Head Coach, Corey Stanbury, and diving coach, Laurie Dawdy, left the Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018 diving pentathlon held at El Camino College smiling.

Although El Camino’s divers were not big winners, the two coaches have high hopes for a good season because of the energy and potential the divers showed on both the low and high boards.

“For a first competition with some new divers, I think we did a good job,” Stanbury said.

The participating schools were Pasadena City College and Chaffey College.

The divers practiced before the meet. With Coach Dawdy’s helpful criticism, even the spectators could see improvement just in practice.

Andrea Williams, 69, a spectator, said, “The El Camino divers really got better from practice time to the competition. The diving coach is really talented at criticizing the students and building confidence at the same time.”

In the competition, the divers’ practice was rewarded with several individual dive scores of 5’s and 6’s out of ten points.

The day belonged to Hailey Ragusa from Pasadena City College, who consistently received 5’s and 6’s and Noah Luna from Chaffey College who had a score as high as eight.

Hailey’s secret to success is “trampoline practice three times a week”. Noah practices “every day for an hour and a half.” Both have been diving since the age of seven.

Stanbury, who has been a diving instructor at El Camino College for 30 years, said, “In diving we look for the height of the toe, grace, smooth takeoff and little splash in the entry.”

Stanbury said he was impressed with diving coach Dawdy’s skills and credentials and that players are very lucky to have her at El Camino College because of her personal diving achievements and her experience as a diving coach.

Final team scoring had not been posted as of this writing.

The next swimming and diving competition will be held on Thursday, Feb. 22 at Mount San Antonio College.