Diving for Success

12/21/2009

By Scott Firman and Brad Diamond
Staff Writers

Photo by Dan Schoeneck

Klinkhammerfinal

Emily Clinkhammer is on a mission to get Jamesville-DeWitt High School's diving teams on the map and she has the tools and knowledge to do it. She has one season of coaching the girls under her belt, but this is her first season as the boys' diving coach.

Ms. Clinkhammer feels she has a strong team this year. She brought the girls to sectionals this past season and she will return as their coach next year. "I couldn't pass up the opportunity to continue coaching at J-D," she says about becoming the boys' diving coach. "I had such a blast coaching the girls' team. They had a very successful season, and it was so much fun to watch them grow and improve," she says.

The difference between the boys and girls teams is clear, says Ms. Clinkhammer. "The boys' team is definitely more openly competitive. While the girls tend to have a quiet intensity about them, the boys are more willing to be upfront about their competitive edge," she says. Since she now has a smaller number of athletes than she had with the girls, she treats the boys more as individuals. However, the boys still do the same pre-season workouts as the girls.

Ms. Clinkhammer says she always has high expectations, but because it's still early in the season she does not want to make any predictions on where the J-DHS Varisty Boys' Swim Team will place in sectionals.

Shawn Thieke, a senior diver, says he is very fond of the new coach and believes the teams can go very far with her at the helm.

Ms. Clinkhammer began swimming her freshman year at Cazenovia High School and continued at Hamilton College in Utica where, as a junior, she became an Honorable Mention All-American and competed in the NCAA Championships. When her own career ended, she decided to coach girls' diving at Union College in Schenectady, a school that she competed against in college. Several of her divers became state finalists and one became an All-American. In the fall of 2008, she moved back to Cazenovia, where she could be closer to her family and coached the New Hartford High School girls' swim team.