Monroe junior defies the odds to become quality diver

Published 9:45 pm Friday, November 4, 2016

MONROE — The odds are stacked firmly against Monroe diver Payton Leidholm.

She attends a school that lacks both a dive team and a home pool deep enough for diving. She receives much less practice time than her competitors from other schools. She doesn’t have her own diving coach. She’s been participating in the sport for only seven months. On top of all that, she’s not long removed from a significant injury.

And yet, the Monroe junior is blossoming into a talent.

Leidholm, the first and only diver in school history, is set to compete in the Class 4A District 1 finals on Saturday at the Snohomish Aquatic Center. And though it may be a stretch for a first-year diver like her, a top-three finish would qualify Leidholm for the Nov. 11-12 state championships at the King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way.

“Her skill level is really good for the amount of time that she gets on the diving board,” said Snohomish/Glacier Peak diving coach Marc Hughes, who has served as one of Leidholm’s primary coaches in the absence of a diving coach at Monroe. “I firmly believe that if she was like any of the other teams who get to practice five times a week, she’d probably be at a state level in her first year.”

Before taking up diving, Leidholm was a dedicated gymnast who competed for a club team in all four events — bars, beam, floor and vault. She’d been doing gymnastics since about age 5.

“It was really important to me for a long part of my life,” Leidholm said.

But two years ago, Leidholm suffered a stress fracture in her back. At first, she tried to ignore the pain. Yet the fracture kept getting worse, to the point where Leidholm was forced to give up her longtime passion.

“It just kind of built up more and more,” Leidholm said. “So I finally decided that I needed to quit, because it was too much stress on my body. That was really hard for me, because I didn’t get to see my team. I tried to go back and do it, but it just didn’t work.”

But as one door closed, another opened. Leidholm began diving in April and took part in a training program led by Hughes, who also is the Snohomish Aquatic Center diving coordinator.

“I needed a new sport and I knew that (gymnastics) transfers over because of the flips,” Leidholm said. “I wasn’t so excited about it at first, but my mom pushed me to do it. And it’s worked out really well.”

Initially, one of Leidholm’s biggest challenges was overcoming her fear of re-injury.

“She was a little bit timid doing another sport where you’re expected to flip and turn,” Monroe swim coach Haley Graham said. “She just had to break down those mental barriers and go for it. It was a long road. She smacked a few times in the water and it kind of gave her a hard time.”

Leidholm has since overcome those barriers, but it’s not something she’s forgotten.

“I definitely do think about my back a lot when I’m diving,” Leidholm said. “I have to make sure that my core is tight all the time, otherwise I’ll get hurt.”

Other than that, what was the biggest transition?

“Probably just getting over the fact that I need to go in the water headfirst,” Leidholm said with a laugh. “That’s the hardest part for me. I can enter the water with my feet first — that feels natural because of gymnastics. But going headfirst in the water, it’s just different.”

Fortunately for Leidholm, she’s been able to draw on her gymnastics background while acclimating to her new sport. Her familiarity with flipping and twisting translates to diving, and her leg strength allows her to get ample air off the board.

“Diving and gymnastics tend to help each other out, so she came in with some already-good skills from her gymnastics background,” Hughes said. “Her skills picked up really quickly, especially for the amount of time that she gets on the diving board.

“My only disappointment is that I can’t get her on the board more frequently,” he added. “She’s made tremendous progress in less than a year.”

While most high-school divers are able to practice five to six days per week, Leidholm is much more limited. The Monroe teams travel to the Snohomish Aquatic Center twice per week, which allows her to dive with the Snohomish and Glacier Peak teams. But aside from that, Leidholm is mostly confined to the Monroe YMCA, which is too shallow for diving.

Yet she still was able to learn at least 11 different dives, the minimum to compete in a championship event such as the district meet.

“For any athlete to come out the first year, put together 11 dives and be able to put all those pieces together quickly is really good,” Hughes said. “And on top of that, she’s picked up on several of the upper-degree-difficulty dives pretty quickly, too.”

Hughes credits that to Leidholm’s work ethic and gymnastics background, but coaches like him also have played an important role. That includes Everett/Cascade coach JoLynne Leitzel-Abbe, in addition to other coaches across the league.

“All the coaches from Wesco have been incredible,” Graham said. “Every time we go to an away meet where they have a dedicated dive coach, they’re always there to help and guide.”

Hughes also praised Graham for her involvement: “I’ve been coaching for almost 30 years, and I have never seen a head coach from a program that doesn’t have a diving program actually come out and sit at (diving) practices.”

Though Leidholm is focused on the postseason right now, she’s looking forward to heading into next fall with a full offseason of training.

“I’m just really excited for next year, because I’m going to have all of this year to work,” Leidholm said. “I feel like I’ll be able to maybe make it to state next year, if I really work hard on it. I’m really close — I just need a couple of harder dives.”

And who knows? Maybe by that time she’ll have a teammate or two.

“I really want other people to start doing it,” Leidholm said, “because it’s a really fun sport.”