Dumais Retains Family Seniority

Buena High junior Justin Dumais goes to great distances for his diving.

Dumais, with the rest of his family, often travels from Ventura to USC to practice with Trojan Dive Club Coach Jeff Schaffer.

The Dumais family has gone as far as to rent a house in Glendale to ease commuting problems, but Dumais, along with younger brothers Troy and Brice, still attends classes at Buena.

The rewards for the commitment are justified by the way the Dumais brothers dominate at the high school level.

Last month, Justin broke his Southern Section Division I finals record with 692.15 points at Heritage Park in Irvine, with Troy (684.85) finishing second for the second consecutive season.

For the second year in a row, Justin is The Times’ boys’ swimmer--or in this case diver--of the year.

Brice placed third with 537.35 points--more than 80 points ahead of the next diver.

“The amount of time they make for practice shows the commitment they make,” Schaffer said.

The traveling hasn’t slowed down at the end of the high school season. Justin Dumais left earlier this week for Germany to participate in an international youth diving competition.

Both Justin and Troy will be gone from home most of the summer, competing in the U.S. Junior Nationals in Florida from Aug. 6-11 and the Phillips 66 National Championships in Georgia the following week.

Troy Dumais also will be competing in the Olympic trials later this month. Justin barely missed a berth.

“He was one bad dive off in each of the three events,” Schaffer said. “We’re trying to work on his consistency now, so we don’t have those problems.”

In the last national championships, the qualifier for the trials, Justin Dumais placed between 14th and 16th in the 10-meter platform and one- and three-meter springboard events.

“It’s kind of funny Justin would be winning CIF because Troy has been getting a little more notoriety at the national level,” Schaffer said. “Now maybe he’s catching up a little bit.”

At the high school level, he’s already best.