Green revives dive team
This year Zackary Green brought the Cedar Shoals Dive team back to life. For the past multiple years the Cedar Shoals dive team has been non-existent, with no active athletes. This season, Zackary changed that and reformed the team. Green is a brother to two sisters, Abby and Grace Green, and he is involved in many extracurricular activities, including orchestra and sports. Zackary runs cross country in the fall and does Kyuki-Do, which is a form of martial arts.
Zackary Green feels as though one of the biggest aspects to diving is the mental block that a lot of divers face and making sure that they don’t get in their own head. He believes that one of the biggest factors leading to failure in diving is divers psyching themselves out.
“You can’t be worrying about the dive you’re doing because you will probably mess up, and you also can’t really think about diving either. Another big thing is you have to make sure you know the dive you’re doing, so you don’t get disqualified for doing the wrong dive,” Zackary Green said.
Zackary Green’s youngest sister and fraternal twin Abby Green is also a freshman attending Cedar Shoals. Abby Green thinks Zackary Green is an outgoing person and strives to keep others happy.
“He is a little bit of a comedian, and a big cheerleader especially when it comes to cheering on the swimmers at swim meets,” Abby Green said.
Cedar Shoals swim team coach, Bee Nordgren, believes in Zackary Green and thinks he can accomplish great things this year, even if he does not make it to the state championship.
“There’s always state competition, and I would say that that’s a pretty big reach for a ninth grader and he may or may not make it. It depends on what happens in the next few meets, but I haven’t really had the conversation. I would still definitely encourage him to shoot for the stars and do what he can,” Nordgren said.
Zackary Green was appreciative that Nordgren gave him the opportunity to represent the Cedar dive team. Cedar has not had a diver for multiple years, so he was especially grateful for the spot on the team.
“When I joined the team I was not really surprised that I was the only person who would be diving. I already knew beforehand because there wasn’t anyone on the dive team until Coach (Nordgren), who is the swim coach, gracefully said I could be on the dive team if I wanted to,” Zackary Green said
Even though Zackary Green does not have any Cedar teammates who compete in diving with him, he still tries to maintain a good relationship with both the swim team and his Ramsey center dive team.
“I know quite a few people on the Aqua Jags team and the Ramsey dive team so I don’t really feel like I’m alone when I’m on the board,” Zackary Green said
Coach Norgren believes that Zackary Green keeps a good attitude about his performance no matter what and never beats himself up over one bad performance.
“I can tell that he’s put a lot of time and practice into his dives, and he’s also got a super great attitude about how he performs, and I know he acknowledges that he’s new so he doesn’t get super upset if a dive isn’t perfect in his mind,” Nordgren said.
Grace Green feels as though diving has significantly helped him with his personal confidence.
“I think diving has definitely helped him and given him confidence because it’s a very scary sport. You’re jumping off a tall board into the water just hoping you don’t hit the water wrong. I think it has shown him that he can do whatever he wants and whatever he puts his mind to, because there weren’t any divers last year,” Grace Green said.
Grace Green believes that even if Zackary Green does not choose to carry on and continue with diving, at least he had a good experience and learned a lot from his time diving.
“Even if diving was just a cool experience and even if he never wants to do it again, at least he did it and he showed himself that he could do it, which is big,” Grace Green said.
