Making a Splash: Almost all the girls’ dive team divers have past experience diving for various country clubs during the summer

Cheering and applause erupted from behind the diving boards.

Freshman Zoey Allen was resurfacing from her reverse double — one of the three new dives she’d learned during her two-hour after school practice.

“Zoey, a little more reach coming off the board,” SM East girls dive coach Hannah Bortnick yelled from across the pool.

With just six divers on the team, each girl took their turn performing various dives off the two East boards, cautiously waiting for gaps between the girls’ swim team who swam below.

Even with a crowded pool, the dive team is familiar with tedious practices filled with constructive coach criticism and countless “smacks” into the water.

Although dive is typically not regarded as a widely embraced sport, with exposure to country club dive teams across the Kansas City area, almost all the divers on the team have come with past diving experiences, according to Bortnick.

According to varsity diver Abby Hunt, who dives for Mission Hills Country Club during the summer, the East dive team practices one hour before school on Mondays and Tuesdays, and two hours after school Wednesdays through Fridays.

The Mission Hills Country Club dive team, along with other Country Club Swim Association of Kansas City teams, practices in the summer twice a day, five days a week, although attendance is far less mandatory than East practices.

“I’d say high school [dive] is more structured practice, whereas [country club dive] is more like ‘Okay, you can do whatever you want,’” Hunt said. “Summer dive helps you get off your feet when you’re young, which is always good, but then high school is really where you learn new dives.”

According to Bortnick, it’s helpful to have a team that knows the diving basics, such as an approach. Starting the season with basic skills makes it easier for Bortnick to focus on technique.

Whether demonstrating posture drills against walls or showing the team her old diving videos from college, Bortnick points out specific movements or tweaks that help the divers improve their scores.

“Technique is the biggest difference from high school [dive] and country club [dive],” Bortnick said. “A lot of the time with country club [dive], they aren’t exposed to the technique that I would give them, so sometimes it can be really hard to learn [new] things.”

For Allen, having one coach and a smaller team at East was a shock after coming from the Milburn Country Club dive team, which has three coaches and over 70 divers.

“I’ve already learned a lot of new dives, and my form on all my dives has changed a lot,” Allen said. “[Bortnick] is really helpful, and she’s good at pointing out the little things that county club coaches wouldn’t notice [or] focus on.”

It can be hard to hear Bortnick’s critiques over the loud whistles and splashing of the swim team, according to Allen. When Bortnick doesn’t have her megaphone or is busy working with another diver, the girls have learned how to critique and compliment each other.

From telling each other to keep their chest up while leaving the board to giving motivational messages before learning a new dive, the culture of the team is more intimate and bonded compared to Allen’s larger country club team.

“Everyone’s getting really close and comfortable with each other,” Allen said. “When we’re all waiting in lines, everyone’s talking, and it’s really fun when people are learning new dives because you get to cheer them on.”

Even with the differences between the East dive team and country club dive teams, the work ethic and team bonding skills can be applied to both, according to East alum Elle Gedman.

Gedman spent most of her childhood summers on the Indian Hills dive team, leading her to join East dive during her sophomore year of high school and later becoming team captain.

Gedman is now one of the two dive coaches at Milburn Country Club. As a past East dive captain, she’s used her leadership skills she learned to promote diving technique and collaborative practices among the country club team.

“[East dive] was hard, and it was early and I wasn’t very good at it, but I ended up really liking it,” Gedman said. “And then I went back to country club [dive] that summer after I was a diver, and I took that work ethic that I learned in high school, and I tried to get better.”