Athlete Of The Week: Nathan Frette

Nathan Frette is a freshman diver for the new Lake Buena Vista High School diving team. During this past season, Frette secured LBV its first district title in diving at the Class 2A Region 2 District 5 meet in Sebring in early November. He scored 490.95 to win the 1-meter diving event. He went on to finish fourth in that same event at the Class 2A state championship meet in Stuart, with a score of 468.95. Frette and his family moved to the area from Houston, Texas, during the summer. 

How has your experience at Lake Buena Vista High been so far? 

It’s been great — the teachers are all nice, my grades are good, and I still have time for practice in diving. 

What’s your favorite class at school? 

Science — I love space, astrology and seeing just how big the universe is. I’m really into that stuff. 

How does it feel to be the first LBV diver to win a district championship? 

It was pretty great, an awesome accomplishment. I did one of my best performances. Everyone at the school congratulated me on winning, which was pretty cool. 

You then went to state and took fourth. Did that surprise you? 

It was shocking (in that) I wasn’t expecting to do that well. I knew there were some divers that weren’t as good as others, but I was sure that there were going to be a lot more divers that were (at) a high level that were going to be better than me. It was awesome going there. If I did better, I could have even won. 

What do you like so much about diving? 

I love putting all this effort and energy, and seeing how I progress over the years. I love diving into that cold water, especially living in Florida now. It used to be cold, but now it’s nice and fun. I like jumping off the board and showing off to everyone, especially being good at the sport as everyone looks at you when you dive. It also allows you to get better at flipping on the trampoline, parkour and stuff like that. 

What’s a pre-dive routine that you follow? 

If it’s a difficult dive, I’ll model on the ground. For my hurdle, I’ll model every action I will do leading up to the dive, step-by-step. For my dive, I will practice either tucking, piking or twisting — whatever motion it is. I model it to perfection so that when I’m on the board, I can do it for 10s against fives. 

Favorite Olympic diver? 

Greg Louganis. I love watching his videos, especially when he hit his head on the diving board at the 1988 Olympics and still (got) back up. It was inspiring to me, and makes me feel like I can do it too in a way. If I can perfect everything, maybe I can win the Olympics one day, too. 

What are some of your other hobbies? 

Going to my backyard and doing flips on the trampoline with my friends. It helps with practicing dives, and it’s fun flipping with friends. I also like playing video games as well. I’m playing flying games, because I want to be a pilot when I’m older. 

Why do you want to be a pilot? 

My mom’s a pilot with Frontier Airlines, and my grandfather was a private pilot. We have a chain of pilots in our family, and I want to be the next pilot that also happens to be a great diver. I can go around the world for free and see all these places. 

Favorite TV or Netflix show? 

“Survivor.” When I’m older, I want to eventually compete on the show. 

What’s one Thanksgiving Day food you have to have with it? 

Pumpkin pie. If there’s no pumpkin pie, I will just walk out the door. 

One particular dive you like to do the most? 

An inward one-and-a-half or two-and-a-half, because I love the action of doing a front flip going backwards into the water. For those dives, I nail them more than my other dives consistently.