In the wake of a family tragedy, Alex Mackey became a collegiate athlete at the age of 43
In 2012, Alex Mackey was attending his two sons’ summer swim class at El Camino College when he struck up a conversation with instructor Corey Stanbury, who also coaches El Camino’s dive team.
Mackey told Stanbury how much he enjoyed having taken a dive class 20 years earlier while a freshman at Brigham Young University. Stanbury suggested Mackey take his dive class.
At the time, Mackey was struggling physically and mentally with the loss of his prematurely born third son, who died in 2010 at five months. “So I began attending evening classes on Tuesday and Thursday,” Mackey said
“It was so easy to just stop off at 7-11, a grocery store or fast food and grab junk food on the way to the hospital,” said Mackey, whose child was in a neonatal intensive care unit. “The sugar rush made me feel better. Even to this day, I will lean toward it when I feel depressed but I have learned how to manage the craving.”
When he met Stansbury he had already begun working on his diet because of an upcoming physical exam and a driver’s license renewal.
“I didn’t want to get lectured from my doctor and I didn’t want to look fat in the driver’s license photo,” Mackey recalled. “I was picking up meds for my kids at a local drug store and while waiting I took a blood pressure test that said I was in the trouble zone. I did it again and it registered the same. I was shocked and knew it was time for a change.”
Mackey had gained more than 50 pounds and weighed 220. But in a gradual process, he began with counting calorie intake
“I would still have a cupcake for breakfast and soup the rest of the day,” Mackey said. “Then I made better decisions like yogurt instead of a cupcake for breakfast, so instead of starting off my day with 500 calories under my belt literally and figuratively, it would start off with 80 calories.”
By the time he met Stansbury, Mackey had reached his goal of losing 60 pounds, assisted by involving “Insanity” workout videos and pike up exercises to build core muscle groups (He still does this training regimen, trying to get 100-150 pike ups each day).
Stanbury was impressed with Mackey’s avid interest in the technique of diving along with his determination to get back on the diving board after crashing while attempting new dives.
“Alex is a very hard working, dedicated athlete who overcame some potential blocks like full time working, a family, age, and starting off significantly overweight,” Stanbury said. “This has been a tool for him to get back in shape and explore something he has always had an interest in but never the opportunity to do.”
Mackey’s hopes of making El Camino’s dive team were almost quashed when he tore rotator cuffs in both shoulders on the same dive,
“I tried to go to practice but just couldn’t, so I redshirted the first season,” Mackey said. “I kept classes on my schedule and recovered from left shoulder surgery fairly quickly. The second year I didn’t go out for team because in December I was told I needed surgery on my right shoulder, which was worse than my left. It took all spring and was a rough recovery.”
During that period he turned to food to cope with his depression.
“I gained 25 pounds,” Mackey said. “I couldn’t work out, became more depressed and ate more to feel better. One day, I stood looking in the mirror saying ‘This a real low moment of this journey and I hope I come out through this,’ Then I thought that there is always someone who has it worse. Even when we lost our son, I remember thinking, ‘This is difficult, but there are other people who have it worse.’ There are always ways to make a positive situation out of a negative.”
Mackey resumed diving and qualified for the Warrior’s dive team, with help from coaches who included Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis.
“Greg and I were diving for fun at the Jesse Owens pool. He hadn’t been in the water since filming the movie ‘Splash,’” Mackey said, “He was going to Indiana to coach the Olympic hopefuls and asked me to come along. That is when Olympic coach Drew Johansen saw me attempt a reverse 1-1/2 pike twist which I was having difficulty performing. Johansen cleaned it up in only 15 minutes.”
Mackey was comfortable with his favorite dive, a reverse with a half twist off the 3-meter board.
“The reverse half-twist, it’s like floating in air, and beautiful. It’s awesome,” Mackey said.
But he had trouble with his reverse 1-1/2 pike.
”It’s also a reverse, but it’s my least favorite. I’ve eaten it so many times and have the bruises to prove it. From black and blue to purple to brown and yellow, my skin has been every color of the bruise spectrum.”
”The reverse 1-1/2 twist off the 3-meter is a little crazy and you don’t see it very often, “ Mackey said. “I think I was the only diver in Southern California, if not the state, who did it. When I did it at the dive camp in Indiana, where there were Olympic qualifiers and hopefuls, one of the coaches said ‘I don’t even know how to coach that.’”
Mackey’s hard worked and tutelage paid off with a first place finish in the 3-meter diving South Coast Conference championship, which qualified him for the State Championships at East LA College last month.
El Camino coach Jose Bahena also played a vital role in Mackey’s success.
“Alex and I were messaging throughout the months of November and December,” Bahena said. ”I was not going to coach this year due to a program I was accepted into, but Alex’s story is so moving that I wanted to help him with his goal.
“His improvement this year has been magnificent. When he told me his plans for the year, I was doubtful of how much we could achieve. The dive list that he wanted to do was a lot higher than the dives he was doing. He came everyday to practice ready to do whatever it is that I had for him. I was a hard worker in my diver years, but this 43 year old man was relentless. He was more motivated than anyone I had ever seen. Anything I asked of him, he’d do. No questions asked.”
Mackey said his goal of reaching the State Championships could not have been achieved without the support of his family, especially Janice, his wife of almost 17 years.
“Janice picked up the slack when I was training and competing,” Mackey said,” Even when I finished 11th on the first day at the State Meet and was feeling low, she picked up the kids from school and made a special trip to Susie’s Cakes in Manhattan Beach to buy me a cake. I finished the whole thing that night, which made me feel better and appreciative of the great family I have.”
His sons Lex, 11, and Spencer, 8, enjoy water sports but are more into volleyball and baseball, respectively.
Mackey has plenty of experience in being adaptive. He has lived in 10 states and three countries, including a study-abroad program in Mexico and a two-year Latter Day Saints mission term in Chile. His father was a nuclear engineer.
“I played Little League when I was nine but did not like the balls hitting my face,” Mackey said. “We moved to Iowa when I was in 8th grade,where I was introduced to wrestling. I hated it. The other kids were so good and I was so skinny and scrawny, wrestling at 105. I just got pounded all the time. Then saw a play at the high school and I fell into that world. I guess I’m a bit of a drama nerd. So getting to be on the El Camino dive team and being called an athlete for the first time felt so weird.”
Mackey said his goals in the athletic world have been reached, but he hopes that his story will make it to the big screen, utilizing his experience as a drama student and current contacts as owner/producer of the Manhattan Beach-based Oh Rio! Productions.
It would be fun to see this story be made into a movie, along the lines of “McFarland USA,” “Million Dollar Arm,” “Rookie” or “Secretariat,’” Mackey said.
He’s even thought about an actor who could portray him.
“Although Tom Cruise is a few years older than myself, he’s in great shape and I know he enjoys being challenged in the roles he accepts, whether it’s being strapped to the side of an airplane or falling off the tallest building in the world,” Mackey said. “To be trained how to dive by Greg Louganis would be an awesome experience for him.”
