Spotlight Moves to Another Sorgi

It’s been a couple whirlwind weeks for Erica Sorgi, who, at 15, has emerged as one of the nation’s top divers. She arrived here late Monday to watch her brother, Adam, play for and her father, Ed, coach the South Mission Viejo team in the Little League World Series.

Erica, soon to start her sophomore year at Capistrano Valley High, spent the last two weeks in Texas, where she won the three championships (one-meter and three-meter springboard, and platform) for 14- and 15-year olds at the National Junior Diving championships in Austin.

Then it was on to Dallas, where she won the one-meter springboard championship at the Senior National diving championships, upsetting defending champion Carissa Zenorini of Demerest, N.J. Both qualified to represent the United States at the Diving World Cup in Mexico City Sept. 10-14 and at the World Aquatics championships in Perth, Australia, in January.

In Sunday’s three-meter finals in Dallas, Sorgi finished fourth.

Earlier this summer, she competed in a juniors meet in Washington, where she qualified to represent the United States in three diving events in Malaysia this year.

Sorgi found it difficult to put her accomplishments in words Tuesday outside Howard J. Lamade Stadium.

She began diving about seven years ago, she said, and also was active in gymnastics. But when SCATS, the Huntington Beach-based gymnastics club that has turned out more than three dozen Olympians, asked her to train at its facility, Sorgi chose instead to concentrate on diving.

“It was just too far to go, so I quit and went into diving instead,” she said.

That was good news for the Mission Viejo Nadadores, for whom Sorgi still competes.

She went on to become one of six Orange County divers named to the high school All-American team after winning the Southern Section Division I diving championships last May. She scored a record 568.10 points in the one- and three-meter springboard competition, breaking the old mark (554.50) set by Laguna Beach’s Wendy Wyland.

The timing of their children’s athletic events has been tough on the Sorgi family, both parents said. Ed stayed in Mission Viejo with his son and youngest daughter, Tori, while his wife, Ann, traveled with Erica to Texas.

Mother and daughter found it difficult to follow South Mission Viejo’s progress while in Texas.

“We were able to watch the region final on TV,” Ann said. “We were having a pizza party, but the Dallas Cowboys were playing, too, so it was kind of hard to get them to put the Little League game on.”

The baseball team’s travel schedule forced Ed, an assistant coach, to turn to family members and friends to take care of Tori.

When South Mission Viejo qualified for the Little League World Series, Ed wasn’t sure he could accompany the team because he had nowhere for Tori to stay. Players and coaches in Williamsport are housed in the International Grove complex, which are wooden cabins guarded around the clock by volunteers called “uncles.”

No outsiders are allowed into the Grove. However, after some discussion, Little League officials allowed Tori to stay there with her father until her mother arrived from Dallas.

Ann reflected on the last couple of weeks with a sigh.

“I missed all the regional games,” she said. “I was looking forward to going home after Texas, but now we are here. This is our vacation.”