Lui Kit Wong   LUI KIT WONG/THE NEWS TRIBUNE Fife’s Jessica Welch is one of five Trojans who train in coach Roy Young’s practice sessions at Foss High School.

The trainings that bind

MINDI RICE; The News Tribune Published: October 25th, 2007

Roy Young started coaching diving in Tacoma long before any of his current divers were born.

Divers from all of the Tacoma public schools are welcome at his afternoon practices at Foss High.

The current group includes girls from Stadium, Wilson and Foss. Periodically, divers from Mount Tahoma or Lincoln will join.

But this year, a new twist was added when Fife joined the diving group.

Fife swimming coach Jo Bushnell was concerned because her team would enter meets already behind because the Trojans had no divers.

“I needed a dive coach,” Bushnell said, “and Tacoma School District was one of the closer districts that would help us.”

Once the paperwork hurdle was cleared, it was up to Bushnell, who also teaches swimming at Fife, to find the divers.

She turned to girls she saw as “naturals” in the water, and before long, Fife had five divers, the maximum allowed in the contract with Tacoma.

“It was different having the girls from Fife,” Stadium senior Erica DeVries said. “It was cool. If it wasn’t for them, there’d only be about five of us. It’s really neat that other people are interested.”

With the addition of the Fife girls, the diving group under Young has grown to nearly a dozen this season.

It is a supportive group.

“Especially since the sport’s so different than swimming, that’s why they kind of have to support each other,” said Young, who has been coaching for 30 years.

The larger group may make practice last a little longer, but the girls have developed a strong bond.

The diving group welcomes newcomers, and not just when a new school joins. Lynn Brandal, a junior at Wilson, said she was scared to join the divers her freshman season. Not only was she trying a new sport, but she didn’t know the girls from other schools.

“They made me feel at home and brought me into the group,” Brandal said. “We’re really good friends now.”

Narrows League champion DeVries, Brandal and Stadium senior Anna Holcomb were all welcomed into the diving group. In turn, they have tried to welcome new divers.

Since divers rarely see the swimmers who are their school teammates, they tend to forge bonds with fellow divers.

“(Practicing somewhere else) kind of disconnects you from your team,” Holcomb said. “But it’s really fun because you’re here with all these other girls, and when you’re diving against each other in dual meets, it’s not as nerve-wracking because we know the people.”

The situation gives the Fife girls a second set of teammates, as well as leaders to look up to.

“It helps a lot (to practice with them),” Fife junior Kayla Granberg said, “knowing what they do, and maybe I can get to that point, too.”

In Fife’s case, divers double as swimmers when meet schedules allow. They are included in team-building activities to keep them feeling like one of the Trojans.

“It’s hard,” Granberg said. “But it’s fun and I have fun with everybody in both groups.”

Young, who was a diver at Mount Tahoma and the University of Washington, understands.

“Them being a group and a team gives them the support that they need,” he said. “And when they compete against each other, they support each other.”

The girls appreciate it. Young can be blunt, but the girls enjoy his coaching style and look forward to getting to the pool each day to work on their dives.

“He knows what it’s like because he’s been through it all,” Holcomb said. “He can tell you what you need to do, and he understands the mental part of it also.”

As for adding the Fife divers to the mix, Young said that almost no one would have noticed.

“Other than a few more girls, it hasn’t been any different,” Young said. “They’re just part of the group.”