Giada Bruno

Anthony Bruno attempting a piked backflip against Ventura.

Wed. April 23, Buena spectators filed into the stands to witness the school’s first dive meet in over twenty years against rival Ventura High School. The divers took home second and fifth place in a tight match up. 

Buena’s dive program sank years ago when interest levels declined. Buena swim coach and alumnus Amanda Graves recalled the divers during her time at Buena, however most were club athletes,like Olympic diver and alumnus Troy Dumais, who prioritized the Olympic Trials over high school competition. 

When interest within Buena swim athletes surged after all those years, Graves took action, finding a coach and holding tryouts in January, where they selected suitable divers to represent the newest sport at Buena.

Sophomore Anthony Bruno and junior Aiden Calliento, the only divers in the program, prepared to compete in their six dives with only four practices under their belts. 

Buena, Ventura and Foothill High School dive coach Deonn Crilly, a state level diver with 20 years of experience, juggled coaching and providing feedback to both teams while also judging the meet.

“Diving is a sport that takes a different type of individual for each dive,” Crilly said. “Each diver learns differently, and dives differently.”

After Graves welcomed the audience, the meet kicked off. Bulldog and Cougar divers alternated dives off the one meter board, attempting different difficulty levels in hopes of adding to their overall score. 

Bruno received mostly fours for his first few dives. Then, he competed a front double flip, collecting high sevens from all the judges. Calliento followed shortly after, scoring collective sixes after completing a gainer and then received fives for a reverse-twist front flip. 

Dive, much like golf, takes a quiet crowd to concentrate, and often builds nervous tension within the divers. Bruno, however, expressed the pressure motivated him. 

“The [first meet nerves] pushed me to do better.” Bruno said. 

As the meet came to a close, scores were added and Bruno received second place out of the seven divers present while Calliento took fifth. 

“I wasn’t sure if [I was going to join dive], however I’m glad I did after today, it was a fun meet with good competition.” Bruno said.

Fri. April 25, Buena divers head to Ventura High School to compete in the Channel League finals, hoping to secure another victory for the dive program.