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Diver Dedea Seeks Return Trip To State Meet

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By CRISTINA LEDRA, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 24, 2007

PORT RICHEY - For as long as River Ridge junior Jonathan Dedea has had an inkling to swim, he has been drawn to the diving board.

He was disappointed to find out swimmers didn't dive off diving boards to start races when he was trying out for a New Port Richey swim team years ago.

'One of the guys there said, 'If that's what you want to do, you should try diving,'' Dedea said.

He did and now he has become hard to beat around Pasco County and beyond, earning his first berth to the state meet last season as a sophomore and finishing 16th.

Surpassing his expectations by getting to the state meet, Dedea is building off of the experience in hopes of a return this season and a top-eight finish.

'It was my first time ever being at states,' Dedea said. 'You have a lot of pressure on you because also at states they don't announce the dives. They just announce the number so you basically have to have all your numbers memorized.

'There are six judges and you never can see the judges' scores so you don't really know what you got from each judge. You're wondering the whole time, 'Did I do bad on that one or did I do good on that one?' But it's a lot of fun.'

Dedea is off to a strong start to his junior season, consistently posting scores of more than 200 points with his highest, 247, coming against Zephyrhills.

Dedea began diving in middle school, but before that he was a gymnast for a few years, which gave him an advantage once he made the switch to diving.

He specialized in the vault but also did well on the floor.

'Gymnastics is very helpful for divers,' said Joe Greenwell, diving coach at the Brandon Sports & Aquatic Center, where Dedea trains. 'They have had a lot of experience dealing with a coach. ... There's a big difference with athletes that have had that experience. When you're giving kids a hard time, it doesn't bother them that they're being pushed.'

Gymnastics prepared Dedea for the technical parts of diving, too.

'The hardest part about diving is overcoming the fear of going off and flipping, not knowing where you are and I think gymnastics was able to help me getting used to not knowing where I am,' he said.

At Brandon, Dedea benefits from Greenwell's training that includes dry land exercises with a spotting rig and the diver in a belt suspended over a pit of foam. Greenwell holds the weight of divers with the belt and can have divers repeat parts of the dive until they get really good at it, which is something they can't do off a board going into water.

Right now Dedea's favorite dives to do are the back 1 1/2 with a somersault, his strongest dive, and the forward 2 1/2 , but he's looking to add a couple new ones as he develops.

'He doesn't dive year-round, but he does take it very seriously,' Greenwell said. 'He comes all that way from New Port Richey and he really wants to do a good job for his school.'

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