Ella Houk’s route to Division I diving

Ella Houk’s diving career began like so many others — on the premise that gymnastics and diving have a decent amount in common. Plunging into the pool largely because Roosevelt doesn’t have a gymnastics team, Houk found herself at home in the water.

“My girlfriends told me that I should join the swim team and do diving because it’s just like gymnastics,” Houk said. “I stepped up on the board and immediately fell in love.”

Houk capped her Rough Riders diving career as a two-time state qualifier, placing seventh in Division I as a senior. Moreover, Houk found a sport she wanted to continue for the next four years as she’s set to dive for Division I Marshall University.

“It’s crazy,” Houk said in January. “I never thought I was going to turn out this good or be able to go to college. Like, the other day I was looking back at my old scores and all of that, and I was, like, I’ve come so far since and I never thought I would be here.”

Ella Houk plunges into a new sport

Rough Riders swim and dive coach Corey Spicer knew about Houk before she even got to high school because her younger sister, Sydney, was involved in Kent’s Seariders youth program. The coach also knew gymnasts often make for strong divers.

“If we hear a gymnastics girl is coming to Kent, we know we don’t have the program,” Spicer said. “If we can get them into this pool and on that board, we have no doubt in our mind — with our coaches the last couple years — that we can turn them into high-level divers, and the diving world is small so that is your opportunity.”

Houk was solid from the start.

“She was a natural when she got on the board,” Spicer said. “It’s just how that gymnastics translates over.”

But Houk’s freshman season ended in heartbreaking fashion with a bad gymnastics injury the night before district diving.

“My orbital broke and then I collapsed my nose, so I had to get surgery for that and get that fixed,” Houk said. “I was a little disappointed because I missed out on a great opportunity obviously as a freshman going to districts.”

Houk was determined not to miss any more opportunities, devoting more and more time to diving.

“She’s diving with us,” Spicer said. “She’s diving with [American Flyers Diving] in the offseason, doing 1-meter, 3-meter platform diving. Like, she’s really invested her whole spirit into that diving realm, and we’ve just seen her abilities skyrocket after she did that.”

As a sophomore, Houk surprised herself, coming awfully close to qualifying for state in her district debut. As a junior, Houk recalled being “very nervous” heading into her first state meet. She finished 18th, less than four points shy of making the final round at state.

“In the moment, I just need to calm down, do my dives,” Houk said. “I know what I’m doing. I practice them a million times, and, yeah, just it was kind of easy from there.”

All of which was a perfect springboard heading into Houk’s senior season.

“She just kept that going this summer and this offseason, and we’ve seen her success this year,” Spicer said. “She expects a lot but she works a lot, so she expects it and we have no doubt in our mind that she can do whatever she wants.”

Ella Houk continues a Roosevelt legacy

The Rough Riders have built a legacy in the pool.

Over the past few years, they’ve sent a number of swimmers to state and racked up plenty of league titles. Roosevelt’s divers were at the head of the curve, including Anya Ferner (Eastern Michigan).

When Houk was a freshman, Ferner put up a historic senior season, posting the program’s top score ever and finishing 21st in the state.

“I think having [Anya] there as a leader her freshman year and kind of seeing, ‘Oh, if I can really put some effort into this, where I can get,’ really helped out and got her over there at that AFD program,” Spicer said. “And [it] just really helped jump start her faster than I think she thought she’d be at.”

Houk has returned the favor for the next generation of Rough Riders divers. Indeed, on days when their diving coach had to miss practice, Houk stepped in to help her younger teammates learn basic dives.

“She’s been awesome,” Spicer said. “There’s nothing I can say bad about Ella. She’s always positive. She’s always pushing herself at practice to do new dives, but she’s also a fantastic teammate.”

Entering her senior season, Houk had big goals, including breaking Ferner’s program-record score. Houk did so at the league meet, then set the record once more during district competition.

“She dives, I call it, with elegance,” Spicer said. “When she’s in the air, it’s very smooth. It looks very good on all of her entries.”

In her final competition, at state, Houk strategically front-loaded her dives and executed the strategy to perfection, ensuring she made it into the state finals this time. She was second at the end of prelims, fourth through semis and ultimately finished on the podium in seventh.

“I am a perfectionist and I am super hard on myself,” Houk said. “So even if I do a great dive that’s worth like 6.5, 7, 8, maybe I just always think that it’s not as good as it actually is, and that’s what I have my teammates for and my coaches to support me and just lift me up, get me out of my head, make sure that I am performing well, thinking well, everything like that.”

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