Mirabella Miranda is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Phoenix Country Day for AZPreps365.

It was like any other day for third-grader Samantha Stein as she headed to PE class outfitted in her large Phoenix Country Day swim shirt. She and her classmates stood at the edge of the pool bent at the waist with their arms straight above their heads ready to dive right in.

After a few tries, diving coach Kristin Pruett began correcting the swimmers. Pruett took notice of how well Stein listened saying, “I just saw a spark in her that I knew she was going to be good.” 

For Stein, all it took was a simple, “You should try diving” from her coach and the rest is history.

Quickly diving became Stein’s whole world. “I remember for a period of time when I was younger literally every single night I dreamed about diving,” said Stein. 

The hard work Stein put in began to pay off as she was surpassing others her same age. Stein was performing dives that were much harder than any of her competitors when she won the age group nationals at 11. “I always knew she would be good not because she had so much talent but because she was willing to work at it,” said Pruett. 

Stein went on to win four back-to-back state championships, went four years undefeated at Phoenix Country Day and has set multiple new records.

Stein never imagined the success she has had. With the help of coach Pruett, she has surpassed her goals. “I probably would not have been a diver if it weren’t for Kristin,” said Stein. “I owe almost everything I’ve done to her.”

Stein has begun setting new goals for herself and is excited to continue her education and diving career at the University of Pennsylvania in fall 2020.

She is looking forward to continuing to grow as a diver but Stein has always put academics first. That is what she wants to do while not setting unrealistic goals for herself. “She’s not going to go for the Olympics, making NCAA’s is not her primary goal, her goal is to have a great education,” said Pruett. 

“Penn is an amazing school and she will come in as one of their best divers but that is okay because she’s not trying to be the best diver. She understands that diving is a means to an end. She wants to go on and do amazing things with her brilliant mind and diving is an opportunity for her to pursue what she wants to do with her career.”

Attending such a rigorous university is a challenge Stein is ready to accept. All throughout her years at PCDS, Stein spent any free time she had doing homework and studying. All her hard work in the classroom seems to have paid off after being accepted to Penn. “I knew I could do it. Was I stressed? Yes. But you have to take it minute by minute,” said Stein.

Stein has made it a point to be as productive as possible even if she was feeling overwhelmed. “If she can’t do it she will continue to work and work and work until she does,” said Pruett. She doesn’t give up.

Sometimes her coach even wondered why she was so critical of herself. “At nationals, we kinda butted heads because she was being so hard on herself,” said Pruett. “I told her you gotta pull your head out. You’re at nationals.” 

Stein’s motivation comes from her own passion to win and not because others are pushing her. 

“She doesn’t have these overbearing parents so it makes me realize she is doing it partly for the love of the sport and partly because this is something she wants. This is something she is good at and wants to see where she can take it to.”

Both her parents and coach realize Stein is not a typical high schooler who wants to go to parties. Academics and diving are important but family comes first. She is very passionate about spending time with her twin sister, two older brothers, parents and grandparents. Family has always held a special place in her heart. “I think her mom and dad have really instilled in her a sense of family as a priority,” said Pruett.

Stein has always thought her twin sister was completely different from her, although they are both extremely dedicated to their individual sports. Her sister is a talented tennis player and will attend Cornell next fall. Both of them take academics seriously. “Even though we are completely different in what we do we have the same thing going for us. How we feel about our sport and what we want to do with it, in that way we are similar,” said Stein. 

Stein has another family outside of her immediate family---her club and school team. She has grown even closer to her teammates as captain this year. “I will definitely miss it but I’m glad I can keep the family, just a different one,” said Stein. 

Stein serves as a leader and an example for her teammates. The club team she swims for is predominately younger athletes, many of whom look up to her. A younger girl on her swim team told Pruett, “I’m going to be just like Sam and I’m going to go to a really good college just like Sam.”

Originally Pruett did not think Stein would want to be on a team with mostly elementary and middle school-aged swimmers, “I thought yeah right… she’s going to get bored with all these little kids around her but she has not at all and they adore her.” 

To her surprise, Stein was terrific with the young swimmers and loves being like an older sister to them. “She has always been a really mature kid but she's still a kid at heart,” said Pruett. 

Now that Stein only has a few months left at PCDS and with her swim club, her coach and teammates are realizing what it will be like when she goes off to college. “I think they will really miss her,” said Pruett. “There will be a big void to fill.” 

Some of the other older girls on the team are starting to follow in Stein’s footsteps as a leader. 

Her teammates will follow how she does at Penn. “I’m excited that I don’t have to leave it all behind,” said Stein. 

Her longtime coach is sad to see her go but excited to see how she continues to grow as a young woman, athlete, and student. “I hope what she takes away from diving is when she doubted herself or had to overcome a fear of hitting the board she can relate that to her real-life,” said Pruett. “It’s not about winning state four times in a row, it’s about the life lessons that she learned.”