Rylie Darkatsh makes a splash: See how the Stanton senior is diving toward FHSAA history

Stepping to the edge of the diving board on a warm Monday by the Grand Park pool, Rylie Darkatsh measures her position and launches skyward. Again and again and again.

How does a self-described "clumsy kid" end up with a place of her own in Jacksonville high school diving record books?

Practice, practice, practice. That's just the way she likes it.

"Everything always drew me back to diving," she said. "I always kind of had an inner feeling that that was for me."

One bounce off the springboard at a time, the Stanton senior and three-time Sunshine State champion is chasing diving history at next month's Florida High School Athletic Association championships in Ocala.

The Class 2A champion in 2020, 2021 and 2022, she's aiming to become only the second athlete in Northeast Florida girls aquatics to win the same FHSAA event in four consecutive years, following Bolles' Trina Jackson in the 500-yard freestyle from 1991 to 1994.

Victory would place Darkatsh in golden company: Jackson later won a gold medal as part of the United States' 4x200-meter free relay team at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Until this year, Darkatsh didn't know just how rare her run of three-year aquatic success really was.

"It definitely blew my mind when I heard that," she said. "I was kind of overwhelmed."

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STARTING WITH A SPLASH

For Stanton diving coach Andy Feierstein, accomplished high school divers often come to the sport from a gymnastics or dance background. Darkatsh's road to the springboard was different: She started out as a swimmer before her diving interest took root.

"My swim coach noticed me diving off the blocks and kind of recognized that I could have the qualities to be a good diver, then recommended me to a diving club in town and I've never stopped since," she said.

She began diving at club level a decade ago, and depending on the competition schedule, she said she still trains up to five times a week at her Atlantic Coast Diving Jax program on Jacksonville's Southside in addition to her diving for Stanton.

Multiply 200 turns off the board per club session, times up to five days per week, times year after year after year…

"It's a lot of diving," she said.

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All that repetition has helped her overcome one of her main obstacles from the early years: balance. For a diver, balance is almost everything.

"I feel like that was something that didn't come naturally to me," she said. "I was kind of always a clumsy kid and I think I still kind of am."

What does come naturally is the right mental approach. Whatever the numbers on the scoreboard, Stanton's Feierstein said, Darkatsh stays focused on her own dives and her own technique.

"Her attitude is what really gets her through a lot of things," he said.

FOUR IN A ROW?

While swimmers have captured the shark's share of aquatic achievements on the First Coast, divers in Northeast Florida can claim their own winning tradition, including a fourth-place finish at the 1996 Olympics -- two points from the bronze medal -- for Orange Park's Melisa Moses.

It's a history that Darkatsh initially didn't expect to join.

"I never even thought I could win freshman year, let alone go on to possibly win four," she said.

Darkatsh first paved her road to the potential four-peat in the fall of 2020, when she brought home her first FHSAA trophy. At Sailfish Splash Aquatics Center in Stuart that year, she leaped to a breakthrough championship with 378.70 points, a winning margin of eight ahead of Pine Crest's Kaylee Greenberg.

She followed up with 428.75 points in 2021 and 430.85 in 2022, pulling ahead of the field by more than 50 points each time. By now, she's a solid contender to join Florida's list of four-time girls diving champions, all while representing a school that's far more noted for its achievements in the classroom than for its athletic accolades.

Stanton developed back-to-back girls diving champions a decade ago in Lizzie Tillo and Caroline Gerhardt, but Darkatsh's record of four-year consistency has raised the program to a new standard.

Four-time girls diving champions in Florida form a short list in FHSAA records: Mary Hoerger (Miami Beach, 1937-40), Cherie Hammond (Winter Garden West Orange, 2007-10), Patti Kranz (Westminster Academy, 2007-10) and Joel Lenzi (Pine Crest, 1956-59).

"I've been coaching over 38 years and I've had a couple of state champions, but never a person who had four," Stanton swimming coach Bob Fleming said. "I never thought I would, either. I thought that would kind of be for [80-time state champion] Bolles coaches and stuff."

SOARING AT STANTON

Success at Stanton means putting in some serious mileage between her home, her club and her school team.

A home-schooled student in Stanton's program — under Florida law, home-schooled athletes are able to participate with eligible FHSAA schools, a policy that gained particular prominence during Tim Tebow's football heyday at Nease — Darkatsh earned her team's vote as a captain for the Blue Devils.

"We have one of the bigger dive teams [at Duval County schools] and I think a lot of that has to do with Rylie," Fleming said. "They see her success and have an opportunity to mirror that and be like that. Even though our academic load is what it is, you can reach the heights."

During a typical Monday training session at Grand Park, Darkatsh took turns bounding from the board with teammates Mounia Ahouanto and Hkawn Ja, talking and discussing their dives.

She said she relishes the team spirit on Stanton's team, which also includes several regional contenders in the swimming events.

"Honestly, it's probably my favorite part of diving, especially at Stanton, because everybody's been so welcoming and so inclusive of everybody," she said. "I really appreciate having a team that always has my back. It's an individual sport but we all need each other and support each other."

LOOKING BACKWARD

The often-intimidating backward dives, Darkatsh said, have helped her keep her career moving forward.

"I love going backwards," she said. "Anything backwards, back one-and-a-half, back doubles, back two-and-a-half, those are my favorite."

Her preference for the backward dives, she said, has developed over time. It's part of the process of learning and mastering new skills in a sport where gravity is undefeated.

"I'd say the biggest challenge is mental struggles, because overall I'd say diving is a very fearful sport," she said. "You have to overcome a lot of mental challenges to get off the board and do those new things. That's definitely been a challenge for me to kind of push myself farther than I think I can go."

She's hoping to continue diving in college, although she's still evaluating her options at the next level. Her goal, she said, is to determine her college destination later this fall.

Before then, she's getting ready for a new destination for the state championships. This year, the FHSAA moved those finals from Stuart to the Florida Aquatics Swimming and Training center in Ocala. For Darkatsh, it's a new venue and a new challenge.

"Every board is different," she said. "But at the same time, as long as I can get back into the zone of what I know I can do, I'm sure I'll be fine."

Meanwhile, the countdown to the Class 2A finals on Nov. 3 continues. The parade of dives continues. Maybe, in about a month, she could be writing a new chapter of Jacksonville sports history.

"The biggest thing is just to relax and trust myself," she said. "Sometimes I think it's easy to kind of work harder than I have to, because I'm nervous or whatever. So if I just learn to take deep breaths, relax and treat it like any other meet, that's when I perform my best."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Rylie Darkatsh: Stanton College Prep senior chases FHSAA diving title