Hope's Abby Koops building strength as champion diver
GRAND RAPIDS - After a breakout season as a freshman at Hope College, Abby Koops proved to be the best diver in the MIAA.
As a sophomore, she has shown no signs of slowing down, once again claiming the MIAA Most Valuable Diver award after sweeping both springboard events at the conference championships for a second consecutive year.
Her points were huge in Hope claiming a three-peat MIAA title as a team.
"She wants it. She wants to be here and loves to celebrate the sport with the family we have created in our diving team," Hope coach Rebecca Garza. "She has passion for the sport, she has been doing it a long time and her training is really improving this year, working on fine-tuning the details."
The biggest one has been her strength.
Koops, a Forest Hills Northern graduate, had the finesse part down as a freshman, but it was her strength that was a little behind.
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"This year, I have really focused on my mechanics and my strength on the boards. Last year, I noticed I wasn’t jumping as high as other people, and I have really been focused on that," Koops said. "Lifting has been big. It is a big difference between last year and this year. I am getting more height and more power through the board. Even though I didn’t learn a ton of new dives, I think my strength helped me get my mechanics better and clean up a lot of things."
It worked as Koops dominated the MIAA for a second year in a row.
"It means so much. I am so thankful for it. My coach and teammates are basically my family. I wouldn’t be here without them. It means a lot," she said.
Now, Koops will head with a couple of teammates to the NCAA diving regionals in Chicago as she aims to qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships in March.
"It is going to take hard work. I have to stay focused on my dives and not get distracted, and stay in the zones. I just focus on one dive at a time, I start thinking about my next dive," she said. "It is a tough thing to do, but it is really important. That has really helped me get to where I am."
And where she is, continues to elevate.
"She is capable of a lot. She sees that a lot more the more she trains," Garza said. "Regionals is a great exposure to see who else is in the nation. That exposure drives her training."
Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hope's Abby Koops building strength as champion diver
