2023-24 Winter High School Sports Preview: Cheney’s Alma Smith hopes to repeat state diving title

Cheney High School’s only diver is someone to keep an eye on during this year’s swim and dive season.

After a year and a half of diving training, Alma Smith won the Washington state diving championship last season and has plans for a repeat performance this season.

Smith, 17, began diving after his aunt noticed him doing some tricks off a board at a public school.

“I was not a swimmer, nor was I interested in water sports,” Smith said. “I did gymnastics and tumbling, so I knew how to do flips on the diving board.”

Taking his aunt’s advice, he joined Inland Empire Diving – the only diving club within 250 miles.

According to Inland Empire Diving head coach Aaron Kilfoyle, many people find diving because of other sports – such as gymnastics and tumbling.

“Then there’s also kids from other extreme sports,” Kilfoyle said. “We tend to be a sport that attracts a lot of adrenaline.”

Soon, Smith found that diving “felt more fun and satisfying” than gymnastics. After picking some skills, Smith quickly advanced to a stage of refinement.

“(Becoming good at diving) either, one, takes a significant amount of training or, two, comes from a natural ability to understand what your body’s doing,” Kilfoyle said. “I think for (Smith), it’s a combination of both, and he’s got the work ethic to make things work.”

Kilfoyle mentioned that Smith watches Instagram and TikTok videos of other divers to see how they dive.

“(Smith) is very ambitious and wants to mimic them, I think,” Kilfoyle said.

Smith’s ambitions extend beyond club and into high school where, after only a year and a half of diving, he took home the state diving title last season.

Cheney started a diving program last season after years of interest and overcoming barriers such as lack of knowledge surrounding the discipline.

“It’s one of those things that when it doesn’t exist in an area, it’s hard to find in an area,” Cheney swim coach Jennifer Hochwalt said. Though the school is trying to grow the program, Smith is currently the only diver.

“It is nice being the only diver because I can be on my own and work on my own thing,” Smith said. “But it’s definitely lonely sometimes because I am disconnected from the swimmers.”

Hochwalt hopes that since Smith does “such a great job” at diving, more people will see him and become interested in giving it a try.

“(Diving) is not a long-standing tradition here,” Hochwalt said. “So, we’re trying to build it.”

Though Hochwalt oversees Smith, and Brynna Janway coaches him for high school, his primary diving coach is Kilfoyle.

“Two hours a week I’m with (Hochwalt), but she’s mostly there to look over what I’m doing,” Smith said. “Most of (my coaching) is (from) clubs.”

During the high school meets, however, Janway will coach Smith.

“This season, really my only expectation is that I win state again,” Smith said. “A secondary goal is to score over 400 points in a single meet, and I’m yet to do that.”

Smith, a junior, is already preparing for his future in diving.

Next stop? Collegiate diver.

“I’m still deciding on which school I want to go to,” Alma said. “I still need to go through that process of getting my name out there to recruiters, but there’s a lot of colleges out there.”

Kilfoyle said that Smith could “easily” dive for an NCAA D1 school. Whichever college Smith chooses, Kilfoyle recognizes what an asset that team will gain.

“We won’t find another (athlete) like (Smith) for a while,” he said.