LJ diving: Jackie Real

"She's had an amazing four years here at LJ," Tom Atwell, head swim coach at La Jolla High, emailed about Jackie Real.

She's the senior who just finished third in the Division II section finals with a score of 255.20.

It's easy to miss her, or to take her for granted. I don't think Atwell does, because he has commented more than once on the importance of the points that Real's dives have contributed to the Vikings' team score at each dual meet over the four years of Jackie's high school career.

But others may miss her. Diving takes place often apart from the rest of the swim meet, even though she's part of the LJHS swim team and wears "LJ" in prominent red letters on her swimsuit.

For example, the CIF diving finals, which take up to four hours to complete--and that's just for the girls, with another three to four hours for boys--are held at a venue separate from the swim events and on a different day. The finals are always held on a Friday at Mesa College, while this year the swim prelims and finals were held Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday far away at Granite Hills High School.

Real, the diver, gets plenty of attention from her coaches, though. Her father and mother, who sat poolside at Mesa, dispensed support and advice each time Jackie came over to the spectators' section before each of her six dives.

Janelle Sherako, her LJHS coach, new this year, was available and calling out tips from the stands, even though she was hobbled with a brace to support her knee two days after undergoing surgery.

Jackie is in an outstanding program at San Diego State, in which she is introduced to a dive while being hooked up in a harness that lifts her and allows her to simulate the movements. Only later does she take to the diving board to begin practicing the dive in the swimming pool.

I mentioned this to the dive coach at Santana High during the finals. He said, "Oh, no, that's expensive. We don't have the resources for that at our school." So Real is privileged to be in a well-funded, advanced program.

Another element of Real's dive career is peer fortitude. Dive coaches don't hesitate to mention this. The danger of hitting the board as one performs a dive, and the pounding that a diver takes in hitting the water each time, add up to quite a risk.

The Santana coach said he sits a diver hit the board about once a year. One diver during the girls' competition narrowly missed the board during the finals Friday, and evoked gasps from the assembled spectators, who are mostly moms and dads of the divers.

For the petite Jackie, who measures about five feet in height, it takes courage to get up on the board each time and ply her trade. At her level of the sport, with private coaching, she is performing dives with increased D.D.'s--Degree of Difficulty. This means multiple twists, somersaults, and speed, all of which increase the risk. She's gutsy, and she's taking it to Cornell, deservedly so, next fall.


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper