Mountain Pointe dive team: 'Outhouse to penthouse'

Until a couple of weeks ago Julie Hernandez had never stood on a diving board.

She wasn’t even a swimmer.

But she was a good friend of Spencer Thompson and that was enough of a reason for the Mountain Pointe High School junior to try out for the Pride diving team.

Until he graduated last spring, Thompson was a four-year starter on the Pride boys’ soccer team and set the football record for the longest field goal, 54 yards, in school history as a walk-on kicker last season.

He was the second star in the Thompson family. Before Spencer there was his older sister, Paige, an all-city, all-region and all-state diver who won the state championship as a Mountain Pointe sophomore in 2000.

After she graduated in 2002 she accepted scholarship to dive for UCLA.

This spring Paige was graduating from college at the same time her brother was graduating from high school and she wanted to come back to Mountain Pointe.

Spencer lined her up with swim coach Steve Mancuso and athletic director Ian Moses, then went to his friends to round up dive team prospects for his sister.

“I was really good friends with Spencer,” Hernandez said, “and he talked me into coming out.”

Paige started tryouts with two divers, including D.J. Payne who dove as a freshman, but that has expanded to eight prospects.

“Almost every day a new face pops up who wants to learn how to dive,” Thompson said. “Most of our divers don’t have any experience, but they’re learning very quickly.”

Mountain Pointe was spotting other teams a minimum of 15 to 20 points they could have earned in meets if they had a coach and dive team last year.

“Obviously, last season was a bad year for us because we needed a dive coach,” Moses said. “We tried everything. Now we’ve gone from the outhouse to the penthouse. We’ve gone from not even having a diving program last year to having a Pac-10 diver as our diving coach and someone who has the ability to coach.”

Paige had hoped to return to Phoenix after she graduated and Mancuso had asked her brother what she thought she would be doing this fall.

“I knew I was coming back but I didn’t have any plans,” Paige said. “Steve and I e-mailed back and forth and it worked out that I got the job. I love coaching so it worked out perfectly.”

Thompson had been helping out with a recreation dive team at UCLA and was an assistant dive coach.

“It’s great to come back to my school,” she said. “The same coaches (Mancuso and his sister, Lisa) that I had are still here, so it was like coming home. I’m having a blast.”

Some of Thompson’s divers came from her brother’s friendly persuasion and the rest from word getting around the school.

“Some of them are swimmers who decided to come over and try diving,” she explained.

Her age and being a Mountain Pointe graduate allows her divers to relate, Moses said.

“You can put her in any company and she is going to be able to communicate, and that’s typical of the Thompson kids,” Moses added. “It takes a lot of heat off of me and, even though Steve is a very positive person, he was in a very tough situation last year.”

Thompson said she plans on going into the education field.

“I’d like to teach biology,” she said, “and they have some great teaching opportunities in California. I’ve been doing some coaching at Santa Monica College, but I’d still like to come home again.”

Without a dive program and the points that event can earn in meets, the Pride girls’ team still finished fourth in the state championship. The boys were 19th.

In the past, Mountain Pointe, Desert Vista and even Tempe Corona del Sol have shared a diving coach.

Mancuso credits Moses for pulling off the Thompson deal.

“It took a lot of work, but Mr. Moses got it done,” Mancuso said. “He was pitching for each school to have their own diving coach and we’re excited about having Paige back home again.”

Larry Ward can be reached at (480) 898-7915 or lward@aztrib.com.