Photo by Jamie Plain
Growing up on the lakes of Erie, Pennsylvania, water safety was a necessity for 5-year-old Olivia Esposito. Now, 12 years later, she finds herself about to enter her senior year at Apollo High School (AHS) as possibly the only remaining member of the Owensboro competitive dive team.
“We lived in Erie, Pa. and adopted her from birth,” said Olivia’s mother Richelle. “One of the reasons I put her in lessons is we lived right on the lake — I had to know she could take care of herself.”
And take care of herself, she has. Through diving, Olivia says she has gained self-confidence, made new friends, and continued to improve as a diver.
“The thing that is really cool about her is that she is talented — but, even when she struggles, she just keeps plugging through it,” said Apollo Boys and Girls Swim and Dive Coach Kevin Peveler, who will be taking over the dive team for coach Don Clark. “She’s the kind of athlete that you want. She tries hard…and she’s coachable. She has improved her position every year and even qualified for State this year.”
Olivia relocated to Owensboro from Wyoming her freshman year of high school when her father, Jeff Esposito, accepted the position as general manager of the Owensboro Convention Center and SportsCenter. She has participated in the regional dive competition each of the last three years since joining the AHS dive team, earning a spot at the State competition in Lexington this past February.
“She finished second at region this year, improving her rank from last year,” Peveler said.
“Just to make it to State is an accomplishment, especially for an area that doesn’t have a huge diving program.”
According to Peveler, divers must put in a minimum of four meets to earn a scorable dive meet. Divers then compete at City-County and advance to Regionals. The top two in the region advance to State, with the top 32 advancing from there. Olivia was ranked 39th in the State after the February competition.
“This was the first year I made it to State,” Olivia said. “There was crazy competition.
I’m really excited to go back next year and hopefully be better.”
Olivia has been diving competitively since the age of 12, when her former swim coach made the suggestion to her and her friends. They then became part of a 30-person dive team in a small town of just 30,000. Now, Olivia says, in a town with a population over 100,000, she is part of a small-knit community of just four divers in the Owensboro/Daviess County area, who treat her like family.
“It is competitive diving, but it doesn’t feel competitive because we all feel like one big team,” Olivia said, adding that the level of competitiveness did increase once they advanced to Regionals.
One of the moments Olivia enjoys most about diving is the complete silence that occurs right before the splash.
“It’s not like swim — people timing and screaming. Dive isn’t like that, it’s completely silent,” Olivia said. “Everyone is just looking at you because the scoreboard is usually behind the diving board. And then you do a really cool dive and everyone claps.”
Olivia will begin working towards her senior dive year in the fall, with hopes of competing at State again next year.
“If she continues to make the improvements she has her sophomore and junior year, that is well within her grasp,” Peveler said.
As for the future and diving at the collegiate level, she is unsure.
“I haven’t fully decided if I want to go up to college level yet, but it is in consideration,” Olivia said. “If I am going to continue diving, I would go to UK or U of L. For right now, I definitely want to go into clinical psychology and get my Doctorate. I want to work in a clinic and have more of a research focus and I definitely want to study abroad.”
