Gymnastics and diving are two sports that seem to have few similarities on first glance. However, two FHC divers—seniors Rachael Yeager and Lily Zorn—also have a gymnastics background.
“I decided to start diving because, at the time, I was a swimmer and wanted to combine my love for gymnastics and my love for the water,” Zorn said.
Yeager went the other direction and was a gymnast first.
“I was a competitive gymnast for six years,” Yeager said. “When I started high school, my friend who was on the dive team convinced me to give it a try even though I had never done a head-first dive.”
Diving coach Joe Mish says the season is going very well.
“Overall, things are coming together great,” Mish said. “We have four already qualified for regionals, seniors Rachael Yeager and Jia Niemeyer, along with freshman Sydney Bresnahan and Mia Shaffer. With maybe a fifth, Lily Zorn, whom we are just waiting to hear back on some meet results.”
Along with Mish, Yeager also thinks the season has been going great.
“The season has been going well,” Yeager said. “Many of us have received PRs, scored points for the team, and learned new dives and improved old ones. We have four graduating senior divers, and we’re excited for the freshmen to take it over next year.”
Practicing for diving is unlike other sports. At diving practice, each diver will do dives off of the dive list for their meet. This means lots of repetition.
“For diving,” Mish explains, “the biggest thing is repetition. Each practice, we are doing our six dives lists for the upcoming meet. At the moment we are preparing for our conference meet. That is an 11-dive list meet. Meaning we have 11 different dives to prepare in time for the meet.”
While doing the dives at practice, the divers always make sure to have their music playing on the deck.
“Our practices are very upbeat,” Zorn said. “We are always blasting Taylor Swift and having a good time.”
In diving, there are some rules that determine what dives you can do for the competition.
“Each duel meet, a diver must do six different dives,” Mish explained. “One Voluntary and 5 Optional.”
In diving, there are five categories: front, back, reverse, inward, and twister. During the competition portion of the season, there is a required category that changes from week to week. So, every week, everyone competing across the state must start with a voluntary dive from the required category. The required dive will cycle through the five dive categories for the duration of the season.
“For the last 5 Optional dives, you must do one of two,” Mish said. “Perform a dive from all five categories. This means you will be doing two dives from the weekly required dive category.” (One voluntary and one option). “The four that are not from the required category must cover four of the five categories. Choosing this rule allows you to skip one category overall. So if a diver has a weak category, they can omit it and choose from their stronger dive categories.”
“You could also do a dive from all five categories,” Mish said. “Using the required count as a category, then choose a dive from any category. This rule forces divers to have a dive from all categories, but you can then choose your 6th dive from any category, and it’s not restricted to the required category.”
There are still some things that need to be done for them to perform well going forward.
“The team will be focused on consistency and staying focused,” Mish said. “As a team, we will need to stay happy and healthy for the conference meet. Then those of us moving onto regionals and eventually states will need to make sure we are rested and mentally prepared for those bigger and more intimidating meets. We will have to make sure we get plenty of rest and make sure our bodies are not getting tired so we can perform at our best for the next few weeks.”
Yeager is also hoping that the underclassmen continue to grow and make the team even better next year.
“I hope that our underclassmen grow confidence to take over the team next year,” Yeager said. “It would also be great to see as many of us qualify for regionals and state as possible.”
