DiRado showed natural ability at young age

<p>Until that summer afternoon when 6-year-old Maya DiRado accompanied her family to a cookout at a friend's house, her parents thought her future was in ballet. Two things happened that day that changed her life forever.</p><p>The host had a swimming pool and Jill McCormick, who would later become the coach at Santa Rosa Junior College, was also a guest.</p><p>Maya, who hadn't had swim lessons, waded in the shallow end for a few minutes and then with minimal instruction began moving through the water like she'd been doing it all her life. McCormick was so impressed, she urged the family to get her into lessons immediately.</p><p>That afternoon was the first chapter in a career that so far has seen the female All-Empire Swimmer of the Year rewrite Redwood Empire record books ... and she figures to be just as successful when she enters Stanford in the fall.</p><p>The 5-8 DiRado capped her Maria Carrillo career by taking two blue ribbons (200 individual medley and 100 freestyle) on May 22 in the North Coast Section championships. </p><p>As she heads to Palo Alto in the fall, DiRado has left her imprint on the Empire record books. She owns four all-time records and swam the fastest 200-yard IM in California high school history.</p><p>Her father, Ruben, remembers the day his daughter was introduced to swimming.</p><p>“We were living in Petaluma and Maya had been taking dance and ballet classes,” the elder DiRado recalled. “Of course my wife, Marit, and I planned to give Maya swimming lessons, but we never envisioned she would turn out to be a competitive swimmer.”</p><p>After learning the basics, the DiRados thought Maya would enjoy synchronized swimming because she enjoyed ballet and dance so much.</p><p>At age 10, the family moved to Santa Rosa and Maya's focus changed. She joined the Neptune Swim Club under the tutelage of Dan Greaves.</p><p>By 12, it was apparent Maya was something special. She began setting career time goals for herself and within a year she'd reached those marks. Swimming for coach Kara Myers at Maria Carrillo, her times have gotten faster and faster.</p><p>“I looked forward to training because I had two friends that were in the same program and we pushed each other,” DiRado said. “I always looked forward to time in the pool.” Those friends, both older, also attend Pac-10 schools. Amanda Sims competes for Cal while Penelope Yamauchi is at Arizona State.</p><p>By going to Stanford, DiRado is following in the footsteps of her parents and older sister, Sarah. Chances are, she would've received an academic scholarship had she not been a top-notch swimmer. She scored a perfect 800 on the math portion of her SAT and carried a 4.60 grade-point average.</p><p>She raced through the math SAT, but was stuck on one question.</p><p>“It was a verbal reasoning question,” DiRado said. “I worked it out, but the answer didn't look right. I went back and read the question several more times and then the answer came to me.”</p><p>In the water, next up for DiRado is the USA Nationals in Irvine the first week of August.</p>