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emerald sports
Facing a degree of obscurity
Diving team scores big despite
bigger lack of campus exposure
So far, no news of the success or
failure of the Oregon women's diving
team has caused anyone any anguish.
And it’s doubtful that the names
Debbie Sill, Cindy Light and Laura
McNaught will ever rival the popularity
of Reggie Ogburn, Vince Goldsmith
and Mike Clark.
The lack of publicity certainly isn’t
due to lack of success, though. The
team has had plenty of that.
Senior Sill, junior Light and so
phomore McNaught form the nucleus
of a group which includes two other
sophomores, Staci Voorhees and Col
leen Meagher. Despite the loss of
Voorhees to a back injury, the divers
are expected to dominate at the
regionals Feb. 26-28 in Pullman, con
tinuing Oregon’s Northwest domination
of the sport.
“I see Sill, Light and McNaught com
ing in first, second and third on both the
one- and three-meter boards,” says
women’s swimming coach Virginia Van
Rossen.
Should the women score well at sec
tionals, they will get a chance at the
nationals, March 17-21 at the University
of South Carolina. So the lack of cam
pus exposure can’t be blamed on poor
performance, either.
Quentin Hogan, Oregon’s diving
coach, says all three women have a
good chance to qualify for the national
finals. “And they may make the top 20
when they get there.”
Sill, a senior from Bellevue, Wash., is
the most talented of the group, Hogan
says. She competed in the nationals
last year, finishing 32nd in a field of 44.
Hogan tabs sophomore McNaught as
the most competitive member of the
team.
“But Cindy’s come the longest way to
get there," he says. Light, a junior from
Tigard, has been diving competitively
for only three years.
“Being a diver involves 80 percent
talent and 80 percent motivation," says
Hogan. "It takes a perfectionist to be a
good diver, someone who’s bothered
by little things. Most of my coaching is
oral. It’s not really teaching, but cor
recting.”
Light finds that her high school gym
nastics training aids her diving. "The
technique for somersaulting and twist
ing is the same, but the approach is
different,” she says. "Gymnastics help
me in the air.”
‘‘We're just polishing our dives,
working out the way we have been all
year,” says McNaught, a former state
diving champ from South Eugene High
School.
The women practice two hours daily,
working on the 11 required dives for
both the one- and three-meter boards.
Of the 11 dives they practice, five are
compulsories — required in every com
petition. The dives include a front,
back, reverse, inward and another front
with a one-and-a-half twist.
The optional dives are made up by
the divers, but must include one in a
forward direction, one in a backward
direction, one reverse, one inward, one
twister, and one "potpourri" dive of the
diver’s own creation.
Each dive is scored by seven judges
on a scale of one to 10, with the high
and low scores thrown out. The aver
aged scores are then multiplied by the
dive’s degree of difficulty to get the net
result.
Those results could add up to a visit
to South Carolina and the nationals.
But even if the women don’t qualify,
they feel it will have been a successful
season.
It s neat when you ve learned
something you can do well,” says
McNaught. "It’s fun to learn something
which requires concentration.”
Despite the tangible success, the
diving program is in trouble. Hogan is
the third coach in three years, and the
entire aquatics program faces the
danger of elimination next year.
"You can't keep switching coaches
and have continuity,” Sill says. "Right
now the program lacks support from all
angles.”
Hogan hopes to improve this situa
tion. He plans to establish an
off-season for the women, involving
trampoline work and a weight program.
“The big key I’m looking for is the
kids to be diving during the summer,"
he says. The team will probably contin
ue working out three days a week until
the end of school.
But a question still exists as to
whether diving will continue to exist
next year.
"If swimming’s here, we’ll be here,”
Hogan says. “However, cuts have to be
made, and they’ll probably pick on the
people with the least resistance.”
If there is a program next year, Hogan
expects the squad to do very well.
Light, McNaught and Meagher return,
along with freshman Carry Hancock
If diving continues next year, so will
the divers probably continue to domin
ate the Northwest in obscurity, piling up
points and capturing awards.
But if it doesn't, no one will know.
Story by Adam Worcester
Photos by David W. Zahn
Coach Quentin Hogan (left) watches
Carry Hancock do her thing.