By ROY HESS
Staff Writer
Nico Alvarez finds himself in quite an elite position as he prepares for this week’s UIL state swimming & diving meet in Austin.
The Brownsville Veterans Memorial diver is one of only several Rio Grande Valley athletes advancing to state in Class 5A.
Actually, he’s the only one from Brownsville making the trip this year.
“There’s a little bit of pressure (being the only one from Brownsville), but I’m also very honored to be going,” said Alvarez, a junior who started competing in diving when he was a sophomore. “My goal at state is to beat my (school) record that I have right now and do the best that I’ve done this whole (school) year.”
Alvarez won last month’s 1-meter diving event at the District 32-5A meet in Brownsville with a 339.30 score. He then qualified for state by placing second with a 368.90 score at the Region VIII-5A meet Feb. 2 in Corpus Christi.
He’s seeded eighth out of 21 divers in his event going into state competition, which starts Friday and runs through Saturday at the University of Texas Swimming Center. The top eight finishers in Austin earn first-team all-state recognition.
“I’m very satisfied with how my season has gone,” Alvarez said. “I expected to do well, but I didn’t think I’d do this well. I’m very proud of myself. I was semi-confident (going into regional competition) that I was going to advance to state (as one of the top three finishers in my event). But when I found out the news that I finished second and I was going to Austin in two weeks, I was really excited.”
Alvarez is one of only two 5A male divers going to state from the Valley. The other one is Sharyland Pioneer’s Marc Rodriguez, who took third at the regional meet with a 328.10 score and is seeded 12th at state.
“I’m very proud of Nico,” said Frank Sanchez, the Brownsville Veterans swimming coach. “It’s a first for a Veterans diver to qualify for state, and he’s seeded eighth, which is great.”
Alvarez actually is coached by Mark Schlatter, the Brownsville ISD diving coach who has held the position since November 2017.
Schlatter, too, is pretty thrilled to see Alvarez make it to state as a junior.
“It’s great because you see the potential in athletes like Nico, and you think that he is one who could possibly make it (to state),” the diving coach said. “He’s buckled down and focused on really improving. His biggest thing has been, not that he could do new dives, but that he’s gotten very consistent with the dives that he’s been doing already. He’s not up and down with his scores.
“This past regional meet was the best that he’s ever dove, and there was really no dropoff, no big mistakes,” Schlatter added. “Knowing that there was pressure to go to state, he (still) went out and broke his own school record, so that was great. Last year, he was (just) in the running (to go to state), but this year, he really separated himself from the other divers.
“Nico is very athletic and he’s very flexible. Some people just have a natural fluidity to their movement, and he does. He comes out of a dive and it just looks smooth, it just looks neat, so it’s a natural ability that he has.”
Alvarez credits his background in gymnastics for helping him do well in diving. He started participating in gymnastics as a sixth-grader after school.
“I think what I’ve learned in gymnastics has been the basis for what I’ve learned as a diver,” he said. “I don’t think I’d ever be in this sport of diving if I hadn’t gone into gymnastics.
“In high school, I wanted to do a sport that was like gymnastics,” he added. “When the (2016) Olympics were going on, all I would watch (on TV) was either gymnastics or diving. It made me become interested in any sport that I could do flipping or anything like that. The closest thing to it (offered in high school) was diving. After a few practices, it became very interesting to me and I really got into it.”
Alvarez’s focus at the moment is preparing to do his best at the state meet. He’ll be going up against some All-American competitors who boast diving scores that rank among the best nationally.
More than anything, this first-time trip to state figures to be a learning experience for the future for him as he pursues a college scholarship in his sport.
“If I could finish in the top eight, it would be awesome to end my junior season like that,” he said. “I think it would prove to me that I’ll have another year to practice, work harder and maybe even even get a medal next year.”