Smyrna Sharks take a bite out of the competition

After a solid regular season, the Smyrna Sharks dive team recently took the Greater Atlanta Dive League Division B championship title at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center.

The team of about 50 divers took the crown after completing a 4-1 season in which they competed against teams from throughout metro Atlanta. The Smyrna Sharks, who practice at , used combined points from the season’s meets to earn the GADL championship.

The Smyrna Mayor and City Council will honor the team at next Monday's city council meeting.

Addie Howser, 14, explained what it felt like to win the GADL title.

“We were all really, really excited and proud of ourselves, and our coaches,” she said. “Our coaches were really excited for us. We were really grateful.”

Kristen Sudduth, Howser’s mother and a Smyrna Sharks’ team mom, was happy the hard work had paid off for the divers and coaches, including Katelyn Perry and Stevie Vines.

“They work really hard,'' said Sudduth. "We were really excited for their coaches because they work hard for these kids. They work with these kids every morning they are there. It’s a commitment for the coaches.”

Vines is a Westminster Schools alumnus who now competes on Princeton University’s dive team. He has been working with the Smyrna divers since he was in high school and has watched the team grow over the years.

“In our first year, we maybe had 15 kids total,” he said. “And now we have, I don’t know how big the roster is, but I think it was 50 or maybe even more. We’ve grown a lot.”

He explained that one of the biggest challenges is keeping the kids focused.

“It’s a lot of organization in terms of we have a lot of kids at practice,” he said. “A lot of times kids will be working on a lot of different things and it’s just a matter of paying attention to what each kid is doing. Sometimes I have kids go over to the side of the pool and we’ll work on new things to keep the line shorter because we only have one one-meter board. But it’s been a lot of fun.”

The Smyrna Sharks are comprised of kids between ages 4 and 18. The kids practice one hour a day, five days a week and teammates compete against other divers in their age groups. The Smyrna Sharks could be in line to win more championships in the years to come as Vines explained that some of the team’s younger divers are already showing natural talent.

“The six and under age at the championships really helped us win our division this year because we got first place in both events, boys and girls,” he said.