HOLDEN — The sport is called swimming and diving for a reason, but too often the diving component of the sport can be overlooked, particularly at the high school level.
Not so for this 2023-2024 campaign, according to Wachusett Regional High swim team head coach Jochen Welsch. WRHS junior Grace O’Malley, from Holden, has established herself as a diver for this season’s team, which not only benefits her as a student-athlete but also the team.
“Diving is one of the 12 (meet) events,” Welsch explained. “If the meet happens in a pool with a (diving) board and you don’t have any divers and the other team does, you walk into the meet anywhere from 6-13 points behind before warmups even start. While none of the meets we’ve won or lost this year have been decided by having or not having a diver, we have lost meets in the past when we didn’t have any divers. So having Grace makes a team more competitive.
“Grace has made tremendous progress in competition, given that most of the pools we compete in don’t have boards. She’s only been able to compete at away meets at Worcester and Tyngsborough last December, yet was able to qualify for sectionals by scoring at least 155 points for 6 dives in each meet. She attended The Hilltopper Invitational Diving Meet, hosted by Durfee High School in Fall River earlier this month, and came in third place overall.
“She also set a new school record in the 11-dive format, breaking the mark of 388.4 points set by Ashley Goldberg in 2005.That’s pretty incredible for a diver in the first year. She’s also qualified at least 11 dives for the sectional meet. Divers have to qualify dives in five different groups: forward, inward, reverse, back and twist. That’s a lot to accomplish in one’s first season.”
To say that there has been a dearth of divers on Wachusett swim and dive teams over the years may be an understatement. The last male diver was Natahn Alsdirf in 2011, who dove his freshman year before deciding to attend a different school. Michelle Buslov and Julie Takarowski both were divers in the 2014-2015 season. O’Malley ends a nearly 10-year desert of divers for Wachusett teams.
“I’ve never had her as a student” said Welsch, who is a teacher at WRHS, “but given that she had to take the initiative to become a diver, get herself to practice at Clark (University) on her own, and spend time mastering tiny details to do a dive well …” said Welsh. “The skills it takes to be a diver include self-motivation, persistence, and repetition. One can’t be afraid of heights or feel unsure about one’s balance. Grace has those characteristics.”
Like many who choose to make a go of diving, O’Malley has been competing as a gymnast since her early days. But the transformation from one sport to another was unlike what many have experienced.
“I was a gymnast for my whole life,” she explained. “In February 2021, I was diagnosed with a concussion (with effects) that lasted 2½ years. I had no idea how I got that concussion. I woke up one day and felt sick, and I thought it might have been COVID. The doctors I went to diagnosed me with a concussion, which was kind of a surprise because I don’t remember hitting my head. I’ve seen cardiologists, neurologists, occupational therapists and physical therapists, and they all agreed that I had post-concussion syndrome.
“In 2023, I recognized that it had been so incredibly hard to get back to gymnastics and it was taking a toll on my physical and mental health because that was all I wanted to do. I realized that I had to find something else that wouldn’t hurt my head, but I knew that I had head pain and could barely walk up a flight of stairs. One of my gymnastics teammates was giving that up to go to diving. I decided to try it. The first time I dove into the pool, I think I was crying happily because I had no head pain. I knew after 15 minutes that I was quitting gymnastics, and I fell in love with diving.”
O’Malley practices at Clark four times a week and credits her instructor, Kelly Tonole, for her sound instruction and support. Her participation with the WRHS swim team is limited to away meets whose facilities have boards. She is a Special Olympics volunteer and a member of the National Honor Society and hopes to dive competitively in the collegiate ranks. O’Malley credits her years of intense workouts in gymnastics for her conversion to being a successful diver.
“I loved gymnastics, and I miss it. If I wasn’t a gymnast, I wouldn’t be the diver that I am,” she said. “When I’m trying new dives, I get an adrenaline rush for sure. It’s exciting, but I can’t be afraid to do my new dives because that’s how I get new dives. It’s so much fun. I never thought I’d have this much achievement early on. I’m really proud of myself. I’m the only diver on the team, and most people don’t understand that diving is a thing.”
O’Malley proudly displays her recently earned Hilltopper Diving Invitational medal, and her sense of pride in holding it is palpable.
“This one medal represents more than any of my 300-plus gymnastics medals, because it represents me not giving up, and I really thought that I had to deal with head pain for the rest of my life. I found diving and I love it.”
