16 yo sophomore interested in diving

Question
I have a 16 yo daughter that was a level 10 gymnast until a month ago.  Too many surgeries and injuries later she has decided to give up the sport that she loves.  She'd like to put all of her years of training to good use and take up competitive diving.  She'd like to compete in high school and up through college.  We live in South Jersey.  Can you recommend a club where we can get her started?Thanks for your help! :)

Answer
Trisha -

I am going to give you some suggestions on finding a program for your daughter but want you to understand that I live on the West Coast and only know of a few coaches in Jersey that are of national level ability. They are found at Blue Dolphin Diving Team and also at Rutgers University. In looking at a map, you may be living in a part of South Jersey that does not have many choices when it comes to teams. It seems most of the best programs are in North Jersey near Philly and NYC.

Here are the wesbites to go to to find a team:

www.usadiving.org. Click on Clubs and then Find A Club. Enter NJ and a list of teams will come up.

www.divemeets.com At the top of the home page, look for 'Lists of divers, coaches and teams' Click on that and then when the next page comes up, click on teams. A huge list is going to come up. The second group is called 'AAU' for Amateur Athletic Union. Scroll down this section looking at the third column for teams under NJ. Look to the left for the team name and click on it #there are several# the contact info will then come up. At this same page, scroll down to NCAA and look up colleges in NJ. Same thing, look to the left for college that is closest to you and click on the schools name. If you find one that interests you, contact the college coach for info on age group diving. Then scroll down farther to USA Diving Clubs and look for Rippers Diving Team under the NJ section. They are in Monroeville which looks like it is in South Jersey.

www.flipnrip.com - Click on teams and do the same type of search as above.

www.aaudiving.org - Has a search engine to find coaches/teams.

Another site you should go to is www.diving.about.com. You won't find a coach there but will find out info about the sport that will interest you.

Most of this sport is girls between the ages of 13 and 24 and most of them are ex-gymnasts who quit gym for the same reason your daughter did. She will be able to adapt to diving quicker than non-gymnasts. Coaches are always looking for ex-gymnasts (especially Level 10's) so I am sure you will be welcome wherever you end up. You just have to hope that you do not have to drive along way to find a pool with a program.

Good luck in your search.