The diving program is currently the largest in Round Rock ISD with seven members, and continues to grow. Four of the seven members placed in the District Diving Championship, and will advance to the Regional Meet in San Antonio on Feb. 13-14.
In order to qualify for the state competition, divers are required to be able to do two of each of each five diving categories and one additional that they can choose for their 11th dive.
“There’s five different types of dives, forward, backward, inward, reverse, and twist,” Head Swim Coach Foss said. “You have to be able to do 11 total dives, so it’s a lot of work to qualify.”
Many divers on the team are new to the sport, but divings small numbers gives opportunities to students interested in it.
“I started diving at the end of summer,” freshman Jasper Czysz said. “I’ve always been doing trampoline stuff, which has really helped me learn fast, that’s kind of why I joined since I’ve had similar experiences.”
A driving factor in the team’s growth has come from the divers, who often recruit their friends and little siblings to join the diving team.
“These athletes are actually recruiting each other,” Foss said. “They’re going out and grabbing their friends and saying, hey, come try diving, and it has really helped grow the team.”
The newly built Round Rock ISD Aquatic Center located on the Cedar Ridge High School campus was made possible by the voter-approved 2018 Bond, and has allowed practicing much easier and effective for divers.
“Because of the new facility we actually can coach diving in our district,” Foss said. “Before, the kids had to go down to the University of Texas if they wanted to get coached in diving, and that was about $400 a month. Now that they have access, more and more students want to join.”
The new facility also provides district diving coaches, which has significantly contributed to growth within the diving team.
“They train three nights a week, for two and a half hours with Coach D’Anna White, who is our district dive coach,” Foss said. “In the past, our senior diver Kaitlyn Chong was disqualified at regionals because she didn’t know how to do a reverse dive yet, but now she’s phenomenal, our sophomore couldn’t dive last year at districts because she didn’t have all of our dives now she’s at regionals, and the fact that we had a one of our freshmen make it is really a big deal.”
Looking for new members everyday, the diving team hopes to continue to grow, and is open to any students with interest.
“I’ve learned alot on the diving team,” Cyzsz said. “You can join if you don’t know how to [dive] at all, but you could also join if you are a professional because it’s so open for all students, as long as you can commit to it anyone can excel.”
