West makes county history with diving team; four Patriots show much progress in just a few weeks

Braxton Morris, Sam Suggs, Colton Ellis and David Garner are the first diving team in county history.

“I’m out here to kick butt, but I’m most likely going to get my butt kicked in the process,” Garner said. “I’m fine with that. I’m out here having fun, getting experience, bonding with the boys. We haven’t even practiced some of the dives we’ve been doing.”

It’s been a whirlwind few weeks for the Patriots.

On Friday, Jan. 13, they took part in their first-ever diving meet in Raleigh. The previous day featured their first-ever practice.

“Our athletic director told us we have some stones for doing this,” Suggs said.

The courage to make history was tested some when the “West Carteret Athletics” Facebook page posted a video of the first meet. While many were supportive, a few were less than kind when presented with the work of the fledgling divers.

“Some people have been really supportive of us, but some people have made fun of it, but I don’t pay attention to that,” Garner said. “There will always be haters.”

A second video was posted a week later showing the team’s remarkable progress after each diver shined at UNC-Wilmington and qualified for the 3A regional by completing five of six dives.

“The reaction to the second video was a lot different,” Suggs said.

The West diving team isn’t just rare for Carteret County.

At their opening meet in Raleigh, the Patriots were the only 3A team in attendance at the 50-diver meet that featured mostly year-round divers.

“There were only two boys before us who had scored in the state for the 3A division, and they were from Carrboro,” West coach Taylor Wilson said.

The genesis for the West diving team began last spring when it fell just four points off a regional runner-up finish to First Flight.

“They had a diver, so they had 20 points before the meet ever started,” Wilson said. “We had more swimming points, but couldn’t make up those 20 points, and so that was kind of the moment where we were like, ‘Alright, let’s figure this out.’”

Diving competitions take place the day before swimming events, giving teams with divers a legitimate head start. The 3A regional will take place this week with the diving events on Thursday and the swimming on Friday.

“The ways points are scored with swimming, diving is a big part of it, and so to stay competitive, we said let’s do it,” Wilson said. “We could get 20 points going into regionals, so we figured why not. We don’t want to leave points on the table if we can help it, especially when you have a group of kids like we do who are willing to go out there and compete.”

Finding willing swimmers to dive hasn’t been a problem. Finding a practice facility, however, has proven to be a major problem throughout a swim season that started in November. Wilson has described the process as “building the plane while we’re flying it.”

There is no county pool set up for diving. West has traveled to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and N.C. State over the past two weeks for practice. At MCAS Cherry Point, the Patriots aren’t allowed to do backflips and can only practice forward dives. They also visited Crystal Coast All-Stars to practice tumbling.

East Carolina University has the closest facility, but liability issues keep West from using the pool there.

“It’s hard when you don’t have the facilities,” Wilson said. “A lot of the kids have been talking about it for a few years, but it’s been really difficult to put a team together. Ideally, ECU would let us come practice. Getting there would be huge because we have some dive coaches who are willing to work with us. We would like to not drive all the way to Raleigh to practice, but that is how it’s working out so far, and the guys have been willing to do it.”

Morris went on his own one Sunday to N.C. State to get in extra work. The drive paid off with his performance at the second meet.

“I’ve been going to as many practices as I can and just getting in the water as much as I can,” he said. “I’ve been really excited about it for a few years. I’ve been looking for us to get it started, and once we have, I was really ready to start practicing. It feels good to know I can give my team some points and help them out.”

Ellis has plenty on his plate, pulling double duty this winter. He’s also a standout pole vaulter on West’s indoor track and field team. He figures his experience as a pole vaulter has helped with diving. After bruising his heel on a fall on a vault attempt last week, he may just concentrate on diving for the rest of the winter.

“I haven’t been able to practice vaulting ever since,” he said. “If I can qualify for states (in diving), I might skip track states because it is the same day. I can jump off my toes. It just hurts to run or even walk. If I can give our team more points and medal in diving my first time ever doing it and then get a medal in the spring season for pole vault, that would be ideal.”

To add to the degree of difficulty, swimming, and now diving, isn’t the primary sport for Suggs or Garner.

“I didn’t even know I was diving until a week ago,” Suggs said. “I didn’t even think about joining the swim team until October, so this is completely new to me, but I’m down for it. It’s weird that I’m here right now.”

Suggs is primarily a lacrosse player.

“I wanted to do a winter sport, but I didn’t want to do track,” he said. “Swimming looked fun, and so far, I’ve had fun. But with diving, it’s way different than anything I’ve done before. I guess it was God’s destiny for gingers to fly.”

Garner counts golf as his top sport.

“I was just doing this to stay in shape,” he said.

Athletic ability was taken into account when picking the divers.

“A lot of kids want to do it because it is new and cool, but we were selective because it can be dangerous,” Wilson said.

Morris and Ellis are two of the best swimmers on the team.

A week after its opening meet, West made the trip to UNC Wilmington for their second-ever meet.

Morris finished second in the seven-diver competition with 115.20 points.

“It was so much better, being able to know what you are doing,” Morris said. “We got three practices in between meets and practiced tumbling too. I was pretty confident after that.”

Morris and Ellis each went 6-for-6 in their dives at UNC Wilmington. Ellis’ performance was eye-opening considering he missed the first meet.

“It was my first meet, my first day on a diving board,” he said. “It was pretty funny getting up there for the first time, but also actually really fun to fly through the air. I had never done it before, just the practice and warmups.”

Garner also didn’t compete in the first meet. To qualify for the regional, each West diver had to complete five of six dives, including a forward, reverse, inward, twist and back at UNC Wilmington, which was made more difficult when Suggs and Garner failed to meet the standard on their first dives.

“The adrenaline kicked in after that,” Garner said. “I was pretty comfortable with the backflip, which I didn’t know I could do until five minutes before I performed it. We get about 45 minutes to an hour before the meet to practice, and that helped.”

Diving enthusiasm has spread throughout the school. Parents and members of the school administration attended the second meet. The divers have also found support among, of all people, the competition.

“The diving community has been so helpful,” Wilson said. “All the meets we’ve been to, the other divers are trying to help the guys, giving them tips. It’s a really cool culture, or maybe they just feel bad for us, but I’ll take it either way.”