MOULTRIE — As a 13-year-old, Trey Hart won a gold medal on the 3-meter springboard at the 1990 Junior National Championships in Phoenix, Ariz., and qualified for the prestigious Can-Am-Mex Championships in Calgary.

Hart was outstanding there as well, taking gold on 3-meter, silver on 1-meter and bronze on the platform.

But he been diving since he was 5, had grown tired of the sport and Moose Moss, his coach, noticed.

“I’d known nothing but success, but I didn’t aways enjoy it,” said Hart, who was also suffering from occasional bouts of vertigo while diving.

“Moose told me, ‘I want you to take some time off and come back when you’re ready,’” Hart remembers.

Hart played football on the Colquitt County eighth- and ninth-grade teams and enjoyed it.

But in 1993, at meal before a Colquitt County High football game, he ran into his former diving coach.

“Moose said they were having practice at the Y and wanted me to come over and that maybe he could get me ready for the high school diving season,” Hart said.

Moss got him ready for more than that.

Hart went on to continue his fine junior career, becoming National YMCA champion and a four-time High School All-American.

At the University of Georgia, he set school records on 3-meter and platform and was an All-Southeastern Conference selection twice and an All-American once.

Hart will join three of his former coaches — Moss, Jay Lerew and Wenbo Chen — in the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame at th induction banquet next Thursday.

It was Moss who had the greatest impact on him, both as a coach and as a person.

“I have nothing but respect for him,” Hart says. “He made me who I am.”

When Hart went back to diving after his two-year hiatus, “I think it was unfinished business for both of us. He took a special interest in me. I think I could have been even better if he hadn’t passed when he did (in 1993).

“When practice was over, he wasn’t your coach anymore. He was the closest thing to a granddaddy I ever had.

“But I was 16 and too young to know what I had just lost.”

Skipping the 14-15 age group, Hart return to compete in the 16-18 boys age group.

“That first year, I was on training wheels,” he said.

But in 1993, Hart became a high school All-American for the first time and the next year won the YMCA National Championship on 1-meter and again was a high school All-American.

In 1995, he took the silver medal on 3-meter at the YMCA National Championships and was a High All-American again.

In 1996, he was second in the state high school meet, finishing behind Colquitt County High teammate Jud Campbell.

Twice he won the bronze medal at the state high school meet.

While continuing to train at Moss Farms, he received instruction from Wenbo Chen that enabled him to become an outstanding platform diver at the collegiate level.

“Wenbo took a real interest in me,” Hart said.

When it came time to decide where to continue his diving career, he considered schools that offered a degree in agriculture.

After considering Auburn and Florida, he chose Georgia.

In 1997, he placed third on platform at the SEC Championships. The next year he was fourth.

Hart said he continued to suffer occasionally with his mechanics on the springboard, but had a fine career as a platform diver at Georgia.

A victim of the NCAA’s qualifying process, Hart reached the NCAA Championships just once, but earned honorable mention All-American status.

“That was probably most disappointing to me,” he said.

Dan Laak, his coach at Georgia, said Hart was “a very talented diver.”

“Trey was a vital part of the swimming and diving program here at the University of Georgia,” Laak said.

“I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to coach Trey and to see him grow into the exceptional person that he is today.

Hart said he never had Olympic aspirations.

“I always wanted to have a life outside of diving,” he says. “I always enjoyed the FFA, youth trips with the church.

“There are some things that if you don’t do them when you’re young, you don’t do them.”

Hart is the son of Colquitt County educators Scott and Virginia Hart.

Although Scott Hart taught school for 30 years, he “farmed as a hobby,” he son said.

When he went to Georgia, Trey decided he wanted to farm or get into an agriculture-related business.

When he returned to Colquitt County after graduating from Georgia, he joined his father in Ochlocknee Ridge Farms.

Hart farms some 600 acres, has a herd of cattle and also scouts cotton.

He also is on the board of directors of the Colquitt County Farm Burearu and is hte president of the West Colquitt Chapter of te Young Farmers Association.

In December, he married the former Lacey Keller of Moultrie.