Kevin Lopez joined the swimming and diving team his freshman year at Seymour High School, and that was the first time he had ever swam competitively.
He did swimming events his freshman season, and into the winter break his sophomore year when he was approached by diving coach Tara Sutherland, who asked him if he would like to try diving.
“I felt it had more adrenaline to it, more emotion, and the coach (Sutherland) was really fun to be around,” Lopez said. “She asked me to do a couple of dives after practice, and I did them. Coach Sutherland is an amazing coach, and Devin (Ramsey) and my teammates are awesome, and I like to try new things. I like to see Devin dive because I like to see what he does. I try to copy what he does. Devin has helped me a lot, too.
“I really didn’t know anything about diving when I got into it. She told me if I could get 11 dives down I could be part of the diving team, so I switched in the course of 14 days.”
Lopez said he had to adjust to diving off the board.
“It was kind of scary, but pretty exciting,” he said. “I would say all the dives are hard in themselves, but it’s more about mental. Everyone has a good time. It’s about enjoying what you do.”
He said the inward dives are his favorite.
“The twists are harder,” Lopez said. “Those, you’ve got to make your body go and twist and go in the water without making a big splash. The ones I know how to do, and I know I do it good, I do two or three times and put more time and effort on the ones that are not so good.”
Lopez feels that practice in important.
“That’s how you get better in anything,” he said. “I work on being consistent on every dive I do, make the approach be consistent every single time. Being consistent is the most important part of diving.
“Let’s say you’re trying a new dive that is a higher degree of difficulty, your body can do it but you’re just afraid. You’ve just got to overcome that. The hardest dive for me to learn was the reverse because it’s going over backward off the board.”
He said it is hard to get good spring off some boards where he can get as high as he needs to be able to execute moves such as somersaults and twists.
He said he wants to set a PR (personal record) at the HHC meet, which will be held at SHS later this month.
Lopez has enjoyed attending SHS.
“I feel there are a lot of opportunities here,” Lopez said. I’ve had good teachers. I like that everyone gets treated equally.”
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Name: Kevin Lopez
High School: Seymour
Parents: Luis Sr. and Maria Lopez
Sibling: Luis Jr.
Sports: Diving 4 years
Athletic highlight: placing seventh in sectional last year
Organizations: band, robotics, youth group
Plans after high school: attend college, study nursing
Favorite food: pizza
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