After ash and smoke from last week’s wildfires delayed their first meet of the season at the University of San Diego, the UCLA diving team finally opens up competition across town today at the USC Diving Invitational.
After eight straight weeks of training with no meets, coach Tom Stebbins said that his divers were anxious to get some competition in by breaking this monotonous practice schedule, and of course, by notching a win over a bitter rival.
“In our sport, the kids are fairly friendly,” Stebbins said. “But it doesn’t mean we don’t want to beat the snot out of them.”
The Bruins may be mentally prepared for a competitive atmosphere, but Stebbins isn’t sure the squad is totally ready for the competition itself. With a season that doesn’t really gain momentum until the late winter and early spring, Stebbins said he feels like this meet is premature.
“I wouldn’t like to have anything before December,” Stebbins said. “We’re kind of forced into doing stuff earlier than that. I always feel that when we get to this meet in particular … that we’re a week or two behind. If we just had five more days to kind of work through some things we’d be ready performance-wise.”
Despite this, the meet should at the very least function as a learning experience for the Bruins’ new divers and expose the individual strengths and weaknesses of the older ones. Stebbins said that there are no collective strengths or weaknesses ““ each girl has her own.
“Depending on the action or depending on the movement, some kids are really good going forward and some kids are really good at reverses,” Stebbins said, “For each of them the workout routine is tailored a little bit more closely to what their needs are.”
A unique aspect of a diving meet is the immense amount of pressure placed on each individual diver.
“We run simulated things in workout but it’s never quite the same as when you have to stand there in front of other people,” Stebbins said. “But it’s a good place for them to hone in on the two or three things that have to change significantly in order for us to really be prepared in February and March.”
Because of the small size of the meet ““ only 22 divers have registered ““ all six Bruin divers will compete, when the team normally travels with only three. Stebbins was quick to praise junior captains Marisa Samaniego and Tess Schofield, both of whom placed at last spring’s NCAA Championships.
Samaniego set a school record with her score on the 1-meter board and earned a sixth-place finish, while Schofield was the Pac-10 Champion in the tower event.
“I have a lot of faith in their ability,” Stebbins said. “They’re the kids … we have come to rely on. It doesn’t mean I don’t have high expectations for everybody else, because I do, but for each of them it’s a little bit different in terms of what I’m hoping for.”
Regardless of the results of the meet, Stebbins hopes that his divers will challenge themselves and come away with new competition strategies.
“I’m real pleased with the work we put in, but I don’t know if it will translate yet into meet success,” Stebbins said. “I do expect them to carry themselves with poise and integrity and work through the things they’re uncomfortable with.”