Tennent All-American Ready to Dive into Sophomore Year

The National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association bestowed William Tennent diver Ian Forlini with the All America honor for his during his freshman year.

Forlini said he was on his way to his sixth period class when he received a text message from his mom and coach, Lisa Forlini, telling him he was named All American. He said it came as a surprise.

“At first it didn’t really sink in until later that night and I was very excited to have received it,” Forlini said. “I just tried to dive to the best of my ability and hoped that it would follow.”

The swim coaches association, a volunteer organization founded in 1934, is comprised of present and former high school swimming, diving, and water polo coaches. The All America Diving selection process begins with a committee of 20 former divers and coaches. The committee watches DVDs that were submitted for consideration.

The committee watches, judges and scores the dives shown on each DVD as if it were a meet. The top 200 divers, 100 boys and 100 girls, are selected after the committee combs through each submission.

Occasionally, Forlini is looked upon to swim in some of his high school meets, breaststroke being his favorite event. He focuses on diving, however, as he trains for both his high school and club teams.

His club team, Centennial Aquatic Club, holds diving practices at LaSalle University. Forlini said he practices more often with his club team due to the better facility. His workouts are generally two and a half hours. He said his mom is OK with him not attending the high school practices.

“She knows that I am practicing, so she allows it,” Forlini said.

CAC diving coach Steve Kuttruff sees a very hard working and self-motivating athlete in Forlini.

"He has a very analytical brain when it comes to looking at a competition and knowing what he needs to do internally..." Kuttruff said. "He does a dive and he sees what the score board says and he is able to calculate what he needs to do... to get the score that he needs."

The CAC training regimen includes a lot of stretching, core work and trampoline work. The divers work on new dives throughout each season, trying to set foundations by December and working towards being ready for competition.

Kuttruff encourages his divers to continuously work on new dives until the athletes are ready to spring into action at meets. He said Forlini will sometimes begin working on a dive a year before its competitive debut.

"It’s probably more me,” Kuttruff said. “I want to make sure that they are put into a very successful environment and I don’t want them to go into competition thinking about a dive. I want them to be able to just compete."

Forlini enjoyed his first high school diving experience. He grew up as a spectator and now is a major contributor to the swimming and diving team.

“My first high school meet was very fun,” Forlini said. “I had always watched them and was excited to finally be in one myself.”

He finds that the competition at the high school and club levels are comparable. He said that, generally, club meets are more competitive because of the number of divers and their training opportunities. However, the district and state meets are also very competitive. Either way, he looks at competitions as new ways to challenge himself.

“In meets, I always strive to just do my best and let the dives control what my score [or] place is.”

Forlini is pleased with his performances as a freshman. He reached his goals and has set new ones for his sophomore year, such as breaking a school record and diving and placing well at the district and state meets.

“I am very excited for my sophomore year,” he said. “I prepare by…giving my best every practice, knowing that there is always something better that I can do.”

Forlini is the third child in a family of aquatic talent. His brother, Connor, will be a senior at Tennent during the 2011-2012 school year. The Panthers rely on him for the 200yd and 500yd freestyle events. Their older sister, Meghan, is a rising LaSalle University junior who specializes in the distance freestyle events.

Kuttruff looks forward to guiding Forlini to further success on the boards.

“He and I are continuing to set goals for the future and we’ll see where it takes us,” he said.