This Saturday, Dec. 14, marks a moment to remember in Kamehameha’s sports history: the first dive meet with students from Kamehameha Schools Maui competing. The event will be held at the Kihei Aquatic Center at 7:30 a.m.
Led by Coach Anthony Venticinque, a.k.a. Coach Tony or Coach 25, divers have been preparing the past few weeks for tomorrow’s event.
“It’s new, so it’s going to be fun to watch and participate in. There were only 1 or 2 diving teams from other schools last year, so for us to be participating in diving as well will be really cool,” said senior swim captain Shavis Cardoza.
Cardoza has been competitively swimming for four years.
“[There’s] a lot of dedication to this sport,” he said. “The community’s really strong, there’s a lot of fun people in swimming, and the coaches are really nice. We have a great coach, and a lot of great divers as well.”
Coach Venticinque is an NFHS Certified Swim and Dive Coach and an ASCA Certified Swim Coach. He has mentored hundreds of students in swimming, qualified numerous athletes for marathons, and helped countless individuals achieve personal records and lifelong milestones.
Coach Tony envisions bringing the lāhui closer by creating a diving academy for all ages and levels.
“Our new K-12 Dive Academy [would] run year-round. There will be skill sets for all levels of divers, from little tumblers on mats who can’t yet swim in deep water to jumps, dives, and flips for advanced divers,” said Coach Venticinque.
“I’m really excited about growing [the] program. We have brand new divers this year, [with] no experience yet. They have been working hard to learn the skills necessary,” he said.
In the meantime, two divers will be ready for this Saturday — junior Abou Diallo and freshman Ava Cuomo.
Coach Venticinque said, “I hope to see both finish in the top 8. We [also] have six other divers waiting in the wings for future meets.”
Freshman diver Ava Cuomo has returned to competitive swimming after a hiatus of four years and is guardedly optimistic for the start of the season.
“I hope I do good, we’re hoping for the best. We’ve been practicing our six dives that we need for this meet to try and get them to the point where we won’t get disqualified, and [then] we’re going to start perfecting them later on,” she said. “I’m excited to see where things go, since this is our first year. I’m excited to see how it progresses throughout my four years here.”
While the MIL Diving season only runs from November to February, the USA Diving season occurs year-round, which may be an opportunity for the Kamehameha Dive Team to make a splash on the national level in the future.
While this marks the beginning of something amazing at KS Maui, diving in Hawaiʻi has been around for centuries.
The last independent king of Maui, Kahekili (1710-1794) was famous for lele kawa, which was the sport of leaping off high cliffs and entering the water feet first with no splash. Coach Venticinque said that he hopes that a Kamehameha dive team will rise to the excellence of the diving masters of lele kawa.
