In Nov. 2016 Kallie Higgins (12) announced that she would be continuing her diving and academic career at Clemson University in South Carolina. Higgins was on her way to a successful path with a scholarship, but on Tuesday, March 14, the university announced that it would be cutting its women’s diving program and adding softball.

Higgin’s athletic scholarship was taken away, but she was determined to continue her diving career.

“[Clemson] said that they would honor my scholarship for all four years that I attend there, or I could look somewhere else if I want to dive. I didn’t think I wanted to quit diving yet, so I just started looking around,” Higgins said.

After months of searching for a new school, the Indiana University Women’s Swimming and Diving announced that Higgins was officially signed.

“I never thought I was going to be good enough to go to a Big Ten school, especially IU. They currently have three olympian divers on their team, and that’s not including all the olympians that also swim for them,” Higgins said. “Even though I thought I wasn’t good enough to go there, I can see potential in my diving and a lot of people tell me that. To be able to go there and work with an olympian coach and all the olympian divers that are so experienced is going to be really nice for me to be able to reach my potential.”

The ultimate decision for Higgins was not made before a tough process. Due to the date of the Clemson decision, very few universities had scholarship money available to be given to athletes. Also, most academic applications for scholarship eligibility were closed as well.

“It was really hard because I started looking around the second signing area. It’s not that the coaches didn’t want me, it’s just that it was too late. It really depended on what I wanted to do and if I wanted to dive [at a college] or not,” Higgins said.

Ultimately Higgins was unable to receive any scholarship for her freshman season, but the possibility a scholarship in the future still remains.

“IU did not give me any academic or athletic scholarship. Because it was so late, all of their money was gone. The coach told me that if I final at NCAA’s I’ll get scholarship money. I’m considered a walk-on, but I signed NLI,” Higgins said.

Higgins is still undecided on her major, but looks to potentially go into pharmacy or the sports science field.