DIVING
A plunge into a new programBY JUSTYN DE QUEIROZ ON OCTOBER 19TH, 2013
This year students are able to experience a new sport at Rose. It took a while to get started, but the new athletes are excited to try diving at Rose.
“For the last two and a half years, I've worked with ECU to try and get a diving club started over there,” swimming and diving coach Charlie Harvey said. “Not that I would do it, but they would do it, and I would support them with kids from Rose.” There is a new diving program at Rose, and Harvey has been working for a long time to get it started. Harvey set it up with East Carolina Aquatics for them to provide the athletes with a practice location, a coach and an insurance policy. Harvey thought they had what it took to make the team, but for some unknown reason the team fell through. This did not stop Harvey from trying to start the team. He eventually got it to happen, and the team travels to Goldsboro where there is a diving team. The team practices with most of the people they compete against because there is no other facility in Eastern North Carolina that will hold a diving team. All of the athletes are willing to make the travel to Goldsboro to make themselves better. “My main goal is to keep doing it till my senior year so I can get better and have a better chance to make it to states,” sophomore Madison Powers said. For the divers, this is a whole new ball park. None of them have any diving experience, but they all have experience from tumbling in cheerleading or gymnastics. “It’s definitely a new concept, and it’s difficult,” sophomore Macy Powers said. “But because of my background with tumbling, it’s not extremely difficult.” One of the difficulties that the divers are having is landing. They are all so used to landing on their feet that landing the other way seems impossible and dangerous to them. Though it may be difficult, they are heading into this season with an open mind ready to learn and have fun. “I think it’s a good, fun opportunity to do something different,” Madison Powers said. “My main goal is to get better as a diver.” Diving and swimming go hand in hand when it comes to conference points and going on to regionals and states. Each event that a team participates in brings in points for the team’s total score. Now that Rose has a diving team, it will bring in a considerable amount of points to the team. It can help them win their conference and place higher at regionals and states. “They all have a good opportunity, assuming they all continue to progress the next two to three years, to possibly slide into the next level,” Harvey said. “This season though, I just want to see them get better.” Adding the diving program will help the swimming team immensely. Because of the new program, they could bump up their state ranking. “Last year, there was a team at the state swimming and diving meet that came in 14th in the state with no swimmers and only three divers,” Harvey said. “Where my swimming team was 6th with no divers.” Harvey explains that if junior Rice Van Coutren, junior Keeley Gay and the Powers sisters do well, they could help the team at regional and states with the total points for the swimming and diving team. “I’m really excited about this season, and I am excited that they are excited about it as well,” Harvey said. “They have been nothing but positive and they have been pushing me to keep finding them a place to go.” On a long term, Harvey is trying to expand the program. He wants there to be more options for students at Rose and to help ECU have a source of recruitment for their own programs. “Ultimately, I want to bring to the attention to ECU that we do have a foundation of kids that can start a diving program, we have a seed to start their club and they just have to do it,” Harvey said. HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
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