Q&A with dive coach Maddy Cook

Coach+Maddy+Cook+uses+her+hands+to+show+a+technique+to+her+divers.

Photo Courtesy of Maddy Cook

Coach Maddy Cook uses her hands to show a technique to her divers.

Q: How do you like coaching? 

A: I enjoy coaching a lot this year, having

teammeates that I played with last year too is

also cool to see.

Q: How does it feel coaching people that 

were your teammates just last year?

A:It does feel a little bizarre coaching players

that I’ve played with last year, but it makes the

coach/player relationship a lot more under

standing and I can relate to them more

Q: What are your hopes for the season?

A: My hopes for the season is to take them as

far as they can go.

Q: What is your favorite part about coach-

ing?

A: My favorite part about coaching is being

able to still be connected to my favorite sports

even though I can not play. I also love being

someone that my players look up to like I did

to my coaches when I swam at AHS.

Q: How is college going for you?

A: I enjoy college a lot but it is nothing com

pared to high school, it is a much more dif-

ferent feeling and can be hard to get used to.

Q: How do you balance your studies having to coach at the same time?

A: I balance my studies and job by working my

school schedule around coaching. The free

time I have in between classes  or before prac-

tice I try to do as much homeowrk as possible

so after  the practices I can just relax.

Q: What do you miss the most abut being a swimmer and diver at AHS?

A: What I miss about being a swimmer and

diver at AHS is being  able to swim and dive

with my friends, and I will miss the team din-

ners that we used to have. I will also miss the

most the difficulty of being a swimmer and

diver during the meets and running back

and forth from being a diver to a swimmer.

Q: How does your previous experience as a swimmer and diver benefit your coaching skills?

A: My previous expierience as a swimmer and

diver benefits my coaching skills by doing

swim for all four of my years so I understand

how things are done and know how to prop-

erly do the moves for diving.

Q: Which part is harder being a coahc or being a swimmer?

A: I think being a coach is a lot easier because

I do not need to worry as much on how good I

do but more on sharing my knowledge about

the sport which is a little easier than tryng to

perform the stunt for diving.

Q: Did you coach any other sports?

A: Yes, I was an assistant coach for lacrosse in

the spring and field hockey in the fall.

Q: How do you as a coach plan to help divers achieve their goals/?

A: As a coach i plan to help them improve

and perfect their dives and help them learn

new dives.

Q: What are the teams strengths and weaknesses?

A: Some of the team’s strengths are that they

all are good divers and really willing to work

hard to improve and their weaknesses are our

numbers. we only have one girl on out team

and that is a little hard on her and I have 2 div

ers that also swim so I don’t always have them

for the full hour of practice so it is hard for

them to learn new dives and improve.

Q: How do you think you will improve over the season after the first meet?

A: I don’t think they did as good as they could

but we will take this dive meet as a learning

experience.