Divers Making A Bigger Splash At Newtown High School

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s girls’ diving squad, with nine members, more than doubled from a year ago and tripled from two seasons ago.

With only three divers eligible to compete in any given meet, the Nighthawks have no shortage of divers who now find lots of in-team competition just to earn the right to compete in meets, unlike in years past.

There is a good news-bad news scenario created by this sudden influx of divers.

“It’s good and bad. Since we have so many, some people might not get to compete so much,” said first-year diver Lauren Sudbey, a senior.

Sudbey, known for her talent on the track team, is not an odd diver out despite this being her first year. Far from it. In fact, she is routinely Newtown’s highest-scoring diver in meets.

NHS diving coach Cindy Freedman is thrilled to have someone with so much natural ability and the necessary work ethic come in and compete at a high level. Sudbey is not the only one. Junior Ellen Tabler, a gymnast who may have a leg up on some first-year diver counterparts because of the similar skills needed in gymnastics and diving, quickly became one of Newtown High’s best divers.

Tabler described having “a nervous excitement” at her first meet earlier this season. There is an overall feeling of excitement in the Newtown pool with so much interest in diving.

Katie Hunt, a junior, was one of only three divers on the team when she came on board as a freshman and one of four a year ago. “Nine is a lot,” she said.

So why so many divers all of a sudden?

In addition to Sudbey and Tabler deciding to give diving a shot later in their high school athletics careers, three freshmen joined the team this fall.

“It’s really good because we push each other,” Hunt said. “You have to earn your spot.”

This competition is healthy the divers say.

“We help each other out,” Tabler explained. “We critique each other.”

The divers have five main categories of diving from which to develop unique dives: Front, back, inward, reverse, and twist. The more difficult the dive, the more points it earns, which helps the swimming and diving team in meets.

“I learn a lot of new dives every day,” Sudbey said.

“The feeling you get when you get a new dive — it’s like nothing else,” second-year diver Abby Peck, a junior, said. “It’s really fun because you can track your progress with diving.”

Sometimes opposing schools do not have enough divers, which allows Newtown to substitute an alternate diver for the opportunity to participate, although that alternate’s score does not count in the meet.

The girls have taken it upon themselves to rotate those extra divers so more team members have chance to display their skills in meets.

With so many divers and only so much room in the pool (and just one diving board), the Nighthawks have to get creative in practice, too. They take advantage of the diving blocks and rotate in and out of the pool, participating in dryland training in between dives. “So they’re never really waiting for their turn — it’s a constant rotation,” Freedman said. “They all work well together. They all support each other.”

Freedman added that NHS swimming coaches Mary Atkinson and Anne Scarpa encourage the swimmers to attend conference and state championship diving competitions and that Newtown, routinely, is the only school with a busload of swimmers on hand to support the divers.

“Everybody’s always coming and cheering,” Freedman said.