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Sports

Injury prompted senior diver to develop skills on board

by LOURDES CASTILLO
The Daily Cougar

Senior diver Rachel Gitelson had a goal -- to participate in the Olympics as a gymnast. After an injury prevented her from achieving her dream, she stumbled into diving. 

Gitelson practiced gymnastics eight years before doctors realized there was no blood flowing to a bone in her leg. It was too late to do surgery, so she had to wait until the injury healed itself. 

She tried swimming her freshman year at Ironwood High School in Glendale, Ariz., but she found more success on the diving board. At the age of 16, Gitelson launched her diving career.

"I tried swimming my freshman year in high school but I sucked so bad that the swimming coach was like, ‘Maybe next year, try diving,--" Gtelson said. "So I tried diving and loved it." 

The coaching staff at UH and the appeal of a big city attracted Gitelson to Houston. 

"The diving team is so small that you are with the coach and the team 24/7, and it just makes a difference to have someone who cares about you, not just diving, but as a person," she said. "I love Houston--s downtown -- especially at night, it looks so cool."

Gitelson was born in North Carolina but lived there for less than a year. She lived in Pennsylvania for eight years before moving to Arizona. 

"I liked living on the East Coast and then the West Coast. (Living in different places) opens your mind to different kinds of people," she said. "People in Texas are so friendly. I say ‘ya--ll-- now, and they make fun of me in Arizona."

The transition to college life wasn--t always easy for Gitelson, though.

Before beginning college, Gitelson said she had never been on her own. She remembers setting off a fire alarm her first week living on campus at UH. She had put a pizza in the microwave, hopped in the shower and ended up cooking the pizza for too long. 

"The hallway smelled so bad for two weeks," Gitelson said. "It was really hard having to feed myself and do my own laundry. I thought it was going to be really easy and fun, but school turned out to be the easiest. It got better, though."

Diving has been more of a success story for Gitelson.

The UH diving captain finished 12th on the platform with 391.55 points at the 2005 NCAA championships after capturing the top spot on the platform at the NCAA Zone D Diving Championship to qualify during her sophomore year. 

"To be a Div. I diver means the world to me," she said. "That started to be my goal more -- to do well in college and participate in the NCAA (championships). I went sophomore year and I hope to go again this year."

Gitelson said there was a point in her diving career when she contemplated quitting. She hit her head on the diving board in January 2006 during a competition, and she wasn--t sure if she wanted to keep diving after that. 

"I talked to one of the counselors here and she asked me, ‘Is diving something you have to do or something you want to do?-- That was two or three weeks after it happened and it really hit me that it was something I wanted to do," she said. "I kept thinking it was my senior year and maybe I didn--t need to do it anymore. I competed again this year and I was so nervous."

Gitelson hasn--t had much time to seek an internship or obtain a job related to her finance studies. That will be one of her priorities as soon as the 2006-07 season ends in March and when she graduates in December 2007.

"I like it here (in Houston). I might stay here after school," she said. "Hopefully I--ll get an internship over the summer and then a job after that. I want something with good hours so that I can have a life as well."

Gitelson said she will be happy to be a "regular student" for one semester after the 2006-07 season ends. 

"I look forward to it very much," she said. "It will be nice to come to school and do what I like to do. I love diving, but it will be that little bit of time before I actually have to work. I--m looking forward to starting the next part of my life."

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