Some area divers not happy with the treatment their sport receives

BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers HEAD FIRST-Westlake's Anthony Gonzalez launches off the board during last Friday's meet at WHS. Thirty-nine divers representing five area schools took part in last Friday's Marmonte League Dive Meet at Westlake High School.

Westlake's Jake Isaacs utilized the home-pool advantage, taking first-place honors in the varsity boys' division with a combined score of 231.75.

Prior to the meet, Isaacs, who plays water polo and wrestles at WHS, said diving is more about artistic value and creativity than pure athletic ability.

"It's more of a performance than an actual athletic event," Isaacs said. "It's athletic, but it's not a sport where you compete hard against other people physically. It's more about how well you can do things, more finesse."

Trailing Isaacs were Newbury Park's Johnny "Tsunami" Sapinoso (204.75), Royal's Jordan Hoffman (201.05), Thousand Oaks' Calvin Shayer (177.70), Cameron Brown (137.05) and Anthony Gonzalez (122.10) of Westlake, Royal's Brandon Myers (120.85) and Bradley Haynes (30.60) of Newbury Park.

BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers NICE FORM BY THE CHAMP-Royal's Melani Meister displays perfect form on her way to a first-place finish last Friday. Meister, the defending Marmonte League champion, says she isn't happy with a decision two years ago to eliminate diving scores from swim teams. Because their total scores exceeded 180 points, Isaacs, Sapinoso and Hoffman all qualified for the CIF meet later in the season.

Each varsity participant does six dives during a meet. The scores are judged on a point scale of 1-10, with a one being the lowest score and 10 being the highest. The judges include four league coaches and one Channel Coast Official Association representative.

After each attempt, the diver is given a score by each of the five judges. The highest and lowest scores are thrown out, with the diver receiving the total of the middle three scores.

Newbury Park first-year head coach Valerie Day said coaches do their best to remain objective when scoring dives.

"Everyone here is pretty fair," Day said. "If there's a good diver that outshines the rest, you're going to give them a good score."

In girls' varsity action, Melani Meister of Royal posted the day's highest score with a 239.95. Meister, a sophomore, is the returning Marmonte League champion and heavy favorite to repeat this season.

Just 15 years old, Meister has spent four years diving for Dive Thousand Oaks, a competitive springboard team that travels throughout Southern California.

Meister's teammate on Dive Thousand Oaks, Amanda Stines of TOHS, posted a total score of 228.35, which garnered her a second-place finish.

Behind Meister and Stines were Royal's Jessica Getchius (193.70), Jessica Bubb (160.20) of Thousand Oaks, Westlake's Jennifer Simpson (159.80), Newbury Park's Jasmine Cooper-Sutton (159.10), Royal's Mary Pero (156) and Akayla Kohlieber (142.90) of Westlake.

Erika Harlacher of La Reina was allowed to participate in the meet and posted an impressive score of 212.40.

In the junior varsity meet, where each participant is scored on three dives, Newbury Park's Korey Emslie won the boys' division with an 85. Suet-Wan Irons of TOHS captured the girls' meet with a score of 74.45.

Divers feel disrespected; administrators say they're

trying to help

Before the season started, competitive diving in the Marmonte League was in peril of being cancelled. Facing budget cuts, lack of coaches and limited participation, the league's principals split a January vote, 4-4, on whether or not to continue the sport.

The end result was that Westlake, Thousand Oaks, Royal and Newbury Park all continued dive programs. Calabasas, Agoura, Moorpark and Simi Valley are currently without dive teams.

Judy Wedermann has spent 27 years coaching diving at Simi Valley and Royal. With SVHS disbanding its dive program before the start of the year, Wedermann now coaches exclusively at Royal.

Wedermann said the sport's survival in the Marmonte League is in doubt.

"This sport is really in jeopardy," Wedermann said. "We want to get as many kids as we can to keep this going."

Prior to last season, diving results directly affected each school's swim teams. Dive teams would compete against one another, with the winner earning points toward the swim team's overall score that week.

"Now we're a separate sport," Wedermann said. "We dive by ourselves and our points don't go anywhere. . . .Everybody wants it to go back to how it was, but we need the support of the principals and athletic directors."

Meister, who's older sister, Melissa, recently took over as Westlake's head coach, said divers don't get the respect they deserve from their schools or the league.

"I don't think it's fair," said Melani Meister of the league's decision to separate diving from swimming. "It's like taking an event out of track. You can't take pole vaulting out of track, can you? They're trying to get rid of diving, and I don't think it's right."

Royal athletic director Jim Wilbur said the decision to separate diving from swimming was made for several reasons.

First, with only a few Marmonte schools fielding dive teams, it gave those schools an unfair advantage as far as earning swim points during dive meets. In addition, Wilbur said the Marmonte's decision fell in line with most leagues throughout the CIF-Southern Section. There were also logistical issues that couldn't be resolved, he said.

"During the swim meets we had to stop, run the dive portion, and then put swimmers back in the lanes and so forth," Wilbur said. "It really got to where it was a logistical nightmare for the swim meets."

Royal, along with Calabasas, Simi Valley and Moorpark all voted to eliminate diving during the January vote. Agoura surprisingly voted to keep diving despite not having a team.

According to Wilbur, Royal voted against diving for various reasons, including dwindling participation and budget cuts that took away coaching stipends. Since last year, dive participation has increased at Royal, and Wilbur credits parents for making that happen.

"Are we growing and going to continue to grow? I sure hope so," Wilbur said. "Whether we'll put it back as part of swimming, I don't know. I don't think it'll happen until we can talk Agoura and Calabasas into getting dive teams."

Westlake's Isaacs and Gonzalez both said they're upset with how the dive team at WHS has been handled. Their complaints include reduced practice times, tryout information not being announced at school, and a lengthy process of hiring a coach that wasn't resolved until after the season started.

"All the little things, the school and the administrators try to make inconvenient for us because they don't want us to have a team," Isaacs said.

"Some people are bitter that we're still here," Gonzalez added.

Westlake athletic director/assistant principal Drew Passalacqua said he put a tremendous amount of effort into hiring a dive coach to replace former head coach Arsen Javadian.

Javadian, who with the CIF's approval also coached at Newbury Park, left his job in the wake of the A.D.'s discovery that he violated a CIF rule that prohibits coaches from working with players during the offseason when classes are still in session, Passalacqua said.

Javadian also coaches at Dive Thousand Oaks, where some Westlake students dive, and that affiliation presented a problem.

Passalacqua said Javadian offered his assistance in trying to find a new coach at Westlake, but there were no applicants early in the process. Westlake finally landed Melissa Meister after the season started.

"I spent more time helping and trying to find a coach for dive than on any other sport at this school," Passalacqua said.

"I put my 100 percent effort into it. I can't speak for the other schools, all I can speak for is Westlake High School," he said. "We did everything we could, and we ended up finding a coach. Even in that situation, it was very difficult and challenging."