Get to know the Valparaiso HS girls diving team
VALPARAISO, Ind. — Competitive high school diving is an exciting sport to watch. A diver makes her way onto the board or platform and proceeds to perform a set of forward, backward, reverse, inward, or twisting motions as she dives her way into the water below. Participants compete individually and all attention is on the solo diver at that time. However, after getting to know the Valparaiso High School (VHS) Girls Diving team, who just capped off an impressive 2022-2023 season, it is evident that diving is a team sport!
High school girls diving began competing at the state level through the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) in 1974. Current VHS diving coach Bill Chappo, who has been coaching boys and girls diving for 48 years, happily shares that girls diving has progressed immensely since then. In 1997, VHS diving made history with the Girl鈥檚 and Boy鈥檚 State Champion divers both being from their team (and only one other high school has accomplished that since then). This year, VHS was the only Indiana high school to advance all three of their Sectional/Regional Girl鈥檚 divers to the State Finals.
One thing that stands out about the VHS Girls Diving team is the camaraderie and support they have for each other. The six-person team brings together varying age-groups and experience levels. There is a freshman (Haley Campbell), two sophomores (Aylea Sutherland & Reagan Williams), two juniors (Lara Stamp & Kirstin West), and a senior (Lindsey Giesler). While team captain Lindsey is a veteran, three-time sectional and regional champion, Haley and Kirstin, who as a junior made the switch from gymnastics to diving this summer, are beginning divers. Lara was unable to physically compete this season due to injury, but remains a pillar of support helping her teammates get through both dives and other stressful situations.
Diving at a competitive level is both physically and mentally demanding. Seeing the girls dive, the physical difficulty is apparent. Additionally, all the girls highlight the mental challenge of learning to stick new dives and having the confidence to even try them out. The spring off-season provides a time to start learning new dives with more degrees of difficulty. Pre-season training begins in the summer with a couple days of practice a week and ramps up to two-hour sessions six-days a week during the October-February season. Besides putting in the time and effort, the girls stress the positive impact their teammates provide for meeting diving鈥檚 demands.
Individual diving success is both aided and celebrated by the rest of the team. For Aylea, 鈥渢he Valpo dive team is like a family and we all make each other better.鈥� Reagan stresses that 鈥渆ven though you are competing alone, it鈥檚 so important to have supportive teammates who you have a close bond with鈥� and that each teammate has 鈥渉elped me in so many ways.鈥� Kirstin shares that 鈥渂eing a member of this team is something that I will never forget. All of them taught me so much this season and they all gave really amazing guidance my first year of diving.鈥� Coach Chappo exudes confidence and pride whenever he talks about his squad and the gratitude is mutual. Team captain and departing senior, Lindsey, is excited for her team鈥檚 prospects in the coming seasons: 鈥淲e all learned and grew a lot this season and I am very grateful for it. I think this is only the beginning of the VHS girls dive team. We have a pretty young team so these next few seasons my team is going to do great things if they continue on the path that they are on now.鈥�
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