A Note from Our Board

Hi IISD Family Members:

The IISD Staff would like to take a minute, as would be timely at the end of each season, to recognize our Families/Members and our Performers who travel this great path with us throughout the year.

We would like to primarily recognize our community of Athlete Performers.  It’s not easy to accept and embrace all the training requirements and mental/physical disciplines of a refined acrobatic sport such as springboard and platform diving.  In fact, as far as sports go, acrobatic and combat sports require some of the highest levels of mental and physical discipline and training… this has always been the case.  While some sports put their performers through differing physical stresses and strain on the endurance side of things (sports such as swimming/track/wrestling/weight training/etc), few sports expose their performers to the extreme mental challenges that diving presents on a regular basis (catapulting oneself for multiple flips and twists prior to “sticking” the landing).  Our sport requires optimal measures of physical/mental fitness and preparation/training over many years; as well as extreme levels of successful “fear management,” “energy management,” “life balance/time management,” “goal setting/pursuit,” “injury management,” “nutritional care,” “sports psychology preparation,” etc.  In the end, as with almost every sport imaginable… 90% of the preparation efforts may be physical throughout the year, while competition success comes down to 90% mental proficiency at the Championship level of performance. 

Our goal as an organization/school continues to be to prepare our athletes for the Domestic/National and/or International levels of peak performance… that they become comfortable performing on the highest stages the sport may offer each of our students.  As with any organization, we have athletes at different points in their career and different levels of interest/commitment; including beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels of performance.  Our Team Members won the 2025 Junior Region 6 Championships, won the 2025 Junior Zone C Championships, and placed 8th in the USA at the Junior National Championships; including a bronze medal and a gold medal at the event.  Our 2024 Junior International Team Members secured a Bronze medal, 3 gold medals at the Junior World Championships hosted in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.  We had great representation/finalists/results at the 2024 Winter Nationals, culminating in an 11^th place, a 10^th place, a silver medal, and a gold medal; as well as a 8^th Place Team finish.  We participated in the 2025 Senior Nationals, securing a 10^th Place team finish and securing 2 gold medals.  We had a silver medal performance at the 2025 Canada Cup. 

Throughout the course of the year, we continue to bring middle school and high school divers forward in the sport; as well as escort new and young ones through the developmental year in IISD Levels training and assessments.  From lessons to Olympians, the below priorities in the below order are instructed throughout the year, and 1-4 below are specifically taught/assessed through our Levels training. 

Our Priorities:

1. Education
2. Conditioning/Flexibility/Form/Strength
3. Dryland Skills/Drills
4. Water Skills/Drills
5. Water Dives

As in any organization at the National Championship or International Championship level, we also had athletes fall shy of their goals.  Heartbreaking as that may be, we can confidently share that those moments are the ones from which our staff and athletes may learn the most; should we embrace the lessons that present themselves on a difficult day of competition.  Whatever we achieve or do not achieve as an organization, it’s always the case that the athletes going through a rough time do not go through it alone – we ALL go through it.  Each Family Member and Staff Member go through these ups and downs in our own way – yet together.  As usual, each of our IISD Staff representatives remain resolved to play our part in correcting the course with each of our athletes as we move forward and grow in the sport with no loss of enthusiasm.  Whenever we may be derailed from our preferred destination/conquest in competition; we know what needs to be done better and we teach our students to better prepare for their own challenges.  We remain in the business of developing goals and dreams for those under our care.

Two categories that can always be enhanced:  making sure that our kids are dreaming big for their own reasons, and ensuring that our students are accountably training hard towards that end on a regular basis.  Big dreams require big efforts throughout the entire year… they always have.      

We very much thank the many parent volunteers and representatives that help our organization function and thrive in the categories of event hosting/management, apparel services, social media, accounting services, equipment upgrades/maintenance, etc.  Our coaches could do little in these areas without great leadership and help from our Families/Administration.  To our diving families who support our organization, who get our kids to practice, who support our students and coaches on the ups and downs of development in this sport, and who provide/fund opportunities for our kids, THANK YOU!!!

Welcome back to another great year with the IISD! 

Sincerely,

IISD Board