MOULTRIE – Just more than a month ago, Moss Farms Diving Tigers head coach John Fox was in San Antonio checking out the facility for the 2020 USA Diving Junior Nationals. Competition on the boards was going on at this time, but not much – if any – in terms of athletic competition in the country has taken place since Fox’s trip.

Those USA Diving Nationals are scheduled to begin July 26, and going into the final weekend of April that is still on the schedule. It is a two-step process to qualify for these championships, and the second step, the Zone meets, are also still on the schedule. For Moss Farms, Zone B begins June 27 at the University of Georgia.

However, the first step, which is regional meets (12 of them in all across the nation), are all marked as “postponed.” This is the status of several other athletic events, including one all of the Diving Tigers strive to reach, the Summer Olympics. But while now the plan is to stage the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021, the regional diving meets (Region 3 for the Diving Tigers) don’t have a new date.

Fox already knew training wouldn’t be the same this year with scheduled renovations that are taking place at the Moose Moss Aquatic Center. With the COVID-19 pandemic covering the whole country and closing down everything from parks to public swimming pools, the Diving Tigers have nowhere to go but their own yards. That could change soon as Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday some businesses can reopen beginning this coming Monday, and the Moultrie YMCA set a timeline on its website for such reopenings at its main branch, including the swimming pool beginning May 15.

It was May 1, however, that the Diving Tigers first thought they were going to the Region 3 meet in Coral Springs, Fla. Seven other regionals were to begin this weekend.

“We’ve been sending them daily workouts,” said Fox about the at-home training for the divers. “Trying to spur on their motivation that way. USA Diving has not yet cancelled the season. We’re hopeful we will still be able to have a season. That’s why we’ve been trying to spur them on.

“We have come up with a new safety back-to-diving so-to-speak protocol for sanitation. When the rec facilities open up or the YMCA facilities open up and the shelter-in-place is lifted, we plan to get back at it. We are going to limit our group sizes, make sure everybody’s keeping the appropriate social distance. Fortunately, it’s a pretty sanitary environment. We partnered with the Recreation Authority to figure out how to spray down our apparatus to keep our athletes safe.”

Fox doesn’t have any specific details on what USA Diving’s intentions are in rescheduling regionals. He believes much will depend on when states open back up. The first bit of good news is there is a target date for the potential return to live training.

“We function as a not-for-profit,” said Fox. “When we’re not practicing, that’s not good for us. The athletes definitely need it. They need to be training to be able to stay motivated. But obviously they need to stay safe. That’s the primary concern.

“We had to come up with a new norm. That’s what everybody’s having to do. We are going to be full-steam ahead on trying to keep our facilities clean. We are going to adapt and adjust.”

It can also mean swapping ideas with others in the same position because this lay-off is so unprecedented. The daily workouts for the Diving Tigers aren’t anything new or different to them. Since diving does not require great endurance, they don’t run “miles and miles” but focus instead on core work. The hard thing to find substitutes for is actual board work, which they can do even in the dry-land room.

“There’s a lot of imagery stuff they can visualize and model,” said Fox. “The longer they are off the board, the more difficult it is to come back.

“But quite frankly, with the amount of time we’ve been off … a lot of these kids have been training their entire lives. The break is good. A month off isn’t a huge deal. Longer than that, it could be a big deal. I don’t feel anybody’s going to be behind in their development.”

The Diving Tigers has those athletes in the early development stage and those who reached High Performance status with several others in-between. One of those at the high end is Carson Tyler, a rising high school senior who already committed to the University of Indiana and has competed at Olympic Trials qualifiers plus the Junior Pan-Am Games last year. The delay of the Olympics, Fox feels, gives Tyler a better chance at reaching the Trials, which will not happen until next year.

Still, the immediate goal is the Junior Nationals, where Tyler and others like Ruth Anne McCranie and Bo Bridges are looking for their first individual event wins. Fox calls himself an optimistic person, but at the same time will do everything within his power to keep his divers and their family safe. As for the optimism of everything going through with this diving season as scheduled, Fox gave a best guess at 50-50.