Only three people are on the Eaglecrest girls dive team. Three (3). Three people is not enough to have a ping pong tournament. Three people is not enough to fill a Honda Civic. But three people is enough to make up a team filled with just as much passion as the 120+ member football team.

Diving is a very niche sport. Over the years, the diving team goes through waves of having a large friend group join the team and subsequently shrinking as those people graduate. Towards the end of the cycle, which the team is currently in, they end up with just a few people on the team. This year: Violet Shultz, Courtney Rowley and Taylor Browning.

“Our bond is definitely strong. We have not just grown as teammates, but as friends. We all started in gymnastics together and then went into diving in the same year,” Rowley said. “As the team got smaller each year, we spent more time together at meets and practice. Growing our skills with each other and pushing each other to what we know we can each achieve.” The tie between gymnastics and diving is almost too obvious. In dive, twists and turns in the air just end head-first into the water.

“I’ve been diving for about 2 years. This is my 3rd season. I did high school gymnastics at Creek, and a bunch of my teammates did dive. So, I decided to give it a shot and join the Eaglecrest team,” Shultz said. “My biggest challenge is staying consistent with my dives. Some days, everything just works and my dives are good, but other days it’s harder to stay focused and keep a right mindset.”

Like many other sports, activities and hobbies, frustration is one of the biggest challenges to overcome. Self-doubt and pessimism can prohibit any form of progress. Especially in dive, where athletes’ every move is inspected by strict judges, it can be difficult to continue to motivate yourself.

“I just have to remind myself that I know what I’m doing, and it’s part of the sport -- no one is perfect,” Rowley said. “You just have to keep getting back up no matter what, and there’s always a lesson to learn from what you do wrong to help get better.” And, in the end, all of the hard work is worth it. The flops and the slips are forgotten as soon as a dive is perfected.

“I like the thrill of nailing a dive and getting new dives to be perfect.” - Violet Shultz

"At first you have an idea of the dive you’re trying to learn, and you have to learn the positions and entries to not get injured. There’s a lot of prep for a new dive," Taylor Browning said. "Sometimes you have to trust yourself enough to just chuck it and see what would happen. Sometimes the other divers and I have said 'f*** it and chuck it' to motivate each other."

You now how the saying goes: If all your friends tell you to jump off of a bridge, would you? In dive, the answer, according to Browning, is a resounding "yes." These are my kind of people. But what happens when you trust your teammates and chuck yourself off of the diving board.

“Flying into the water is like going from nervousness to excitement. You get to show off what you have practiced. You go into silence in the water where everything is calm and relaxing, peaceful and still,” Rowley said, describing the moment she leaps from the diving board. For a split moment, she feels free from gravity with all eyes on her.

The dive team members are no strangers to failure or success. They are a small few, but they refuse to belly flop under pressure.