Diving in
High School
A guide for Tri-Valley families on how high school diving works, and how club training fits with it.
Plenty of families come to us with a simple question: my child wants to dive for their high school, so what does that actually take? It is a fair question, and it is not something most schools explain.
High school diving has its own season, its own format, and its own demands that look very different from the year-round club world. This page walks through how it works in our area, what a diver needs to be ready for, and how training at Tri-Valley Divers fits alongside the high school team.
How high school diving works
In California, diving is part of the high school swim and dive team, and it is a spring sport. The season runs roughly from mid February through early May. Divers are members of the swim team, they earn points for the team at meets, and they follow the same competition calendar.
A few things surprise families the first time.
1-meter only
High school competition happens on the low board. The 3-meter board and platform are not part of the high school season, though some invitationals allow 3-meter. This is one reason 1-meter skill is the focus of our High School program.
A short season
The high school season lasts about four months, and dual meets start within weeks of the first practice. Divers who arrive with a list already built spend the season competing instead of learning from scratch.
Run by the CIF
The California Interscholastic Federation sets the rules. Livermore-area schools, along with the rest of the Tri-Valley, compete in the CIF North Coast Section.
The dive list and how meets are scored
High school diving is scored like all diving: each dive earns a raw score from the judges, multiplied by the dive's degree of difficulty, totaled across the diver's list. What changes between meets is how many dives are required.
The regular-season list.
In a dual meet, a diver performs six dives: one voluntary and five optional. The list must include at least one dive from each of the five groups: forward, back, reverse, inward, and twisting. This is the format divers see most weeks during the season.
Where the season is decided.
League, section, and state championships require a much longer list, traditionally eleven dives covering all five groups. Championships also run in a preliminary, semifinal, and final format, with divers cut after each round.
Why we train year-round.
A full championship list means learning solid dives from every group, including reverse, inward, and two twisting dives, and doing them well enough to score. Building that list in the few months of one high school season is very hard. Divers who train year-round come into the season with the list already built.
For how a meet runs on the day, how scoring works in detail, and how to register, see Diving Meets 101.
From dual meets to the state championship
For divers in our area, the road to the postseason runs through the East Bay Athletic League and the CIF North Coast Section. The general path looks like this.
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Dual meets and Invitationals
Run through the spring. Dual meets are the 6 dive format, Invitationals are 11 dive format.
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League Championships
The first Championship meet. Divers in the Tri-Valley generally compete in the East Bay Athletic League.
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North Coast Section Championships
The top divers from the North Coast Section must qualify to compete. The top 4 divers advance to States.
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CIF State Championships
Held in Clovis at the end of the season, the top high school meet in California.
Curious where your diver fits?
The fastest way to know is one practice. Coach Logan or Coach Monte will give you an honest read.
The high school team and the club
A common worry: does training with a club compete with diving for the high school? It does not. They fit together, and the divers who do best almost always do both.
The high school season is short, springboard-only, and team-scored. Year-round club training is where the actual development happens: the mechanics, the dive list, the consistency, and the meet experience that a four-month season has no time to build.
Club training is where the development happens. The high school season is where it shows.
Our High School program trains divers on the 1 meter board they will compete on, builds the full list they need for championships, and keeps them training through the rest of the year so they do not lose ground in the long off-season.
From a TVD diverTraining with Tri-Valley Divers changed my whole high school season. The technical coaching gave me a consistency I never had, and I had the best season of my life, qualifying for sections for the first time. I wouldn’t have gotten there without the foundation TVD gave me.
Brooke, High School program diver
How our High School program prepares divers
Our High School program is built for athletes ages 14 and up, with strong grade 7 and 8 divers qualifying as well. It is designed around exactly what high school competition asks for.
Training on the board they compete on.
Practice centers on the 1-meter board high school divers actually compete on, so the work translates directly to meets, no guesswork about how a dive will hold up under competition.
A complete dive list, built properly.
We develop dives across all five groups and assemble the longer championship list one solid dive at a time. We refine before we advance, because a polished list holds up under meet pressure and a rushed one does not.
Consistency and competition readiness.
The difference between a good practice diver and a good meet diver is repeatability. That is what we train, the ability to deliver the same clean dive when it counts.
3-meter development for divers who are ready.
High school is springboard-only on 1-meter, but we build 3-meter skills for divers continuing past the season. It widens what they can do, and opens the path to college diving.
Families choose two or four practices per week. New divers get their first class free.
Thinking beyond high school?
For some divers, high school is the finish line, and that is a great place to land. For others, it is a step toward diving in college. If that is a question in your house, here is where to read next.
Prepare for your season
High school dive season starts in February. Preseason training starts now. Divers train with our coaches on dryland, the boards, the rope spotting system, the bubbler and video replay, and build their dive list before the first meet.
Read Getting Ready for High School Dive Season on our blog.
Curious where your diver fits?
The fastest way to know is one practice. Coach Logan or Coach Monte will work with your diver, talk with you afterward, and give you an honest read on what they're seeing.
Last reviewed: June 2026. CIF and CIF North Coast Section rules, including championship dive counts and qualifying standards, change periodically; verify specifics against current rules for your diver's season.