Should They Plunge Ahead on Their Own? : Diving: The event should be separate from swimming, some coaches say. But others warn that that could lead to the sport’s demise at high school level.

Until last season, Jan Most didn’t know how good she had it as girls’ swim coach at Mission Viejo High School.

Under Most, the Diablos won 11 consecutive Southern Section 4-A championships from 1976-86. During those days of dominance, Mission Viejo benefitted from a pool of talented divers.

The girls’ Southern Section 4-A diving champion came from Mission Viejo from 1980-87. Diving points were included with swimming points, making for some lopsided Diablo victories.

Diving was just another event on the way to championships for Most and her teams.

But last season, for the first time in 14 years, Mission Viejo did not have a diver finish in the top 12 at the Southern Section 4-A championships.

As a result, Mission Viejo finished second to Capistrano Valley, losing the title by 10 points. The Diablos outscored the Cougars in the swimming events, but Capistrano Valley scored 24 points in diving to zero for Mission Viejo.

“We found out just how big a factor diving can be in the Southern Section meet,” said Most, who has coached at Mission Viejo for 18 years. “When we were winning, it didn’t seem to make that big of a difference. But having been on the other side, I’ve found out divers can give you a big advantage.”

An unfair advantage, according to some coaches.

Diving was added to the Southern Section swim championships in 1946, but in recent years the number of high school competitors has dwindled to where some coaches are wondering if it should remain a part of the meet.

Those who want to keep diving say that if the event is removed from the Southern Section meet, its days on the high school level are over.

“High school diving won’t survive on its own,” said Larry Brennen, former Westminster coach who worked with high school divers for 20 years. “You’re dealing with maybe 10 kids per team and schools won’t be in a financial position to fund a team.”

However, coaches say, few leagues include diving in their dual and league meet scores. Only two Orange County leagues--Sunset and Freeway--include the diving points in their dual meets and league finals.

And because the section diving finals already are held separately from the swim meets, some coaches say that the event should be counted separately.

The Southern Section diving championships will be today (4-A), Thursday (2-A) and Friday (3-A) at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach; the swim finals will be Friday and Saturday.

“Diving has become a sport within a sport,” Villa Park swim Coach Jeff Ehrlich said. “They have their own workouts, their own meets, even their own Southern Section championship meet. I love the sport, but at this point it shouldn’t be scored with the swim meet.”

Capistrano Valley benefitted from diving in winning the 4-A meet last season. The Cougars had two divers in the finals--Joy Burkholder finished second and Susie Mullaney was fourth.

“We were down, 24-0, before we started swimming,” Most said. “It’s a big help if you have the divers.”

Diving also helped decide the boys’ 2-A championship in 1989.

San Luis Obispo and Woodbridge finished tied for the title with 82 points. Of San Luis Obispo’s 82 points, 27 came from diving. Woodbridge didn’t have a diver qualify for the finals.

“San Luis Obispo is going to be one of the top teams again this year and they’re going to have three divers make the finals,” said Laguna Hills Coach Drew Maness, whose team is one of the favorites in the 2-A meet. “We’re going to go into the swim meet trailing by 30 to 40 points because we don’t have any divers. That’s a lot of points to make up.”

But proponents of diving say it’s up to the swim coaches to fill every event. Just as a team needs competitors in each swimming event, it also needs divers.

“Diving is an event, you can’t separate it,” Fountain Valley girls’ swim Coach Debbie Kelly said. “If there weren’t enough swimmers in the 500 (-yard) freestyle, you wouldn’t drop that event. You’d go out and get some 500 freestylers.

“The fact is, divers can score points for you. If you want the points, you have to fill the event.”

Kelly said there is still an interest in the event.

There will be 119 divers competing in the Southern Section championships today, the number of swimmers in the 500 freestyle (135), one of the most popular events.

Fountain Valley has 16 divers in the girls’ program, four of which will compete in the Southern Section championship.

The Barons have been strong in diving for years. In fact, Fountain Valley’s Patti Thompson, now at UCLA, won the 4-A championship the past two years.

April Martin, the Barons’ most consistent diver, didn’t start the sport until she was a freshman in high school.

“As far as I know, none of our divers dove before they were in high school,” Kelly said. “We get a lot of gymnasts. The two sports are very similar. All we ask is that they make a commitment for 12 weeks.”

But Ehrlich said it’s harder to develop divers from scratch than it is swimmers.

Two years ago, Ehrlich attempted to recruit divers from the Villa Park student body. He distributed fliers around campus and two students came out for the team.

Ehrlich sent them to the Mission Viejo Nadadores for training, but the project didn’t pan out. Neither qualified for the Southern Section championship meet.

“It’s difficult to get someone to learn the sport well enough to qualify for the Southern Section meet,” Ehrlich said. “You can take a swimmer and put him into any event and he’ll do OK. It takes years and years to develop a quality diver.”

The decline of high school diving began in the mid-1970s, when swimming became a co-ed sport in the Southern Section. With more people in the pool during practice, time became precious.

Few schools have a pool large enough to accommodate a swimming and diving practice at the same time. Time was also a problem in dual meets.

“Diving is just one event, but when the sport became co-ed it became a long event,” said Foothill Coach Tom DeLong, who was a diver at Long Beach College and the University of Denver.

The Sunset and Freeway leagues have kept diving in dual meet competition, but have altered their meet formats.

The Freeway League holds the diving competition at the beginning of the meet. The Sunset League holds it on the Thursday before the Tuesday dual meets.

But time is only part of the problem, DeLong said.

“Very few swim coaches have good enough knowledge in diving to coach it,” DeLong said. “When it was still an event in our dual meets, you’d see kids basically just falling off the board. They were only put in the event to score points and didn’t really have any diving talent. It was embarrassing.”

With fewer qualified high school coaches, most divers learn their skills at a club program. However, coaches say that this gives an advantage to schools that have clubs that supply divers.

Capistrano Valley and Mission Viejo (Mission Viejo Nadadores) and Irvine (Irvine Novaquatics) have had strong diving teams in recent years.

Although Mission Viejo did not have divers place in the top 12 last season, the Diablos have had plenty of quality divers in the past, including Wendy Wyland, who won the 4-A diving championship four consecutive years. Wyland won a bronze medal at the 1984 Olympics.

In fact, the Diablos’ diving team was so strong, Wendy Lian Williams never won a Southern Section championship. But Williams did win a bronze medal in the 1988 Olympics.

Capistrano Valley and Irvine have strong diving teams this season because of their club divers. The Cougars had four girls, including Burkholder and Mullaney, and two boys qualify for the Southern Section meet. Irvine had three boys and two girls qualify for the championships.

Because most of the divers train at clubs and go the invitational route to qualify, high school coaches have little contact with them.

“With few exceptions, the teams are getting points from kids they never see,” DeLong said. “Their coaches have nothing to do with diving at all. I love diving. It was my sport, but at this point it only benefits schools that are around swim clubs.”

Divers qualify for the Southern Section meet either during a dual meet or invitational, which are held almost every weekend during the season.

At a dual meet, divers must score at least 170 points from their six dives. Because there are few leagues that include diving in a dual meet, most divers qualify at invitationals (a league championship meet is considered an invitational).

Divers must score at least 285 points on 11 dives at an invitational.

At the Southern Section meet, diving is scored the same as swim events, with the top 12 finishers receiving points.

Coaches say they don’t want to do away with diving, only take its points out of the Southern Section meet. They say that the Southern Section should make it a separate championship.

“Sure, the top divers are from club teams, but what coaches overlook is that high school is the grass-roots level for diving,” Brennen said. “You can develop a good diver just from high school and there are a lot of scholarships out there. You would be denying kids a chance at a free education.”