FHSTheFlash The Flash Volume 54, Issue 2 January 2014 | Page 14

Sports

14

A State Champion Diver

The Flash Online: www.fhstheflash.com

Amy Weed

Flash staff reporter

Once, twice, three times
her feet hit the board and
a silent, inaudible splash
rippled over the water as
the repercussions of the
board sounded throughout
the silent pool. Senior Alli
Shereda came up from her
final dive at Fraser’s pool
October 29th against Romeo.
“I try to never push my
kids into anything, because
if you do they won’t stick
with it,” Shereda’s mom,
her diving coach, said, “I
am so proud of her and the
work she’s put in.”
Shereda resurfaced to
cheers from her teammates and the crowd. The
announcer came on and
proclaimed to the crowd
that she had beat the long
standing Varsity recorded of
260.5 by Michelle Schuster,
who set the record in the
early ‘80s, by 7.5 points.
“When I was getting up
there for my last dive I
wasn’t really thinking about
anything. I wasn’t thinking
about beating the record
or what everybody in the
crowd thought, because
that meet I had a lot of fun,”
Shereda said.
Shereda had experimented with many activities to
try and find something she
was good at. She began diving her freshmen year, but
she did not have much of an
interest until her coach took
her aside and asked if she
really wanted to continue to
do diving. Instead of quitting, the conversation drove
her to get better.

“I hated it freshmen year.
When I first started I hated
the sport, absolutely de-

wasn’t going to go anywhere
with this, I wasn’t happy, so
why was I doing it? And I

spised it. I’d get up on the
board and I’d be afraid to
throw everything,” Shereda
said, “My coach took me
aside one day and said I

said ‘Whoa, you saying that
makes me want to prove you
wrong.’”
Three years later at the
last meet of her senior year

she did prove him wrong,
later texting him “Guess who
broke the Varsity record for

Shereda screaming for victory.
Photo Credit: Megan Springer

diving?”
“She could be a successful
college diver, she’s got the

tenacity to compete at the
next level; she has the head
to compete at the next level,”
Coach Nowinski said, “ I
don’t know if she