About Us/Coaches

OUR CLUB

Kelowna Springboard Diving Club has been around for 15 years. In the beginning, it was a small club with about fifteen athletes and our founder Matt as Head Coach. Throughout the years the club has grown to be able to develop a competitive team that has qualified and gone to 6 BC games and 3 Novice Nationals!
We are very proud to be run by a strong team of women on our Board of Directions and throughout our coaching team.

Our coaches

Head Coach

Christina Unger

Christina has been with KSDC since day one. She was the first athlete to join the program back in 2009 and fell in love with the sport. Coming from a gymnastic background, the transition was natural for her. Over the years, Christina has transitioned from an athlete to a Junior Coach to Head Coach, and she has been our Head Coach for the past 6 years. During her time as an athlete, she competed in multiple BC Games and won the Highest Scoring Dive Female in 2014. Christina is an NCCP Level 2 Certified Coach.
Christina is passionate about coaching with a holistic lens; understanding that diving is not just physical but mental. Christina uses her BA in Psychology to help with this.

COACHES

Senior Coach

Nyah Hedstrom

Nyah joined diving with a strong gymnastics background. She was in gymnastics most of her life but ended up getting injured and not being able to continue. She joined diving and instantly fell in love. She moved directly onto the competitive team where she dove for 3 years. Nyah is an NCCP Trained Competitive Introduction coach who has been a coach for a few years and is loving every minute of it. A highlight of her diving career was going to the 2020 BC Winter Games in Fort St. John.

Leia Berman

Zoe Hsu

Leia was a national-level diver for 10 years with Revolution Diving in Manitoba. She represented Team Manitoba at the 2022 Canada Summer Games, where she helped earn a bronze medal in the team event. Following her successful junior career, she received a diving scholarship to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as an NCAA Division 1 athlete. Unfortunately, due to injury, she was unable to compete and made the difficult decision to medically retire after spending one year in Illinois. She has since returned to Canada to continue her studies at UBC Okanagan. Leia has been coaching since the age of 12 and loves sharing her passion for diving — as well as her story of mental strength and resilience through the highs and lows of competitive sport — to inspire athletes of all ages and skill levels to build confidence, have fun, and grow both in and out of the pool.

Zoe is a first year international student at UBCO, currently doing her nursing prerequisites. She grew up in Maryland, USA and started diving at the age of six. She was a diver for 12 years before medically retiring in 2023. She has three siblings who are also divers! She competed at an elite level from ages 10-18, competing at multiple national qualifiers and competitions representing her team in front of the country. In 2022, Zoe was an All-American athlete, ranking in the top 100 high-school female divers in the USA. She started her coaching career shadowing her coach, Sergey Meshcherskiy, who was the European Champion on 3-meter and the Russian National Champion on platform in 2003. Zoe started as an Assistant Head Coach to a summer recreation team in the summer of 2022. It was an amazing opportunity. She met so many incredible athletes and helped multiple students fall in love with diving. Unfortunately, Zoe had to medically retire from diving in the spring of 2023 right before she was set to commit to a D1 school on a diving scholarship. Everyday since she has missed being a diver. Once she moved to Kelowna she looked for a dive team to join as a coach. She is very grateful to KSDC for giving her the opportunity to coach here in Kelowna. Zoe said that she looks forward to improving as a Dive Coach and she is excited to help even more students fall in love with diving.

Eileen Appel

Brooklyn Eising

Eileen has been involved in aquatic sports from a young age, starting with Ogopogo Swim Club, diving with KSDC, and later playing competitive water polo with Surrey and Storm in the National Competition League. She now coaches diving and water polo, teaches swim lessons, and lifeguards with the YMCA. Eileen enjoys helping athletes of all levels build confidence, develop skills, and have a positive experience in the water.

Brooklyn has been with KSDC since 2020, starting in the Learn to Dive, and progressing to the Competitive team, and now coaching. She dove for Christina for 3 seasons, and loved the community and team. Brooklyn is NCCP Competitively trained and uses a variety of certifications and experiences to aid in teaching for KSDC. Brooklyn aims to create the environment she learned in, having fun, learning new things, connecting with others, and being in the water!

Norah Bellerose

Norah has been a part of KSDC since 2018. Throughout her time with KSDC, she has transformed from a Learn to Dive athlete, to the Competitive Team, to a Coach. Norah is a NCCP Level 1 Trained Coach. Norah dove on the Competitive Team with Coach Christina for 5 years and was one of the first KSDC athletes to go to Novice Nationals when she went in 2019.

Avery Ringer

Avery, like many others, started in gymnastics and then made the switch to diving. Avery has been with KSDC for 3 years and has quickly progressed from learn to dive to competitive, and now to a coach. She dove with Coach Christina for a year and had a great time. Avery won multiple team awards over her years with KSDC and was always recognized for her work ethic, team spirit, and helpfulness. She has loved the experiences of diving and thinks the environment is amazing. She is looking forward to continuing to create that environment.

Colten McCrae

Colten started diving in the USA for about 7 years with American Flyers Diving. He competed in 2 Ohio High School State Dive Meets, qualified for 5 USA Diving Zones Meets, and a USA Diving Junior National Dive Meet over his competitive career. After moving to Kelowna for university and missing the sport of diving he started coaching with KSDC in September of 2024.

Anna Ruckstuhl

Anna grew up swimming and diving at any given opportunity, however, she became most heavily invested in the sport after a gymnastics injury prevented her from being able to take the next steps in her gymnastics career. Anna dove both competitively and recreationally for many years with The Diving Academy in Cambridge, England as well as with Rocky Mountain Dive in Calgary, AB. Anna fell in love with the sport when she was on her highschool dive team in Calgary, this is where Anna realized that within the sport of diving, community was so important to her. Anna moved to Kelowna in August of 2021 and joined KSDC as an athlete shortly after that. Anna found some of her favourite people through diving in Kelowna, and started coaching with KSDC in September 2023. She hopes to foster a kind and welcoming community for all her students in which they are excited to learn, and feel safe to express themselves.

Amanda Willems

Amanda has been working with children for over a decade. She started as a gymnastics coach and has been coaching for over ten years. She has coached athletes ages 1 to 16 years old. She uses her gymnastics knowledge to coach diving, and is excited for the new challenge. She also is a certified Early Childhood Educator and still coaches gymnastics once a week. Amanda moved to the Okanagan last summer and has loved all that Kelowna had to offer. She is eager to learn all there is to know about diving and loves that she has joined the KSDC team. Amanda has a passion for working with children and loves to see them achieve their goals!

Kaelen O'Rourke

Kaelen began diving with White Rock Divers in 2014 and has loved the sport ever since. She competed in the 2015 Novice Nationals and 2016 BC Winter Games in Penticton. Kaelen came to KSDC in 2016 and trained as a competitive athlete under Coach Christina. In 2019, Kaelen became an NCCP Level 1 Trained Coach and has only become more passionate about diving. Kaelen has be a pivotal part of KSDC success over the years. She is now an occasional job for KSDC.