Senior Kamryn Bell has a passion for silks but also diving. This will be Bell’s third year diving and she has been doing silks for over three years. She has influenced freshman Taylor Hill, who has also been doing silks for over three years, to join the diving team as well. Bell and Hill met at their gym, FlipSide Gymnastics. They have been friends for almost two years now.

“Silks really built up that bravery that I didn’t have back when I first started diving,“ Bell said.

Bell’s freshman year, she swam for the girls’ swim team. At the end of her season, however, she realized that she wanted to dive.

“Our team was really struggling because we didn’t have those extra points,” Bell said. “I also decided to start diving because I felt like I would personally enjoy it a little more than swimming. Having a giant background in gymnastics and silks took a part in that interest.”

Silks and diving have some similarities, according to Bell. Diving focuses a lot on core strength and silks focuses a lot on flexibility and arm strength, but you need both skills for diving.

“Silks really keeps me in shape for the diving season,” Bell said. “I quit gymnastics a few years ago, but I still get that ab and arm workout that you need for diving from silks.”

Last year, Bell was the only diver for FHN’s team. Having two divers this year will be a big impact on the swim team’s score. The more divers, the higher the impact on the teams score there is because they are bringing in extra points. It has been two years since there has been more than one diver on the team.

“Diving knocks up the team score a ton,” Bell said. “There has been times where our whole team has won just by the diving points adding on to it. I don’t really think people notice that when they think about swimming.”

Bell and Hill were at their gym and Bell was talking to Hill about diving for the girls’ team because she thought that she would be very good at it.

“Kamryn and I were at silks one day and Kamryn approached me and told me that diving season was starting,” Hill said. “She thought I would be really good at diving and that I should really give it a try.”

Hill is looking forward to learning the new skills when it comes to diving. She has never been on a team sport before so she is happy to be able to be apart of a team for the first time.

“Diving has been very enjoyable,” Hill said. “It is what I expected because I knew how diving was going to work and how long practices were going to be. Kamryn also ran me through some things so that I knew what to do and why.”

Bell and Hill see each other at school almost everyday, and they also see each other at their gym a few times a week.

“Kamryn has a big influence on me, especially since she is older than me, so I look up to her a lot,” Hill said. “In a way, I kind of want to be like her because she pushes herself everyday to do whatever she wants to do. I also see her almost everyday so she is a big influence.”