San Lorenzo Valley High School senior Kyle Gilbert qualified for CCS last Thursday, April 16, with a score of 351 points in 11 dives.
“To qualify for CCS you have to have dive in an 11-dive meet and be in all of the categories, which is the twisting category, inward, reverse, somersault back, somersault front, front dive, back dive,” said Kurt Edwards, coach of the diving teams at both SLV and Scotts Valley high schools. “So you have to be able to do all of those and then take some additional ones to equal out 11 dives.”
He will compete in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League on April 30 against Collin Elmer of Scotts Valley High School. If Gilbert wins, he will go to the Santa Clara Swim Center on May 16, where he will compete against 30 to 40 divers from other schools, with the hopes of being one of the best divers in the Central Coast area, Edwards said.
“Last year he went to CCS and this year he’s qualified again, he just continues to get better,” he explained.
Once a week, Edwards takes select members of the dive teams over to Vargas Academy of Gymnastics in Scotts Valley for training.
“Verne (Vargas) has been very kind to donate his trampoline time for us to come over once a week to have the divers practice doing the different acrobatic moves on the trampoline,” Edwards said, adding that it has greatly helped Gilbert to own his skills as a diver.
