Coppell High School sophomore Ethan Koshy has a section of Coppell sports reserved specifically for him. He is the only diver for the CHS team so he quite literally puts the “diving” in “Coppell Swimming and Diving”.

Not only does he uphold the name of Coppell diving but he represents it well. Last year, Koshy competed at the USA Diving Nationals Championships for his club team, GC Divers, meaning he passed through several elimination rounds and placed 10 at the zone meet to qualify. This team is also the No.1 ranked team in the nation.

The Sidekick recently sat down with him to discover what it is like to be the lone diver on the CHS Swimming and Diving team.  

What are competitions like being the only diver on the CHS team?

At first, I was a bit worried for my first competition but everyone is super supportive when you go there and even if I did a bad dive they started cheering like crazy so it was pretty fun.

How do you mentally motivate yourself for meets knowing that you are the only representative of your sport at our school?

It’s kind of difficult because [coach Marieke Roberts], she admits to it that she doesn’t know much about diving but the other people at [meets] are super supportive but other than that, it’s nice when other [teammates] are there watching because it keeps you going.

How would you describe your relationship with the swimmers on the team?

I don’t know a lot of them that well but if I see them in the hallway, they always recognize me. They’re really nice. They’re definitely supportive. I remember the first time I got on the bus because we had to go to the YMCA really quick so we could change, they were like ‘wait, are you the diver?’

What is your favorite part about diving as a sport?

When you go in the water and you don’t go over or short and you go up and down, you can feel it right when you go in the water and it’s a really good feeling because you know when you come up the people will be cheering and that’s always nice.