By Shailey Klein
Oak Hall Senior Diver Evie Kelly placed second in the district at last weeks postseason meet, with a score of 400.45. Yesterday, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) released the selection sheets for the regional meets, listing Kelly as the fifth seed in Class 1A Region 1.
Here is A to Z with our girl Evie!
Area diver you enjoy watching? I really enjoy watching a lot of my teammates, especially Kaylee Rowe and Sara Warm, because she’s amazing.
Best pre-meet meal? It kind of depends, I really like to eat chocolate chip pancakes in the morning, so that’s probably a good one. But, if the meet is super early, something more light, maybe just like a bagel.
Coach’s best words of advice? Make the dive.
Dessert? Ice Cream
Entertaining practice? There’s been a lot of entertaining practices. I can’t think of a specific one but any [practice] with Kaylee (Rowe) and Natalie (Saliwanchik) and the whole dive squad together is always a fun time.
Favorite diving moment? After the meet is over and we’re all happy together and Kaylee makes up a cheer and we all jump off the board together, it’s just really fun.
Goals for postseason? I’m going to be competing with my club and be practicing year-round so my goal is to just keep getting new dives and improving.
Helpful tips to keeping composure on meet day? Just be chill and don’t worry too much. It’s just a meet, so it’s not too big of a deal.
Interesting thing about you away from diving? I really like turtles; I’ve liked them my whole life.
Joker on the team? Kaylee (Rowe), for sure.
Keys to success in diving? Stay tight, have good form, don’t be afraid to try new dives.
Least favorite dive? I don’t like my back dive, because I’m not very good at it. It’s not my best one.
Music you listen to? I listen to all different kinds of music. I like chill, happy music.
Netflix or Hulu? Netflix
Other sports? I used to do gymnastics. I did competitive gymnastics for 11 years of my life and then I switched from gymnastics to diving.
Preparations for a big meet include? Staying focused at practice before the meet, having your goals in mind in the weeks leading up to the meet.
Question you would ask your future self? What should I do? What college should I go to?
Relaxing part of your day? I really like coming home after school and after practice, taking a shower, listening to music, and then once I’m done with my homework I can just relax and sit on the couch.
Superstitions? I’m not really very superstitious, but sometimes I have certain little things, like when I did gymnastics, I would wear the same socks everyday for meet day. For diving, this isn’t really a superstition, but it’s something that I do. We have our little “shammies”, which are towels that we dry off with. I’m just really particular about being dried off and I always like to have my shammy with me as like a comfort blanket.
TV show? The Office
Underrated pet? I have a cat and a dog and I feel like a lot of the time dogs get more credit—I love my dog, but sometimes my cat doesn’t get as much credit. But, I love my cat too!
Vacation spot? The Bahamas
What does it mean to you to be an Eagle? To be an Eagle means having a really nice community with a lot of school spirit.
X-rays? I’ve had a lot of x-rays. When I was in fifth grade, I broke my wrist, and then from the time I broke it until eighth grade I had to go back once a month and get x-rays on it and then in eighth grade I had to have surgery on it. So, I’ve had a lot of x-rays.
Your impact to the younger athletes on the team? Hopefully, my impact is good. I try to be really supportive and encourage people to keep going. It will be sad to leave the younger teammates on our team because I’ll miss competing with them.
Zoo animal? Turtles are my favorite animal but I guess they have tortoises in a zoo. I also really like giraffes in the zoo.
Good luck at regionals!