MOULTRIE — Adam Terrell characterizes the years he spent as a member of Moss Farms Diving as the program’s “golden age.”

The former University of Tennessee All-American and Southeasten Conference Diver of the Year, who will be inducted Thursday night into the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame, is not boasting.

Take a look at the photograph taken by John Mercer that ran in the July 17, 1993, edition of the Moultrie Observer. It a group picture of the Moss Farms divers who were headed to that summer’s U.S. Diving zone meets.

Of the 16 divers in the photograph, 13 went on to dive at the college level: Camila McLean, Harvard; Chelsie Lerew, Florida State; Brooke Bassham, Georgia; Lauryn McCalley, Tennessee; Ashley Benner, North Carolina; Lane Bassham, Alabama; Clayton Moss, Kentucky; Jud Campbell, Georgia; Grant Gritzmacher, Texas; Jeff Moss, Georgia; Adam Terrell, Tennessee; Trey Hart, Georgia; and Chad Sheldon, South Carolina.

Terrell, Clayton Moss and Lane Bassham all went on to become SEC Divers of the Year.

Campbell, McCalley, Terrell, Clayton Moss and Lane Bassham all went on to earn NCAA All-America designations.

Terrell was the first to win those honors and bridge the gap between former outstanding Moss Farms divers David Howard, Brad Baell and Todd Murphy and the outstanding group that was to follow.

“Moss Farms has quite a legacy,” Terrell said this week from his home in Greenville, S.C., where he is the lead physical therapist for inpatients at Allen Bennett Memorial Hospital. “That’s something Moultrie should be proud of.”

As it is of Terrell’s accomplishments in a career that spanned more than 15 years.

Terrell represented his country in four international meets and was a highly recruited diver when Tennessee coach Dave Parrington convinced him to go to Knoxville, where he was part of the Volunteers team that did not lose a meet during his career.

Terrell actually was the second member of his family to use diving as a way to a college education.

Sister Brandy also was a member of the Diving Tigers and had a fine collegiate career at Vanderbilt. Now Brandy Heckel, she lives in Dallas, Texas, where she is raising her two children.

So it was only natural perhaps that Adam would come under the tutelage of Moose Moss and it was not long before he was bringing back medals and ribbons to show his parents, Sherry and Terry Terrell.

As a Junior Olympic diver, he took the gold medal on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards in the 14-15 age group in the 1989 Nationals in The Woodlands, Texas. He won seven silver medals at Nationals, including three as a 13-year-old, and four over a three-year span in the 16-18 age group. He also won two bronze medals at Nationals in the 16-18 age group.

A four-time YMCA national champion, Terrell in 1993 broke a 21-year-old record on the 1-meter springboard. He also dominated the Georgia High School Association meet, winning it four straight years and holding the scoring record for a number of years.

Five times, Terrell represented the United States in international competition. He took part in the Can-Am-Mex Games in Mexico City and Calgary, Canada; the World Championships in Madrid, Spain; and the Swedish Cup in Ronneby, Sweden.

Terrell credits much of his success to the coaching of Moss and Jay Lerew.

“Moose was incredible,” Terrell said, crediting the legedary coach with giving him the discipline to work and improve.

“He gave us something we could build a future on. He really had a big impression on me.”

Terrell said he blossomed under Lerew, whom Moss hired and who took over as coach when Moss died in the fall of 1993.

“Jay came along at the right time for me,” he said. “He was more laid-back than Moose. He pushed us, but it was not the same style.”

Terrell was heavily recruited by Michigan, Georgia, Kentucky, Stanford and Tennessee. Although he considered Georgia, the facilities then were not what Tennessee had. He narrowed his choice to Michigan and Tennessee before casting his lot with Parrington, the former Olympian.

Terrell had an outstanding career at Tennessee, where he was an All-American and was the SEC Diver of the Year in 1996. That year, he was second on both the 3-meter springboard and platform and was fourth on 1-meter at the SEC championships.

He followed with a seventh-place finish on the 3-meter board at the NCAA Championships, earning him a place on the All-America team. He also was named to the SEC All-Academic team in 1995 and 1996.

Parrington said Terrell is “superbly deserving” of his Hall of Fame selection.

And in honor of Terrell’s career, the University of Tennessee donated two diving boards for the Moose Moss Aquatic Center’s dry-land training center.

After earning a degree in sports medicine from Tennessee, Terrell remained in Knoxville and got a master’s in kinesiology. He earned another master’s at North Georgia College and State University in physical therapy in 2003 and worked for a year at Ty Cobb Memorial Hospital in Royston.

From the he went to his current position, near where his parents now live in Greer, S.C.

“It’s demanding,” he says of his career. “But it’s very rewarding.”

Terrell says he has not been in the water for six years. And while he enjoyed diving, “it had run its course.”

“But it opened so many doors for me,” he said. “Diving taught me discipline. It gave me an education. It taught me a lot of life lessons.”