With the judges watching, Georgetown Prep's Mike Mosca performs a reverse pike during the Metro Diving Championship at the Montgomery Aquatic Center on February 24. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
Video of Walter Johnson diver Annie Kastler
On a Thursday afternoon at the Audrey Moore RECenter pool in Annandale — amid the typical cacophony of lessons, public swim and teams practicing — some of the area’s top high school divers performed in the AAA Northern Region boys’ diving championships.
Tuning out the chaos surrounding them, they competed in a finite discipline in many ways at odds with swimming, the sport with which it is almost always linked. Unlike swim meets, where competitors pack on pool decks cheering for teammates and a swell of parents are in the stands shouting for their kids, this competition turns on precision and concentration. Spinning, twisting descents into the pool take the place of outright speed, and results come from judges’ marks, not a stopwatch.
“Athletically the only comparative activity is a push-off start, otherwise they are two completely different sports,” said John Wolsh, head coach of the Montgomery Dive Club, one of the nation’s premier programs. “Athletically, bio-mechanically there is nothing similar. They just share the same facility.”
The Washington area is becoming a hotbed of high school diving, sending athletes to many of the country’s top collegiate programs. Yet there is an obvious disconnect between swimmers and divers, even on their own teams, with divers feeling largely unappreciated by the swim community and swim coaches expressing a lack of understanding for a sport so different from their own. As one area swim coach said, diving is “like figure skating in the middle of a hockey game.”
“It’s definitely tough,” said Yorktown two-time All-Met diver Maren Taylor, who now dives for Texas. “I don’t think any of the swimmers realize how much the divers do for them. I can see even more in college, I just think they just don’t think about it. They don’t realize that diving gets them a lot of points.”
‘We were never included’
As the swim community in the area continues to grow and produce top talent, so too has the metropolitan area fostered some of the country’s top diving prospects. Among others, Taylor and Matt Cooper (Whitman) headed to highly ranked Texas, Mikey McDonald (W.T. Woodson) and Logan Shinholser (Paint Branch) are at Virginia Tech, Meg Hostage (Holy Cross) is at Stanford, and Andy Bradley (Robinson) was a two-time NCAA runner-up in the one-meter diving event for South Carolina.
Several of the area’s current top prep divers — including Robinson sophomore Cory Bowersox, LSU-bound Annandale senior Sean McKinney, Churchill sophomore Timothy Faerber, Walter Johnson sophomore Annie Kastler and Georgetown Prep junior Mike Mosca — are ranked highly in their respective age groups.
Wolsh attributes the area’s growth as a diving power to its large gymnastics community — the sport most similar to diving — and also to the high percentage of community pools with diving teams.
Despite the success, however, many of the top divers have gone mostly without recognition in the high school world — save for the titles they win.
For four years Taylor was the top girls’ diver in Virginia, winning three state championships and four region titles Yet Taylor said she sometimes felt as though she was not a full-fledged member of the team at Yorktown — despite earning the Patriots crucial points during two state championship seasons.
“We practiced at the same pool but we practiced way before them, we never saw them,” Taylor said. “At meets we would dive before them usually. We’d be forced to stay to watch them swim, but they’d never watch us dive. We were never included; I never really felt a part of the team ever.”
For Taylor, the explanation was simple: There is little connection between the two sports. “We get lumped in with them because of the water aspect,” she said. And for those with minimal understanding of diving it is difficult to understand or watch the meets.
The atmosphere at diving competitions bears very little resemblance to swim meets: Swim meets are fast-paced and loud; diving meets are longer, more tempered events with cheering saved for after dives only. The Metros boys’ championship held on Wednesday in Bethesda lasted 4.5 hours.
Shifting attitudes?
While swimming is judged based on a simple quantitative measurement, time, diving scores involve a five- or seven-judge panel and degree of difficulty measurements.
It is a highly technical sport that demands flexibility and core strength, but most importantly, according to several divers, mental toughness and fearlessness.
When done right, a dive seems almost artistic, the athlete tightly spinning and twisting, high in the air and close to the board without any jerky movements — “grace or flow,” Mosca said — then entering perfectly in the water with hardly a splash.
To the common eye, however, it’s difficult to tell the difference between a dive that scores a 9 and one that garners a 7.
“It is a lot more confusing for people watching because they don’t know what’s going on as much. It is very technical,” said Bowersox, the two-time Virginia AAA state champion. “Swimming, you kind of just watch it a couple seconds each event; diving, it takes a long time to complete. It can be confusing to watch and you have to know what to watch.”
Yet as divers continue to be successful, there is a hope that the attitude toward the sport is shifting.
Wolsh pointed out that more college programs now have full-time diving coaches. And in the Washington area, as more teams benefit from the talented pool of divers, those athletes expressed optimism that their success is helping to change the relationship between swimming and diving.
Bowersox said his team has been supportive as he has poured in points over the past two years, especially compared to when his older siblings dove in high school. Kastler said her team understands the value of the diving team members. Several Georgetown Prep swimmers attended Wednesday night’s boys’ diving Metros championships to support Mosca.
“I definitely think everyone on the swim team supports what I do,” said Mosca, who transferred this year from New Jersey. “The atmosphere, at least here at Prep, they totally understand it, and when I am at a home meet all the kids are cheering and we all cheer for each other. They always knew there were points [in diving] and I guess they do appreciate it more now that they’re getting more.”
Tuning out the chaos surrounding them, they competed in a finite discipline in many ways at odds with swimming, the sport with which it is almost always linked. Unlike swim meets, where competitors pack on pool decks cheering for teammates and a swell of parents are in the stands shouting for their kids, this competition turns on precision and concentration. Spinning, twisting descents into the pool take the place of outright speed, and results come from judges’ marks, not a stopwatch.
“Athletically the only comparative activity is a push-off start, otherwise they are two completely different sports,” said John Wolsh, head coach of the Montgomery Dive Club, one of the nation’s premier programs. “Athletically, bio-mechanically there is nothing similar. They just share the same facility.”
The Washington area is becoming a hotbed of high school diving, sending athletes to many of the country’s top collegiate programs. Yet there is an obvious disconnect between swimmers and divers, even on their own teams, with divers feeling largely unappreciated by the swim community and swim coaches expressing a lack of understanding for a sport so different from their own. As one area swim coach said, diving is “like figure skating in the middle of a hockey game.”
“It’s definitely tough,” said Yorktown two-time All-Met diver Maren Taylor, who now dives for Texas. “I don’t think any of the swimmers realize how much the divers do for them. I can see even more in college, I just think they just don’t think about it. They don’t realize that diving gets them a lot of points.”
‘We were never included’
As the swim community in the area continues to grow and produce top talent, so too has the metropolitan area fostered some of the country’s top diving prospects. Among others, Taylor and Matt Cooper (Whitman) headed to highly ranked Texas, Mikey McDonald (W.T. Woodson) and Logan Shinholser (Paint Branch) are at Virginia Tech, Meg Hostage (Holy Cross) is at Stanford, and Andy Bradley (Robinson) was a two-time NCAA runner-up in the one-meter diving event for South Carolina.
Several of the area’s current top prep divers — including Robinson sophomore Cory Bowersox, LSU-bound Annandale senior Sean McKinney, Churchill sophomore Timothy Faerber, Walter Johnson sophomore Annie Kastler and Georgetown Prep junior Mike Mosca — are ranked highly in their respective age groups.
Wolsh attributes the area’s growth as a diving power to its large gymnastics community — the sport most similar to diving — and also to the high percentage of community pools with diving teams.
Despite the success, however, many of the top divers have gone mostly without recognition in the high school world — save for the titles they win.
For four years Taylor was the top girls’ diver in Virginia, winning three state championships and four region titles Yet Taylor said she sometimes felt as though she was not a full-fledged member of the team at Yorktown — despite earning the Patriots crucial points during two state championship seasons.
“We practiced at the same pool but we practiced way before them, we never saw them,” Taylor said. “At meets we would dive before them usually. We’d be forced to stay to watch them swim, but they’d never watch us dive. We were never included; I never really felt a part of the team ever.”
For Taylor, the explanation was simple: There is little connection between the two sports. “We get lumped in with them because of the water aspect,” she said. And for those with minimal understanding of diving it is difficult to understand or watch the meets.
The atmosphere at diving competitions bears very little resemblance to swim meets: Swim meets are fast-paced and loud; diving meets are longer, more tempered events with cheering saved for after dives only. The Metros boys’ championship held on Wednesday in Bethesda lasted 461/2 7 hours.
Shifting attitudes?
While swimming is judged based on a simple quantitative measurement, time, diving scores involve a five- or seven-judge panel and degree of difficulty measurements.
It is a highly technical sport that demands flexibility and core strength, but most importantly, according to several divers, mental toughness and fearlessness.
When done right, a dive seems almost artistic, the athlete tightly spinning and twisting, high in the air and close to the board without any jerky movements — “grace or flow,” Mosca said — then entering perfectly in the water with hardly a splash.
To the common eye, however, it’s difficult to tell the difference between a dive that scores a 9 and one that garners a 7.
“It is a lot more confusing for people watching because they don’t know what’s going on as much. It is very technical,” said Bowersox, the two-time Virginia AAA state champion. “Swimming, you kind of just watch it a couple seconds each event; diving, it takes a long time to complete. It can be confusing to watch and you have to know what to watch.”
Yet as divers continue to be successful, there is a hope that the attitude toward the sport is shifting.
Wolsh pointed out that more college programs now have full-time diving coaches. And in the Washington area, as more teams benefit from the talented pool of divers, those athletes expressed optimism that their success is helping to change the relationship between swimming and diving.
Bowersox said his team has been supportive as he has poured in points over the past two years, especially compared to when his older siblings dove in high school. Kastler said her team understands the value of the diving team members. Several Georgetown Prep swimmers attended Wednesday night’s boys’ diving Metros championships to support Mosca.
“I definitely think everyone on the swim team supports what I do,” said Mosca, who transferred this year from New Jersey. “The atmosphere, at least here at Prep, they totally understand it, and when I am at a home meet all the kids are cheering and we all cheer for each other. They always knew there were points [in diving] and I guess they do appreciate it more now that they’re getting more.”
tenoriop@washpost.com
Tags: AAA Northern Region, Logan Shinholser, Maren Taylor, Matt Cooper, Northern Region, Virginia High School Swimming
Mike Mosca is pretty much a big deal!
Someone is mature…
I assume an article will be written about sprint freestylers. And another about middle distance freestylers. And another about butterflyers. And another about backstrokers. Finally, will we see one that isolates the breastrokers?
I respect the athleticism of divers, but to complain that they don’t get enough love and that they score the points that win titles is a little bit of a stretch. They score in one event per meet. An average third place swimmer in two events who contributes in relays will out score the one event diver. It’s a simple fact.
Now, a few years ago Yorktown had a diver who also was a stud swimmer. Adler, I think was his name. Let’s hype that kind of athleticism.
Another Swim Fan,
Do those swimmers sometimes swim at completely different times than the others? Do they have a different practice for the breaststrokers? There have been meets where we were outswum but our divers pulled us out of the fire. Diving is an important part of the swim team, and for the most part, I agree that they don’t seem to get their due.
Not a bad article, but any chance you’ll post the results of Metros Diving from Wed and Thurs nights?
In our far away state, the divide is even greater, in that dual meets never include diving. I suppose it is because so many older pools had to take out their boards. So the diving only ever shows up, and scores points, at large invites and the year-end sectional and state championships. We do try to invite our divers to all the social events, and get the team to show up early at invites with a diving component, but its not always easy. Dual meet swimming and championship meet swimming are already like two different sports, and adding diving makes it even more so.
…divers
Mike Alderman is the name of the Yorktown diver that would also swim and still holds the team record in the 50 free. His brother, Chris, holds the team dive record. Their younger sister, Meg, was a diver for both of the girls state championship teams in 2006 and 2007. I believe all went on to dive for Penn State (Meg is still there).
Maren Taylor also swam for Yorktown and, in addition to winning dive titles, would score points at the Region and State meets in the 50 free. She was on the 200 free relay that set the state and national record (SCM) in 2007 (broken in 2010 by Langley).
Another “shout out” for local divers. Jessie Everett from James Madison University has been doing great. She finished 2nd in the 3 meter board event on Wednesday at the CAA meet. She is from Yorktown HS. She did not dive for Yorktown, but focussed on gymnastics (and did quite well at that, too).
Kimberly Helfrich (freshman at James Madison from West Springfield HS) finished 7th in the same event.
The good news keeps coming. Jessie and Kimberly are 2nd and 3rd after the prelims in the 1 meter dive event at the CAA meet.
At Metros this week Mike Mosca (Prep) performed exceptional on Wednesday and highlighted a solid boys diving competition. Niki Glazer (BCC) came out on top of a tightly contested girls meet on Thursday with Emily Schmidt (Whitman) and Annie Kastler (Walter Johnson) close behind in 2nd and 3rd. Where’s the write up on these great accomplishments?
Just to finish. Everett finished in 2nd and Helfrich finished 4th in the 1 meter board at CAAs. Local divers doing well. I believe both have qualified for NCAA Diving Zones.
Divers are big time, especially if they crush it. Robinson’s girl divers finished 2nd, 4th, and 5th, dropping 46 pts at states. That may not win it but that gives a serious cushion………divers help, especially in the big meets.
Are a few of the divers quoted in the article whining?
I do like the premise of this article, but In my opinion, I think that diving is appreciated on the team level very much. When i was interviewed for this article I did not know what the article was about, and when I was being asked questions regarding relations between swimmers and divers it was somewhat of a surprise. Diving is not a hyped sport on the national level, it has a very small (there are a lot of people, I’m comparing to it to football and those sports) but dedicated group of spectators.
On a interpersonal level, between swimmers and divers, the swimming and dive team is very close and I think everyone gets along very well. What I took away from this article is there is a slight miscalculation between the so-called respect divers receive from their teammates, and the obvious fact that diving is not nearly as televised as swimming and other sports. This stems from the very small number of people actually dive, and within that group, an even smaller group of people who dive on the national levels. Diving competitions are not filled with thousands of great athletes, from my national experience, diving competitions always have the same 100 guys competing for spots. Swimming has masses, so masses of spectators will show up. I think in short Diving just has a smaller group of athletes because so few people are born with the body type to take it all the way.
Some diver and swimmers will argue which sport is “harder” but there is absolutely no way to compare the two. Athletically and mentally they are antitheses and there can be no comparison, the blatant fact is that swimming has traditionally attracted more athletes, and therefore more spectators. It is not my belief that either of the sports is more respected, swimming has a bigger crowd for obvious reasons. If diving was to become more of a spectator sport, then it would have to televise more events, and when you look at swimming and diving as a hole compared to football, we both have virtually no televised ‘shows’ you could call it.
Personally I love how well I get with my swimmers here at Prep, the amount of support I get my from my teammates, the parents, the athletic director, many members of the Jesuits and teachers is just unparalleled to anything I have ever experienced and I couldn’t feel better.
Yes.This is the real mike mosca
Niki Glazer came out on top at Metros,do I see her mentioned?
My daughter is a member of her high school dive team and the captain for two years. She loves being a part of the swim team community and has never complained about feeling under appreciated or seperate. She is however one of those kids who gets involved on the swim side, cheering, making signs etc. so the support is recipricated. It also helps that she has a great coach at her school who appreciates and supports all of the members of the team. I don’t think any of the divers quoted in that ridiculous article in the post where whining. These are serious athletes who train over 3 hours a day and look forward to being able to support their high school, even if it is only for one event. If they could compete in more they certainly would. It is not the divers fault that they are relegated to only one board. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, many meets are won by the points the divers bring in and most high school coaches are thrilled to have a skilled diver on their team.
Good article; great to see the sport get some recognition. And I agree with swimfan that there should be more articles. I assume an article will be written about divers with the best inwards. And another article about divers with the nicest reverses. And another about forward dives. And another about back dives. Finally, will we see one that isolates the twist dives?
I respect the athleticism of swimmers (gosh, that’s just as condescending to write as it was to read). But I bet there are more divers that can swim than swimmers who can dive.
The captain for two years??? That’s unbelievable!!! You must be incredibly proud!!! Nonetheless, I’m not sure how that fact is relevant to your post.
B. Smith, if that is all you took away from my post than you are incredibly shallow. Clearly the relevance of my post was lost on you. Sour grapes perhaps or just naturally synical???
I don’t think I am naturally synical (or cynical, for that matter). It must be an acquired trait.
My comment was prompted by the posts by DiveDad and Another Swim Fan, which I found humorous.
Perhaps it is because I am not a swim mom or swim dad, but I find it remarkable how so many posters on this board manage to weave into their comments the fact that Susie or Johnny qualified for this or that meet, will swim in college, or has achieved some other milestone. In addition, we have another group that will fill the comment pages with posts about how this or that athlete was unjustly overlooked in the last article on a championship meet. (Let’s see how many of those posts we have by the end of the day regarding the story on Metros.)
I have to wonder if some of the posters simply view the sport entirely through their children, or whether they think their children’s accomplishments give them credibility when commenting. In any event, I have come to the conclusion that some of the posters on this board must be the people walking around at summer league B meets wearing T-shirts from their children’s last championship meet.
I agree with you, B. Smith. My personal favorite is the poster who uses the screen name “Parent of Elite Swimmer.”
Hey B. Smith, you forgot to mention that most high school teams around here have no more than 2 or 3 divers. If you show up for two seasons, the chances are good that you will be the next captain.
Here you two are, arguing over words that other person said and calling each other names as you can’t even take into consideration the wonderful words that a start diver is trying to get acrossed.
Just open up your ears, I agree it was a terribly written article, by someone who doesn’t understand either sport but listen to the athletes.
I am more likely to listen to your two time captain BCC daughter than you, as her mom speaking for her (whether this is how she fells or not).
listen up, please tell us that English is your second language.