Logas thought through the corrections he needed to make. He took a couple of steps back from the edge of the board. After a deep breath, Logas began his approach. A hop, skip and a jump launched him into the air.
He immediately knew that something had gone wrong.
The Diver from Dallas
Logas developed his passion for diving roughly 1,400 miles away in Carrollton, Texas, a suburb 25 minutes outside of Dallas. He was an active kid from the time he could walk. Along with having a high motor, Logas also had a motor mouth, making friends with anyone who would give him the time of day. Logas participated in lots of sports, including baseball, indoor and outdoor soccer, and basketball. At 10 years old, he decided to don a karate Gi, the white outfit traditionally worn by martial artists. At the Dallas-area karate dojo, Logas tried to advance through the different belt levels.
He quit after failing to get his gold belt.
In the shadow of defeat, Logas had his first glimmer of becoming a diver. In the backyard of his neighbor’s house, he discovered a trampoline. Logas spent lots of time practicing all kinds of flips on that trampoline. With an opening in his schedule, Logas told his mom, Jennifer, that he wanted to be a gymnast.
“She was like, ‘Hell no. What about diving?’”, Logas said.
As a result, Logas started taking diving lessons nearby at the Lewisville Independent School District Eastside Aquatics Center. From those lessons, Logas continued to compete, including competing for the Hebron High School Hawks in Carrollton. While competing in high school, Logas decided that he wanted to continue to dive in college. So, Logas went to the internet. During his web surfing he found UMBC and coach Jeff Fisher.
“I hopped on a recruiting website, and I got the coach’s contact information,” said Logas. “We had a couple of nice calls, and I really liked the way it went and how he described the program.”
So Logas made the move to Maryland.
On a mid-October Saturday, I met Logas at his house, which is about a 10-minute drive from the UMBC campus. Logas greeted me at the door in pajamas and a Dallas Mavericks hat. He had already gone to diving practice that morning at 7 a.m., so it was understandable that he was wearing his pjs and trying to relax for the rest of his Saturday. The house was decorated like your typical Hollywood depiction of a college student house. Mismatched furniture created a unique ambiance in the living room and kitchen. Logas and his roommates had sticky notes on top of the trash and recycling bins, reminding them when they are supposed to take out trash and recycling for pickup. In Logas’s room, his dresser acted as both a tv stand and a shelf for various Lego sets, including a Lamborghini and the Titanic.
The Ruined Reverse
The reverse-two-and-a-half dive was not unfamiliar to Logas. It was a dive he had executed regularly. That is why he knew something was wrong as soon as he sprung into the air.
“In my takeoff my knees buckled ever so slightly,” said Logas. “It put me up instead of out.”
Logas failed to get far enough away from the board. On his descent, both of Logas’s hands slapped into the board, sending an unnerving boom across the pool. His teammate, Ember Stennett, was present when Logas hit the board.
“I vividly remember looking away and then I heard the sound of the board, and I knew that something was wrong,” said Stennett.
In a flash, Logas splashed into the water. With adrenaline coursing through his body, Logas was initially unaware of the pain from his injuries. From the middle of the pool, he doggy paddled to the edge, where Stennett and fellow diver Alicia Buteau were there to hoist Logas out of the pool. As the adrenaline rush wore off, Logas began to feel the pain.
Logas had broken his pointer finger on his right hand below the knuckle and his pinky on his left hand.
The closest hospital to UMBC is the University of Maryland Medical Center in downtown Baltimore. Logas arrived there and was seen almost immediately. Various doctors and nurses came into Logas’ room and ran tests to gauge his condition, the most notable of which was a test used to determine if the injury on Logas’ right hand was a compound fracture.
“Little to my knowledge, the way you test it in my specific circumstance was to stick a Q-Tip directly into the wound,” said Logas. “I thought he was done… then all of a sudden he pushes it further down into my hand, further than I even knew it could go.”
It was 10 p.m. when doctors determined that Logas had suffered a compound fracture, which meant surgery would be required and that he could not have any food or liquids after midnight. In a last-ditch effort to get his star diver some nutrition before the clock struck midnight, coach Fisher raced to the hospital. At 11:30 p.m., Fisher got to Logas’s room with a brown bag with the golden arches in hand.
“I was able to eat my McChicken, but I was unable to reach the bottom of the fry container,” joked Logas.
12 hours later, Logas was prepped and ready for surgery. After seven hours of operating, the surgeons conducted a bilateral hand operation. In recovery, Logas’s mom, Stennett and his girlfriend, Alyssa, were waiting for him. Logas medically withdrew from school, and after completing a two-week post-op visit with doctors, Logas returned to Carrollton.
Healing in the Heartland
Logas is not a stranger to facing medical hurdles in his college career. He had already recovered from tearing his ACL during his freshman season. At the end of last season when the injury to his hands occurred, Logas was familiar with what the path would look like to get ready for this season.
“I already knew what I had in store in terms of work,” said Logas. “I just put my nose to the grindstone and did the best I could do.”
Once Logas got back to Texas, the path back to Catonsville began. Logas participated in intense physical therapy sessions for two months. After spending two weeks in a cast and various splints, Logas had to relearn simple tasks like tying his shoes and picking up a pen. Logas attributes the support of his parents to him getting through those first couple of weeks back in Texas.
“Even when I was sarcastically like, ‘hey, I picked up a pen like normal,’ they would congratulate me like this was just another step,” said Logas. “Whatever was in store in for me, they were gonna be there for me.”
At the end of April, Logas returned to Maryland. When he started diving again, Logas faced mental hurdles atop the board.
“I was really scared to go off the board in that direction even if it wasn’t the dive I hurt myself on,” said Logas. “Even now, I have some hesitancy when it comes to the reverse direction.”
Logas’s absence from the team was felt both in and out of the pool. Logas acts as both a glue guy and a super star. On the sidelines, he chats up whichever teammate he is closest to about things completely unrelated to diving. The next moment he is cheering on another diver as they attempt a difficult dive. One second Logas is making funny faces at a teammate getting ready to dive. The next second Logas is helping a diver make corrections for their next dive. While Logas is impactful as a diver, his impact as a teammate is just as great.
“He can always make someone laugh,” said Stennett. “He gives the best hugs, the best hugs!”
This season marks Logas’s first as an upper classman. It is obvious that Logas is taking on the roll as a leader as he becomes more of an experienced diver on the team. Now with the season underway, Logas is looking to build on the success he has already had and use the pain from his previous injuries to push himself even further this season.
“Pain is a really good teacher,” joked Fisher. “I wouldn’t say no nonsense about that kid, but he’s been serious about his training.”
Logas is also locked in more to his diving than he ever has been.
“I want it to be better, better than I am comfortable with,” he said. “Step by step, inch by inch.”
What’s on the horizon?
At UMBC, Logas is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in information systems. As a junior, Logas is starting to pay more attention to life after he hangs up the speedo. Logas is pursuing an internship opportunity with Clearview Group, a management consulting and CPA firm in its IT risk department.
“If I can get a foot through the door in some way, that would be awesome,” said Logas.
But right now, Fisher and the Retrievers are focused on the season ahead. For UMBC, last year marked an end to back-to-back conference titles on the men’s side. For Logas, his ambition to dive is simple.
“It exemplifies my personality of wanting to be better than I was the previous day.”