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Max Van Stone made an immediate impression on Chaminade diving coach Kevin Brennan.

“Max showed up, and the first meet he was in he broke our school record and our pool record right off the bat,� Brennan said. “As a freshman, I've never seen a kid so focused. He knew exactly what he wanted to do. ‘I wanna go here. I wanna do this. I wanna do that. I'm gonna get straight A’s. I'm gonna go to medical school.’ He's just out of sight.�

Van Stone has continued to impress everyone throughout his first two years of high school diving, as the Red Devils junior won the Class 2 one-meter diving championship as both a freshman and sophomore.

“I feel like freshman year, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into high school diving-wise, so I think I look at freshman year as really a learning curve when it comes to diving and learning how meets work and how different dives are scored,� Van Stone said. “And then I think sophomore year was really just about proving myself and defending that state title from freshman year.�

This fall, Van Stone will attempt to become just the seventh male to win at least three consecutive state titles.

“I'm really excited to see him this year continue to improve the dives that he has already and work on one or two new dives to increase his degree of difficulty,� Chaminade head coach Keith Mug said. “Max is just very driven to make each dive better. He has a high DD and great form. He has a great flexibility that allows him to hold excellent pike position, gets great height off the board and has consistent takeoffs both from the front position and the back position.�

Van Stone said he will use this season to maybe try some different things, but with the same end-goal in mind.

The two-time All-Metro first-team selection compiled a score of 450.90 points to win state as a freshman and then upped the ante last season, becoming just the 13th boys diver to break the 500-point mark at the state meet, as his 507.25 points was the 12th-highest total in state meet history.

Now, he has his sights set on the state record point total of 591.65, set by Hickman’s Aaron Ashworth in 2000.

“I'm really excited because I think I will look at junior year as kind of maybe an experiment year in a way where I'll know be throwing a harder list DD-wise and it’ll be really interesting to see how that goes,� Van Stone said. “I think obviously the ultimate goal is being a state champ, but I think another goal that has really been at the front of my mind is breaking that state record.�

Ashworth is one of those six divers to win three straight state titles and is, in fact, the only male diver to win four in a row — something that is well within Van Stone’s reach — and Ashworth has become a sort of guiding light in Van Stone’s journey.

“Actually, I feel very blessed because I've gotten to meet Aaron a bunch of different times at nationals for USA dive,� Van Stone said. “And even when I started going through the recruiting process, he reached out to me, just saying if I ever needed anything or advice or a mentor in a way, he was there for me, and it was great. I was able to have a really nice conversation with him, and he’s somebody that I really look up to and I would love to try to match with my scores. But Aaron was a legend, so we'll see.�

Chaminade is blessed with a number of strong divers. In addition to Van Stone, senior Michael Stumpf Jr. has a pair of top-three state finishes, including last fall, senior Jacob Marshall was 14th at state last season and freshman Philip Bailey is showing promise.

“Michael and I have been on the same club team (Clayton Diving Alliance) for years, so we've just we've known each other for so long and he's a dear friend of mine,� Van Stone said. “And our newest freshman, Philip Bailey, is also on our club team. And Jacob is amazing, too. I've gotten to know him these past two years, and I see him all the time at school. We take a lot of the same classes and it's been really awesome to see him grow as a diver as well.�

Having a potent 1-2 punch like Van Stone and Stumpf has benefited both the divers and the team.

“You know I kid people, with Max and Michael, I'm more of a dive manager,� Brennan said. “They know more than I'll ever know, I'm telling you. They can get out of the water, and they can tell you right away what they did wrong and what they’ve got to fix. We look at the tape right away and they know it right off the bat.�

Mug also sees those qualities from both Van Stone and Stumpf.

“ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ work so well together. They're both very coachable and, at the same time, they have a lot of experience that it's almost like having two more coaches on deck,â€� Mug said. “Coach Brennan can watch and critique, but at the same time, they're also picking up things on each other and coaching each other and pushing each other to be better.â€�

Van Stone has heard from a plethora of big-time colleges that would love to have his services off the diving board, and he’s got a clear plan in place.

“I think, for a lot of people, recruiting can be very frustrating nowadays, especially with the NIL cuts going on. For me, it's been incredible. I feel very lucky because it hasn't been an excruciating process for me,� he said. “I do have five official visits lined up all throughout the month of September and first weekend of October. The goal is to verbally commit somewhere by mid-October.�

Whatever choice Van Stone makes, his coach knows it’ll probably be the right decision based on a number of unique abilities.

“The first thing is his physical ability. He's got a gifted physical ability because you just can't take any kid and say do this and do that,� Brennan said. “The second thing is he's a perfectionist. I mean, he is gonna perfect everything he does. And third, he just has the unique ability to focus in and do exactly what he wants to do. I've never really seen all three of those things in one kid at the same time.�