to open the article. - High Dive Champions

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photography by Poppy de Villeneuve
interviews by Nathaniel Kilcer
C H R I S T O P H E R C A P A S S O 14 years old
I first started riding motocross when I was about 8 or 9.
My dad rode when he was a kid, so I kind of adopted the
sport from him. I always wanted to ride, but I was scared
to. My dad helped me get over my fear. Now it’s fun.
To dial in on a jump, you have to stay consistent on the
throttle and hit the ground with both wheels at the same
time. One time I went over a jump and my front wheel
got in some sand and I flipped over the handlebars, but I
got right back up and rode on. Some people are stiff on
the bike and don’t move much; others throw the bike
around like it’s a piece of paper. I really look up to riders
like Ryan Villopoto and Ricky Carmichael—they have
great form and go fast. I started out pretty stiff, but I’ve
been learning to get a bit looser on the bike.
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ADVENTURES IN YOUTH MOTOCROSS,
JUDO, DIVING AND L ACROSSE
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G E O R G E D O H E R T Y 10 years old
I started riding motocross when I was about 4 and a half
years old. It just came to me. I wanted to start going fast
on two wheels. My first bike was a Honda CR50, but my
favorite bike now is a Yamaha 85. It’s got so much power
and you can hit all the big jumps with it. My favorite
rider is probably Ricky Carmichael, because he’s just
like me—nice and smooth. He doesn’t mess up a lot and
always does well in races. I got Ricky’s autograph once
at the Loretta Lynn Amateur Championship. He’s really
nice but he’s not really that tall—he’s like 5 feet 6 inches.
S T E V E N S A Q U I C E L A 9 years old
I got very good grades in kindergarten, so at the end
of the year my dad asked me what I wanted. I told
him that my grandfather and I had seen some bikes in
a store and I really wanted to ride. My dad said, “All
right, let’s go.” That’s how the whole thing started. My
favorite part of the sport is when I go to the gym with
my dad. We do push-ups and pull-ups, everything that’s
necessary so I can be in shape and feel light when
I’m riding. Once I’m on the bike, I don’t think about
anything else. I just go and ride and do what I have to
do. The Loretta Lynn Area Qualifier in Englishtown,
New Jersey was my first chance to compete. I was
very nervous. My dad said, “OK, this is your chance.
If you qualify, nice. If you don’t qualify, we’ll just keep
training.” Something just came into my head and I
thought, “OK then, I’ll qualify.” I got second place in
both rounds. I don’t want to be like other kids who just
come and ride for fun. I want to come and train hard
so I can be something in my life. I’m still working hard
in school, too.
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N I C H O L A S R U S S O (right) 12 years old
My friend Ricky had a little dirt bike and he let me ride it,
and I was like, “Wow, this is so cool.” My dad said I could
get a KLX 110 for my birthday, so that’s how I started
riding. When I first got the bike, I rode around with my
friend and he showed me how to shift gears and stuff.
The hardest part of motocross is trying not to spin out
as you’re hitting the gas and turning. I’ve fallen a couple
of times, but it doesn’t really hurt that much. When I
approach a jump, it kind of feels weird, because when you
look at it from far away, you think, “Wow, that’s so small,
I can get over that.” Then you get close to it and you have
to figure out how to get the right amount of speed and
power to get over. When you do it right, it just kind of
amazes you, like, “Oh my God, I just landed that!”
TOP: Christian Sullivan (12),
Matthew Sullivan (14).
RIGHT PAGE: Emily Siems (10).
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G R E G O R Y V O LY N S K Y (left, in blue) 12 years old
When we moved to Fort Lee, New Jersey from New
York, I told my parents I really wanted to learn how
to fight somehow. My dad used to do sambo, a Russian
martial art that is relatively close to judo. He took me to
a few judo classes at the recreation center, and eventually
my brothers and I all moved to this school. I like that
Sensei Clyde can be strict sometimes and then sometimes
he can be soft. He doesn’t scream at you unnecessarily;
he’s good at showing you the right way to do things.
My best tournament was about a year and a half ago.
It wasn’t such a serious competition, but I got the gold
medal. It was the first time I felt like I deserved it, that I
had actually proven my capabilities after all those years
of training. It was the turning point. Since then, I have
gotten pretty high scores at tournaments. My favorite
athletes are the Ukrainian heavyweight champions Vitali
and Wladimir Klitschko. They’re brothers, and between
the two of them, they carry all the medals. They not only
know how to fight, but unlike many boxing champions,
they have brains.
TOP: Gabriel (11) and Adrian (13)
Bernal. RIGHT: Miranda (8) and Nicholas
(7) Peralta. LEFT PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP
LEFT: Gregory (12), Artem (16), Andrew
(7) and Jacob (4) Volynsky.
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A D R I A N B E R N A L (far left) 13 years old
Big tournaments like the Junior Open Nationals in Florida
are really hard. You have people from all over the country
coming to compete, but when you make a good throw
there, everyone just goes wild. It’s amazing. My signature
move for opponents my size is harai goshi—it’s a leg throw.
You sweep your opponent’s leg by breaking their balance
and then twisting your body. My instructor says I need
to vary the techniques I use in tournaments—I tend to use
the same couple of throws. I practice with my brother
sometimes, if he’s not being lazy. I’d like to go to Texas or
Russia someday to compete.
Adrian (13) and Gabriel (11) Bernal.
C A R L O S F O N S E L A (above) 12 years old
My dad introduced me to judo recently—he first
started learning it 30 years ago in Cuba. The coolest
part of judo is how you get to throw people down—
you can really get all your anger out. My best throw
is osoto gari. You use a normal grip—the right hand on
the uniform and left hand on the sleeve—and put your
left foot forward to your opponent’s foot and then you
hook your other leg behind theirs. That’s how they
fall. Sensei Clyde teaches us throws and pins, not just
little-kid moves. I want to get better at these more
advanced techniques.
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L A U R E N O ’ M E A R A 11 years old
I was at my club and saw a lot of girls diving on the team
and decided I wanted to try it out. I started taking classes
with Coach Mike and just loved it. Now I devote a lot
of my time to diving. I practice at least two hours a day,
five days a week. My hardest dive is a reverse dive on
the 3-meter board that I just learned. Sometimes this dive
makes me nervous, because when you go off the board,
you really have to pull back—sometimes you might pull
too hard and go too far. One time that happened to me,
but I went right back up and did what my coach said and
then did it right. To get ready, I practice tuck-kickouts
at home. I sit down, tuck in my legs, and then kick out
to the hollow position to get used to the rhythm. I love
being on this team because sometimes I model things for
the other kids, and then sometimes they’ll do it for me.
Everyone is really supportive of each other.
K I T G R E E N B E R G (seated, above) 11 years old
I always loved diving off the side of this dock with my
cousins at their home in Wisconsin. Then my mom read
about High Dive Champions in the newspaper, so we
tried it out. My mom’s sister had been a diver, and so had
my grandmother, so it runs in the family. It’s nice after a
long school day to come straight to the pool and know
your friends are waiting. I love my team, and the coaches
are all very nice. I really look up to Dick Kimball, the
Olympic coach. He’s 77 years old and he’s still so strong
and acts like he’s one of us.
LEFT:
Kit Greenberg (11).
Alec Decaprio (12).
RIGHT:
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A L E C D E C A P R I O (previous page, right) 12 years old
My signature dive is off the 3-meter board—a back twoand-a-half summersault tuck. I go out to the end of the
board and turn around so that just the balls of my feet are
on the board. Then I swing around, reach up and tuck
tight and spin two and a half times before kicking out and
reaching for the water. My legs need to be strong to get
a big push off and complete the spins and I need to have
good strength in my arms so I can squeeze the tuck in
tight and spin through the air fast. Before a meet, instead
of thinking of all the ways it could go wrong, I think of
all the ways it could go right. I picture myself succeeding,
and listen to my pump-up song, “Whatsername” by
Green Day. My most memorable meet was the 2010
AAU Nationals in Coral Springs, Florida. I had only been
diving for about a year, so I didn’t think I was going to
do that well, but I completed all of my dives, got sixes for
scores and ended up in third place overall.
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S A M G O O D M A N 11 years old
I think my biggest challenge after a year of diving has
been getting used to the individual-ness of the sport.
It’s not so much about the team performance—you’re
more solo. But my coaches inspire me—I see how great
they are. And I really look up to Dick Kimball. He was
named the coach of the Michigan team very young,
while he was still a student there. Then he dove in the
Olympics and invented the category of twisting dives.
He’s amazing. When I am at a meet, I picture doing
each dive perfectly, ripping every dive, getting a score
of 10, and I think that helps me. I stare at the end of
the board and just zone out. When I rip a dive, I feel it
on my hands—it hurts a little.
LEFT PAGE:
Katherine Soultanis (16).
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M A D D I E D A W S O N 15 years old —midfielder
I grew up watching my two older brothers play lacrosse
from the time they were in kindergarten, so I really
wanted to get involved. Once they started a girls team,
I joined right away. I love the challenge of the game,
especially with my position—I need to be able to play
offense and work my butt off at defense, too. I don’t know
which I’m better at—all I know is I’m really in for it. I
want our team to go as far as we can and do the best that
we can. Our first playoff game this year is with Babylon.
They’re a really good team and are going to put up a
fight—it’s not like we’ll just go out there and win. We’re
going to have to work together, but I believe in us, and
Coach Leonard is really good at getting our intensity
up. She’ll do whatever she can to get us to the point that
we can show we are the best. That’s all we want—to be
respected and recognized here at Mount Sinai—because
we’ve been working so hard.
Julia Michaels (16), Sam Croston (14),
Marina Venezia (17­).
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M A R I N A V E N E Z I A (previous page, right)
17 years old — goalie
M A R Y E L L E N C A R R O N (right)
14 years old —midfielder
Lacrosse is a very mental game. It’s really hard as a goalie
when your opponents score. You have to step back and
realize the ball had to get through the entire team before
it got to you. You can’t get down on yourself, because if
you do, you’ll start making bad checks and bad plays.
In order to stay relaxed and calm in a game, I forget
everything else that has happened so far and focus on
what’s going on right now, in that moment. At the end of
every game, we go “get our goalie” in a show of support,
because everyone knows that it’s the hardest position
mentally. It’s also physically difficult, getting balls thrown
at you from all directions, every day. I always go home
with massive bruises and welts, but it’s also so much fun.
This team is like a family away from home. During the
school day, I always look forward to lacrosse practice and
being with my friends.
I love playing on this team. We all hang out together
and help each other out—in school and off the field.
My parents come to all our games—they’re really good
supporters of the team. Our coach is great. She pushes
us really hard in practice and makes us run up and down
the field, over and over, but I have good endurance—it’s
probably the thing I’m best at. Coach Leonard is also
really good at getting us pumped up for games. I admire
her. I also look up to Dwyane Wade, who plays basketball
for the Miami Heat. I like that he’s such a good team
player. He’s not afraid to pass the ball to his teammates
and then go to the basket when he has to.
TOP: Julia Michaels (16). SPECIAL THANKS:
Joseph and Tammy Merrill and Long
Island Motocross. Clyde Worthen and
Tech Judo. Mike Darland and High Dive
Champions. Coach Courtney Leonard,
Scott Reh, John Grossman, Shannon
Handley and the Mount Sinai Athletic
Department. All the kids and parents for
their inspiration and commitment.