Imagine playing basketball without a hoop, or soccer without a goal. This is the reality for junior diver Harry Pendleton. Harry is the only diver on Parkway South’s boy’s dive team–and South’s pool doesn’t have a diving board.
“It’d be a lot better if there were more of us,” said Harry.
Although, the size of the team isn’t the biggest issue that South’s boys dive team is facing at the moment. Harry said the lack of a diving board has forced him to have to travel for practices and some home dive meets.
“I practice at West with their dive team because they have a diving board. When it comes to meets, sometimes we dive at other schools if there’s a home meet,” said Harry.
This is not only inconvenient for Pendelton, but also for his mom, librarian Katie Pendleton. Mrs. Pendleton talks about how South having no diving board has affected her.
“When he was a freshman and sophomore, I had to drive him to West every day that he had practice. Also, I might have to do this again in a few years if his brother dives for South,” she said.
Harry has to share a coach with West, making practice time slimmer for him.
“West’s dive coach, Adam Pepper, also coaches me. If there’s a day that he’s not at West, for some reason, I can’t practice because I’m not allowed to be there without him. This means I get a lot less practice than I would if I could practice at South,” he said.
Not having a diving board can also affect the team dynamic of the boy’s swim and dive team. The rest of the team struggles to support Harry since he can’t always be at the same meets as them. Junior Lucas Day explained what made this so hard for them.
“It’s tough because we can’t cheer for Harry. All the meets he dives separately, so we don’t always get to watch him,” Day said.
Blakeleigh Mathes, the head coach of the boys swim and dive team, agrees with Day.
“We try to go to as many meets as possible to watch him dive. We, as coaches, also work with other teams to make sure and get him more opportunities to dive,” she said.
Although this is definitely a drawback, it doesn’t stop Harry from being an essential part of the team.
“He brings a lot of positivity to the team. He usually dives before we swim and he places first a lot which gives us a lot more confidence and motivation going into our swim meets,” says Day.
Pendelton has been diving for three years and has had many accomplishments in that time. He qualified for state his freshman year and placed 11th in state his sophomore year. This year he’s already taken first place at multiple meets.
Unfortunately, Mathes said there’s no plan to get a diving board at South anytime soon.
“I wish they would have a board. I think we could have more divers, for boys and girls, if we did have one here,” said Mrs. Pendleton.
