Junior diver Josh Howell at Oviedo High School has found his niche. This past week he put together his most impressive dive score in his career. Spectrum Sports 360 reporter Despina Barton explains how his passion to do tricks led him to the pool and all the success on the board:

• Josh Howell picked up diving three years ago as a freshman at Oviedo
• He always had a passion for doing flips
• Registered his highest score last week in a quad meet in Seminole County

Josh Howell sets up his board, marches up and begins his warm-up routine. He spends five days a week in the pool.

“I like the feeling that I get when I just land in the water perfectly and I just come out of the water with a big smile on my face,” Howell explained.

That’s the payoff for the countless hours the Oviedo diver spends working on his technique.

“Everything has fallen into place,” Lions diving coach Brittany Sanders said. “I think he’s learned some maturity and his body control and stuff has just skyrocketed.”

The junior hit a personal best last week in a meet against Seminole, Lake Mary and Hagerty—scoring 289 points on six dives.

“Anywhere from 170 to 200 is an average score for a 6-dive lift,” Sanders explained. “They have to cover all the five categories; forward, back, inward, reverse and twist. And he doesn’t seem to have any weaknesses so his degree of difficulty in every category has allowed him to put up those huge numbers.”

“I like to challenge myself and try and learn new tricks, learn new dives,” Howell said.

And he showed them off nailing one of his toughest dives, a forward 2 ½ end pike forward.

While most divers have a background in gymnastics for josh his passion to perform on the diving board actually stems from a childhood toy.

“I’ve always liked to flip so I got a trampoline in probably in the sixth grade and I kind of taught myself how to do flips,” Howell explained.

It’s translated to success. In just three years; Howell has significantly increased his scores and created a name for himself within the diving community.

“There’s a lot with Josh of that’s not a dive he likes to fly and spin and do crazy things but I knew the moment I saw him leave the board we had gold,” Sanders said of first seeing Howell on the diving board.

Josh reached the state finals the last two seasons and placed 8^th last year. He hopes to land atop the podium this year while attracting the eyes of college coaches. The Oviedo swim and dive team is undefeated so far this season.