Calderaro, Bray Followed Own Paths To UGA
March 09, 2025 | The Frierson Files, Men's Swimming & Diving
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Renato Calderaro's journey to Athens was a long one, across an ocean but not to a very foreign land. For fellow Georgia diver Matthew Bray, the path was different but the destination was the same. Both are among the seven Bulldogs competing in the NCAA Zone B Championships at Auburn's James E. Martin Aquatic Center.
On his bio, Calderaro's hometown is listed as Rome, Italy, which is accurate. But when you hear him talk, there is not a pronounced Italian accent — it's more Italian-American, and for good reason.
"My mom's American, my dad's Italian, and I was actually born in New York," said Calderaro, a junior. "I was born there and when I was two weeks old I was on a plane to Italy. I've lived my whole life in Italy, but I came here growing up, like twice a year, for Christmas and summer."
Calderaro said he first started diving when he was around five years old. His sister and his cousin were into diving, so he wanted to do it, too.
"They were like six years old and I was four, but I was too young; I was told that I couldn't start that young," he said. "Two years later, when I was approved to start diving, that's what I wanted to do, and I just did that ever since."
Bray's hometown of Fairfax, Va., doesn't have quite the romance or history of his teammate's — very few places do — but it was "at my summer pool," he said, where he became a diver.
"I just liked jumping off the board and doing a front jump," he said. "I would do that all day long, just doing little front jumps off the board; for hours and hours I would do that."
Around the same age at Calderaro when he got started, Bray would keep going off the diving board as long as he could — until he got kicked off to make room for the pool's diving team to practice.
"It made me so upset because I was like, I have to stop doing what I like doing," he said. "And so I just joined the dive team, just so they couldn't take me off the boards all day. My career progressed from there. Every summer, I just kept joining and joining, and now I'm here."
Calderaro is in his first season with the Bulldogs after starting his career at N.C. State. Last season, he qualified for the NCAA Championships on the 3-meter after qualifying on the 3-meter and 1-meter in 2023.
Bray has qualified for the Zone B Championships in the three diving disciplines for the second year in a row. The sophomore finished fifth in the 3-meter at the SEC Championships last month.
"From the beginning of the season to now, I can tell that my diving has progressed," Bray said last week. "I've been getting strong, especially in the weight room, especially compared to last year. I can definitely look back on videos and see that my diving has changed a lot."
In the 1-meter competition Sunday, Bray placed seventh to qualify for the NCAA Championships and Calderaro placed eighth, one spot out. However, Calderaro can still qualify for the NCAAs in the 1-meter if he finishes in the top eight of the 3-meter on Monday to qualify for the NCAAs in that event.
Calderaro said one of the things he likes about the U.S. is how boys and girls are able to play a wide variety of sports. He said there is much more specialization in Italy, even at a young age, and there are no school sports teams, so all youth sports happen through clubs and local teams.
"I like that you can do a lot of sports at the same time," he said. "In one sense, it would have been nice to try other sports and see what they were like, but in the other sense, I'm happy I stuck with diving and got better."
While Calderaro was a good diver pre-college, he said through his work on and off the board he's improved dramatically.
"When I first came to the U.S. to college, I started getting more attention, more practice time, I started lifting weights, and I started to actually seriously think that I could get better at the sport," he said. "Before, it was just, I'm going (to the pool or gym) to see my friends and just get a workout in. And once that mentality changed, I felt like I had people supporting me. ...
"I feel like that's when my abilities and my career kind of switched."
Both Bray and Calderaro said they definitely prefer the 1- and 3-meter to the platform — diving off the 10-meter platform very much isn't for everyone — with maybe a small preference for the 3-meter, which they will compete in at the Zone B Championships on Monday.
"It just depends on the day," Calderaro said of his preference between the two springboards. And Georgia is surely hoping that Monday will be a good 3-meter day.
Â
Staff Writer
Renato Calderaro's journey to Athens was a long one, across an ocean but not to a very foreign land. For fellow Georgia diver Matthew Bray, the path was different but the destination was the same. Both are among the seven Bulldogs competing in the NCAA Zone B Championships at Auburn's James E. Martin Aquatic Center.
On his bio, Calderaro's hometown is listed as Rome, Italy, which is accurate. But when you hear him talk, there is not a pronounced Italian accent — it's more Italian-American, and for good reason.
"My mom's American, my dad's Italian, and I was actually born in New York," said Calderaro, a junior. "I was born there and when I was two weeks old I was on a plane to Italy. I've lived my whole life in Italy, but I came here growing up, like twice a year, for Christmas and summer."
Calderaro said he first started diving when he was around five years old. His sister and his cousin were into diving, so he wanted to do it, too.
"They were like six years old and I was four, but I was too young; I was told that I couldn't start that young," he said. "Two years later, when I was approved to start diving, that's what I wanted to do, and I just did that ever since."
Bray's hometown of Fairfax, Va., doesn't have quite the romance or history of his teammate's — very few places do — but it was "at my summer pool," he said, where he became a diver.
"I just liked jumping off the board and doing a front jump," he said. "I would do that all day long, just doing little front jumps off the board; for hours and hours I would do that."
Around the same age at Calderaro when he got started, Bray would keep going off the diving board as long as he could — until he got kicked off to make room for the pool's diving team to practice.
"It made me so upset because I was like, I have to stop doing what I like doing," he said. "And so I just joined the dive team, just so they couldn't take me off the boards all day. My career progressed from there. Every summer, I just kept joining and joining, and now I'm here."
Calderaro is in his first season with the Bulldogs after starting his career at N.C. State. Last season, he qualified for the NCAA Championships on the 3-meter after qualifying on the 3-meter and 1-meter in 2023.
Bray has qualified for the Zone B Championships in the three diving disciplines for the second year in a row. The sophomore finished fifth in the 3-meter at the SEC Championships last month.
"From the beginning of the season to now, I can tell that my diving has progressed," Bray said last week. "I've been getting strong, especially in the weight room, especially compared to last year. I can definitely look back on videos and see that my diving has changed a lot."
In the 1-meter competition Sunday, Bray placed seventh to qualify for the NCAA Championships and Calderaro placed eighth, one spot out. However, Calderaro can still qualify for the NCAAs in the 1-meter if he finishes in the top eight of the 3-meter on Monday to qualify for the NCAAs in that event.
Calderaro said one of the things he likes about the U.S. is how boys and girls are able to play a wide variety of sports. He said there is much more specialization in Italy, even at a young age, and there are no school sports teams, so all youth sports happen through clubs and local teams.
"I like that you can do a lot of sports at the same time," he said. "In one sense, it would have been nice to try other sports and see what they were like, but in the other sense, I'm happy I stuck with diving and got better."
While Calderaro was a good diver pre-college, he said through his work on and off the board he's improved dramatically.
"When I first came to the U.S. to college, I started getting more attention, more practice time, I started lifting weights, and I started to actually seriously think that I could get better at the sport," he said. "Before, it was just, I'm going (to the pool or gym) to see my friends and just get a workout in. And once that mentality changed, I felt like I had people supporting me. ...
"I feel like that's when my abilities and my career kind of switched."
Both Bray and Calderaro said they definitely prefer the 1- and 3-meter to the platform — diving off the 10-meter platform very much isn't for everyone — with maybe a small preference for the 3-meter, which they will compete in at the Zone B Championships on Monday.
"It just depends on the day," Calderaro said of his preference between the two springboards. And Georgia is surely hoping that Monday will be a good 3-meter day.
Â
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.
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