The previous year before I dove in high school, Pam Aagard was my diving coach for middle school. Even though I started diving my eighth grade year of middle school, I was pretty good at diving. On our first day of practice with almost fifty other swimmers and divers, I knew it was going to be a hectic day. As I walked in through the doors of the Worland Community Pool and sat on the deck already in my swim suit the head coach, Dawn Bellis, asked us a question.
“If there is anyone interested in diving please raise your hand.”
Myself just being just a newbie at this sport, I was terrified of water. In fact, as I sat there I said to myself over and over again.
“Why am I here? I don’t know how to swim at all, nonetheless dive.”
“The only thing I am good at is being rescued by a life guard.”
Instead of backing out and quitting, I did what I would never have thought I would have done in a million years. I took the chance and raised my hand in front of fifty other middle school kids.
Dawn stated, “Okay please go over to the diving board and you will meet with the diving coach, Mrs. Aagard.”
As I walked over to the board, I think I almost had a heart attack; however, Mrs. Aagard helped me a lot on the first day of practice. The very first thing Mrs. Aagard made me learn was an approach.
All I thought about was, “What the heck is an approach?” “You have to learn how to walk in diving, are you kidding me?”
She made all the divers learn an approach as they had to have one before they could go off the board. As competitive as I was, I never told myself I could not get this thing down. So as I walked on the concrete floor, walking back and forth learning a four-step approach, I had finally got that down.
Next Mrs. Aagard told...
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... from my mother continuing my education at the collegiate level as well as the athletic level too. Not many people I have told about what a great opportunity I get to have at the University of Wyoming, but now with the people who do know I will continue to dive at the Division I level with a coach who has not only coached the U.S. national team in China but is planning on taking divers of his own to the Olympic trials in 2016. Yahya, soon to be my collegiate diving coach has great plans in store, I know it. And the thing I would like to take with me later on in life is that no matter what you are going through there are people who care for you in this world. With the people who care for me today, I do not know where I would be. And I would like to thank everyone who has been there for me and has pushed me not only with my life, but with my athletics and academics.
1993, this was the very first year that the Worland High School Swimming and Diving Men’s program won state as a team. It all started when the pool was first built in the late 1970’s. This is where most of the young children learned how to swim and or became competitive swimmers in middle and high school. Creating basic building blocks for essential survival skill, this was a key essential for most children; from learning butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke, freestyle, elementary backstroke, side stroke to our floats. From our old dome, we have created a new home. Our dome was a great impact on most children’s life including all ages, even the old. Waking up early in the morning to get to a hydro workout, to practicing two a days to get better, our dome created an environment that can never be replaced and sooner or later not a single person will even know it is gone. One of the very most unique pools in the country, the Worland Community Pool was created in a dome shape. This very organic and rusty shape was getting old indeed. Things needed to get replaced when there was no money in the budget it was a tragic ending to the pool that so much children and adults have loved over the years.
Imagine swimming in the big Olympic pools. All you can hear is the muffled noises of ecstatic fans cheering. All you can feel is the water urging you to keep swimming. Then you reach your hand out and feel the wall. You emerge out of the crystal blue pool water and have won! Michael Phelps and Dara Torres are two extraordinary swimmers who live their lives in the Olympic pools. Both Torres Is Tops and Michael’s Magic deal with the challenges and successes of Dara and Michael’s Olympic careers, but they do so in different ways. Let’s start our swim through the lives of these two Olympic champions.
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