U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL LOS ANGELES 1991 : DIVING : Scoggin Doesn’t Mind Being Barked At

When Matt Scoggin belly-flopped on the entry of his seventh dive during the preliminaries of the Olympic Festival 10-meter platform Friday, he could almost hear Debba barking.

In a bizarre case of dog judges man, the first critiques of Scoggin’s dives came from a black Labrador seeing-eye dog owned by his former coach, the late Don Quesada.

“The splash and the noise set her off,” Scoggin said. “You’d surface and she’d be at the edge of the pool barking like crazy. It was kind of funny. It sort of took the sting away.”

Scoggin was able to smile Friday even after receiving 3.5s and 4s because of the botched entry on a back 3 1/2 somersault tuck. He rebounded, however, and received mostly 8s, 8.5s and two 9s on his final three dives to finish first in the platform preliminaries.

Scoggin earned 588.72 points, finishing well ahead of second-place Patrick Jeffery of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., who had 546.75. Ft. Lauderdale’s Karen LaFace scored 435.88 points Friday evening in the preliminaries of the women’s three-meter springboard, heading the list of 12 divers who qualified for Sunday’s final.

Scoggin began diving with Quesada in Arlington, Va., when he was 13, but Quesada’s eyesight was already deteriorating because of diabetes. By the time Scoggin was 14, Quesada was legally blind and his dog, Debba, had become a fixture on the pool deck.

“With the right lighting and the right viewing position, ‘Q’ could make out the outlines of our bodies,” Scoggin said. “But pretty soon he couldn’t even see that.”

When Dr. Sammy Lee, the former Olympian and diving’s No. 1 goodwill ambassador made a trip through town, Quesada took him aside and made a special request that Lee make sure Scoggin’s talent was not wasted. Lee contacted Ron O’Brien, then coach of the Mission Viejo Nadadores, and arranged for Scoggin to move to Mission Viejo, live with a host family and continue training.

Scoggin, who graduated from Capistrano Valley High in 1981, trained with the Nadadores for two years before enrolling at Texas. Now 27, he still lives in Austin, Tex.

Quesada died in 1981, but his words and inspiration live on with Scoggin.

“He was a great coach,” Scoggin said, “He was a very important force in my life. He inspired me to be where I am today. We would talk in his office and he was always frank when he critiqued you, but he always had something positive to say, too.

“He taught me what it means, and what it takes, to be a champion. I learned that you have to work harder than the people around you. He was a great influence on my life. I still really miss ‘Q.’ ”