A chorus of “You got this baby!” echoed through the bleachers of NC State’s aquatic center on January 12th as the announcer introduced Enloe’s divers to the crowd. An impressive turnout of the divers’ classmates, coaches, and even Enloe Principal Dr. Jordan added to the turnout at Enloe dive’s senior night. They watched as Luke Burris, Henry Carroll, Seth Cox, Riley Howell, Ellie Maguire, Nicholas Sweet, and Thor Ziobro either dove into the pool or cheered on their teammates from the bleachers. The circumstances of Enloe dive create a tight-knit team of seven athletes with a team dynamic different from any other at our school.
Dive practices commence at the Casey Aquatic Center two to three times a week, with half of Wake County’s high school dive teams in attendance. Since most teams only have a handful of competitors, it makes much more sense to practice as one huge group. “I’ve met a lot of people that I would have never crossed paths with from Heritage, Broughton, Gibbons, Middle Creek, and Green Level … and I’ve made some lifelong friends from all these schools,” says Ellie Maguire, the team’s co-captain. “We hang out outside of dive practice, we celebrate when they’re back in town from college, so it’s really really fun to have a community here outside of Enloe, but also have my closer Enloe friends who I can celebrate with.”
The small group of divers has a wide range of ages and familiarity with the sport, welcoming freshmen through seniors, as well as both first-timers and outside-of-Enloe club competitors. Though one may expect these differences to divide the group, it seems to actually bring them closer together. When asked, every member readily rattled off facts about each other’s competitive accomplishments and growth throughout the season.
While the group has been practicing and competing within Wake County since November, state championships are coming up soon. Three team members, Thor Ziobro, Nicholas Sweet and Henry Carroll, placed in the top five at the regional championship this year, setting a hopeful precedent for the upcoming state competition. Despite his two-season winning streak, Carroll, Enloe Dive’s other co-captain, stayed humble during his interview: “I’m just here to jump off the board and pray I don’t land on my face.” He says his favorite part about the sport is the group’s camaraderie due to its size. “We’re all friends and we… um… mess around during practice,” he said, censoring himself after I told him he couldn’t curse. “We’ve also gone to the Cookout on Western [Boulevard] a couple [of] times. We get pretty rowdy and loud.”
Both captains mentioned that their past experience with gymnastics and dance influenced their decision to join Enloe’s dive team in the first place, along with a bit of peer pressure. “Henry convinced me to try out and I said ‘You know what? I would love to jump off a board three nights a week and do my little flips,’” said Maguire.
If you want to be impressed by the ways your fellow Enloe Eagles can contort their bodies and somehow still look graceful doing it, the state dive conference is on February 9th at Pullen Aquatic Center.
