Deep Run has added Diving to its arsenal of athletic programs. The dive team is a subsection of the swim team. However, practices and competitions will be held separately from the swim team up until regionals and states due to coaching and facilities limitations.
Practices will be held through Dive RVA, where divers from all the schools in Henrico and Chesterfield Counties will all practice in the same pool at the same time.
“[The divers] have another coach. They have their lessons through Dive RVA, so it will be similar to pole vaulting. Track-wise we don’t have any pole vaulting coaches here, so anyone who is interested will be sent to a pole vault coach. So all the kids from Godwin, Freeman, and Glen Allen will all be there together,” swim team coach and math teacher Mac McCracken said.
The swim and dive teams will earn separate points and records up until the postseason, when VHSL will require that they have combined points even if they still compete separately.
“Throughout the year they do their own meets and we do our own meets, for swim team versus dive, and then in states and maybe regionals, all the points get combined,” McCracken said.
Schools created dive teams due to the points lost in statewide competitions by not having a dive team. Most schools in state competitions have dive teams, which earn them more total points from a larger variety of events, especially when their opponents don’t have divers.
“Freeman is leading the way [for dive teams] because they lost States by one diver. They didn’t have a diver and the team that beat them had a diver, and since [the points for swimming and diving] got combined they lost States by that. So that’s how this whole thing started up,” McCracken said
Deep Run’s swim team has also been affected by not having any divers during monumental competitions, which cost the school valuable positions.
“Without [divers points being included] girls would have been 3rd for us, but then we dropped down to fourth because of divers,” McCracken said.
One of Deep Run’s divers is freshman Jennifer Juhasz, who had been diving through Dive RVA for two years before becoming a part of Deep Run’s team.
“I joined the Deep Run Dive Team because I have been competing in diving through DiveRVA for some time now and have developed a deep passion for the sport. So, when it became official that Henrico County was starting to dive, I just knew that I had to be a part of the team and compete for my school,” Juhasz said.
The dive team season officially kicked off on Nov. 29, 2023.
