By Madyson Montoya — Staff Writer
Having the opportunity to compete at the college level is one that nearly every athlete dreams of.
For senior Eri Tamada, it took 15 years for her achieve her goal, which was to be a part of a collegiate gymnastics team. A career-ending injury obtained through practice however, forced her to set a new one.
“I dislocated my knee and I had to get knee recon-struction,” Tamada said. “I tore my ACL, MCL, PCL, LCL, meniscus and fractured a part of my tibia.”
That didn’t stop the experienced gymnast. After two knee surgeries and nearly a year and a half recovery period, Tamada got back in the gym and was able to get most of her skills back — but they weren’t the same.
An injury of such extremity proved to trouble the new collegiate athlete. On top of the pain she was sustaining post surgery, she became paranoid about re-injury while pushing herself to get back into her passion.
“It was the worst-case scenario,” Tamada said. “It’s something that I’ve been dreaming of doing and then I got there, and it just disappeared.”
It had seemed that Tamada’s time as a gymnast had come to an end, but her time as an athlete at San Jose State was not over.
“Fortunately, I was really good friends with the divers at that time,” she said.
One thing had led to another and Tamada found herself in a sport with zero experience.
Having already been a student athlete, Tamada had a unique opportunity from her assistant coach, Shella Martinez, setting her up with the diving team. That was just the start of the journey.
“My mom and siblings had done aquatic sports andI just never had done that,” Tamada said. “I was always focused on gymnastics my whole life.”
Making the transition was not easy in any way, but Tamada wanted to compete at the collegiate level and this was the alternative.
Becoming a part of the swimming and diving team a month into the 2015-16 season was difficult but coming into a whole new sport at such a high level was even harder.
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” said head coach Sage Hopkins. “The fire and the focus you cansee in her eyes.”
The Torrance, Calif. native remembers her first day quite differently. She knew she was competitive and wanted to be successful, but also knew she was physically lacking experience.
“In the very beginning, I couldn’t even dive head first into the water from the pool deck,” Tamada said.
Struggling to transition is not uncommon. Divers tend to have gymnastics backgrounds and switch to diving after being injured. However, other athletes in this situation don’t do it as late in their careers as Tamada.
“There was a massive learning curve since she had never dove before,” Hopkins said.
A gymnastics background is extremely beneficial in diving, but there are some key components that are completely different.
Divers have to be able to execute their tricks off a board as opposed to ground level. Gymnasts are also trained to land on their feet as divers land head first into the water.
“Right away she was super dedicated to the sport even though she hadn’t done anything,” said senior Megan Au. “She was willing to try anything.”
Au became a diver after a back injury as a gymnast, similar to Tamada.
“Even when I was trying to learn how to dive, I had a lot of issues and I’ve been diving for eight years,” Au said. “She’s already basically at the same level.”
Tamada not only learned how to be a diver at the collegiate level, she became experienced enough to become a leader for the team throughout her four years.
“Our divers have always been very hard and focused workers,” Hopkins said. “She stood out among that group and really has led the way.”
The fact that Tamada was talented enough to be on two Division I teams at SJSU is beyond what any ordinary athlete can do.
“Eri is pretty crazy,” Au said. “She is able to stop everything she knows about gymnastics and then transfer to a new sport. Not a lot of people can do that.”
Tamada is currently No. 7 on SJSU’s all-time top-10 list in platform with her score of 190.05 in the 2018 Mountain West Championships.
It might have not beenthe legacy she thought she would leave her freshman year, but it is a legacy nonetheless.
“I feel like if I can go through this many injuries and achieve so many things as a student athlete, I can do so much more beyond that,” Tamada said.
Follow Madyson on Twitter @MadysonMontoya