Diving
Favorite athlete: Shawn Johnson
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Winning the first AAU National Competition in 26 years in platform diving.”
Music on iPod: “I listen to many different genres and artists. A few of my favorites consist of: Boys Like Girls, Cartel, Goo Goo Dolls, Hit the Lights, Jack’s Mannequin, Jason Mraz, Lil’ Wayne, “Motion City” Soundtrack, Panic at the Disco, Paramore, and The Veronicas.”
Future plans: “To attend a Division I university to compete in diving and major in Sports Psychology.”
Favorite motto: “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.” Ambrose Redmoon
One goal before turning 30: “Travel around Europe and Japan”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I would like to learn to pole vault before I go to college.”
Emily Howard was destined to become a diver.
“My mom told me I was always doing flips on the couch, and she was getting nervous that I was going to break my neck,” the Pennsbury junior said with a laugh. “I was taking swimming lessons at our local pool, and I saw the diving team.
“I was like, ‘Oh look at them – let’s do flips,’ and my mom was having a heart attack because she didn’t want me doing crazy stuff.”
Howard has turned her affinity for flips into a passion for diving, and few do it better than the Pennsbury junior, an AAU National Champion in platform.
This winter, Howard walked away with the gold in the Suburban One League meet, and one week later, received first place honors at the District One meet and earned a berth in the upcoming PIAA meet.
“She’s put in a ton of hours on the diving board every week,” Falcons’ diving coach Stefanie Doctor Shea said. “She’s just extremely dedicated.
“She’s just really good because she has the motivation and puts the time in. She’s a really determined girl.”
As a youngster, Howard was involved in gymnastics and soccer. She gave up both in favor of diving.
“I was a dancer for nine years, and I really liked it, but I had to quit that for diving,” she said. “I excelled at diving, so I decided to stick with it.”
Howard has been diving competitively since she was nine years old, joining the Lower Makefield Township Swim Club diving team the winter after her first swimming lessons. It was not the best of beginnings.
“I had two coaches who were high school age, so they didn’t trust me much, and they didn’t think I had a lot of potential,” Howard recalled. “My first year was a little rough.”
It didn’t take long for coaches to pick up on the fact that Howard was a special talent, and by the time she was 10, Howard was diving for Liberty Diving – a Junior Olympic team that practices at Central Bucks South and the University of Delaware.
Her resume is an impressive one. Howard is a nine-time East National Qualifier, a two-time Speedo Junior National Qualifier, an eight-time AAU All-American and an AAU National Champion on platform.
Howard dives competitively with her Junior Olympic team from early September until mid-August. She estimates that she spends close to two-and-a-half hours a day in the pool five days a week working on her diving. She also has regular workouts at the gym with a personal trainer.
Howard has been an impact diver since she joined the Falcons’ varsity as a freshman, finishing second in both leagues and districts and earning a berth in states.
“She’s had a ton of improvement, but since her freshman year, she’s been very good,” Shea said.
Last year, Howard also finished second in both leagues and districts.
“Winning districts this year was big because I have been waiting two years to win it,” she said. “Last year, it was a disappointment, but this year was awesome. I was so happy to win after working so hard.”
Hard work is one reason Howard is an elite diver. Mental toughness is another, and Howard admits that even after all her success, she endured a difficult stretch that she has worked her way out of only recently.
“I was having a lot of trouble doing my dives,” she said. “Dives I have been doing my whole diving career – I was having trouble doing it. I would get it in my head that I couldn’t do it, that my body wasn’t capable even though I know outside the pool that I’m totally capable of doing a lot.
“I would get on the board, and I would freeze up. I was diving since I was young, and now it’s finally hitting me that sometimes I think I can’t do it even though I have been doing it for so long.”
Diving for Howard – she admits – is over 75 percent mental.
“Getting over the fear factor is probably the hardest thing to do in diving,” she said. “Having the skill is really important, but having the courage to do it is even more important.
“I’m coming out of a really hard break. It’s been very mental for the past year, year-and-a-half, and I’m finally getting out of it. It’s all mental, all mental”
Howard credits her coaches, family and friends for helping her through that difficult stretch.
“I was freaking out – ‘What am I going to do? It’s my junior year. It’s really important,’” she said. “It’s important for me to know I have to be calm about it and not be so hard on myself.
“A lot of people have the skill. You know in your mind that you know where to come out, you know your spots, and you know that you’re capable of doing the dive. Everything is mental. It’s been hard, but I’m finally getting through it.”
Howard’s strong showing in leagues – her 424 was almost 40 points better than her next closest competitor – and districts suggests that the slump is behind her.
“She’s using the board better,” Shea said. “She’s able to get a lot more height and is able to control the bottom of her dives – her entries – better.
“She has a lot of degree of difficulty, especially for a younger girl. She does a lot of dives that are even hard for some of the boys to do.”
The junior standout is looking to have a strong showing at states.
“Hopefully, I’ll have a good meet,” she said. “I have had off meets and been a little shaky in the past. This year I’m going in stronger than I have the past couple of years. My goal is to medal this year.”
A top eight finish would allow Howard to achieve her goal, and she admits that diving has pretty much consumed her life.
“This is everything,” she said. “I put my whole life into this.
“I like to see my friends when I can, but I spend most of my time at the pool.”
Howard manages to find time to hold down a job – she has been working at Cosi on weekends and during the summer for a year.
Even more impressive is the fact that Howard also excels academically. She takes all honors classes, boasts a 4.3 GPA and is ranked in the top 50 in her class.
Her goal is to one day have a career as a sports psychologist. For now, there’s the little matter of finishing out a stellar season at this weekend’s state tournament.
“She’s gone to states all three years, and that’s extremely impressive,” Shea said. “She just has so much diving experience.
“She’s very helpful with the other divers and is always willing to help them out. It’s just a ton of experience to bring to the team at a young age, and it’s just a great addition to our team.”
