Tryouts/placements are held monthly at Cactus Park Aquatic Center. This is a chance for the diver and coach to work together towards placing your diver in the most appropriate level (Bronze, Silver or Gold) for their current abilities. CdS strives to provide a safe environment that will develop a divers talents as well as their love for the sport of diving. Starting at the right level is the best way to build a firm foundation that can grow into more. CdS is always looking to bring divers up through the club levels as their abilities grow.
If you would like to attend the next tryout/placement, please call Coach Josh Rusboldt 480-329-6035, Lia Fusaro (CdS board member) 480-980-3505 or send an email to cdsdiving@yahoo.com.
Below are the forms necessary for each new team member. The Emergency Release form needs to be notarized. Once you have established with the coaching staff that you are able to join us, please feel free to download these forms and bring them, completed, to your first practice.
A complete list of fees can be found in the Forms section below.
Josh Rusboldt
Josh started his coaching career in Valparaiso, Indiana with a year round high school feeder program, assisting head coach Bill Chappo in May of 1990. There he helped coach many state finalists and two state champions until December of 1995.
In June of 1997 he came to Scottsdale to coach with CdS. Here he assisted 1996 Olympic coach Allan Spreen (See Coach Spreen's bio below). From then until September 2001, he learned how to develop divers to compete at the Regional, Zone, and West National level in US Diving. During this time he also coached multiple high school state finalists and one state champion at Chaparral High School.
From September 2001 to October 2005, he coach CdS in partnership with Head Coach Joe Lyons. In this time he increased his coaching ability to developing West National finalists and Jr. National qualifiers.
In the fall of ’05 he left CdS to assist Marc Briggs at Sun Devil Divers in Tempe, AZ. Here he increased his knowledge on tower diving and developed two West National finalists.
December 2006 marked Josh’s return to CdS as Head Coach, where he is now developing Junior and Senior National level divers.
Tony Burkhardt
Tony was a four-year letter winner in diving at Shadow Mountain High School and was subsequently inducted into the school Hall of Fame as well as being named “SMHS Male Athlete of the Year” as a senior. A two-time state champion in the one-meter event, Tony became a Junior National Champion his junior year and was named “Most Valuable Player” and earned “all-state” all four seasons. Additionally, Tony garnered “All-America” honors as a sophomore. While he was ranked sixth in country as a junior, he was also captain for his junior and senior seasons. Tony excelled academically as well as a member of the National Honor Society and Principal's Honor roll, he was also Vice President of the National Honor Society.
Tony attended Georgia Tech and was a four-year letter winner under Coach John Ames. As a sophomore became the third Tech diver in program history to garner All-ACC honors, finishing third on the one-meter board with a six-dive score of 345.95 at the ACC Championships. He dove his way into the finals of the three-meter diving event at the conference championship, sustaining an injury in the finals and managed to finish in eighth place. Tony broke the school record on the one-meter springboard with a score of 346.58 against Emory. He was named team's Shilo Ayalon Most Valuable Athlete Award winner. As a junior he set new Tech records on the one- and three-meter springboards with six dive scores of 374.50 and 387.95 at the Georgia Tech Invitational.
Tony started coaching with CDS in 2000 mainly bronze group and beginners. Coached for City of Scottsdale from 2000-2003. Was City of Scottsdale’s Diving Teams Coordinator in 2003 (ran all aspects of diving for the City). 2004-2007 Coached for Atlanta Diving Association, and assisted coaching with Georgia Tech under John Ames (was a 5th year assistant).
Chris Marks
Chris Marks loves diving! He started training to dive around age 11 when his parents decided that it was not safe for him to be flipping around in every direction in the backyard pool. He attended diving practices at Cactus Park until he graduated high school. Chris competed on a national level, and was given the opportunity to train with three time Olympic gold winner, diver Klaus Dibiasi in Italy. At age 16 Chris decided that competition diving was not his passion. He started show diving for Sacco Shows, Inc., first in 1997 at Astro World in Texas, and then he moved on to Cedar Point, Ohio in 1999. Chris loved entertaining the people that attended the diving exhibitions, especially when he found out that the people liked to see good dives but lovedto see bad dives.
Chris has a degree in civil engineering in 2005, and also received his Engineer-In-Training (EIT) certificate in 2005. Chris is currently studying for the Professional Engineer’s exam that will earn him his own seal, which is a license to practice engineering.
Chris has recently gotten the itch to return to diving again, but this time as a coach. He started as assistant coach for all five high school teams in the Paradise Valley Unified School Districts for the 2008-2009 school year. He is excited to coach a year-round competitive team because of all the fond memories he has from diving at Cactus Park and being one of the original members of Clavadistas del Sol diving team.
Dr. Allen Spreen
Diving History:
Judge, NCAA Women’s National Diving Championships, 2007
Head Coach, Clavadistas del Sol Diving Team, Scottsdale, AZ, 1998-2001
Coach, 1996 Olympic Games, Atlanta, Georgia
Director, Clavadistas del Sol Diving Team, Scottsdale, AZ, 1995-1998
Head Coach, 1996 U.S. National Team to Jonkoping, Sweden
Head Coach, 1995 Pan American Games, Mar del Plata, Argentina
Recipient, 1994 U.S. National Coach of the Year
Coach, 1994 U.S. National Team to Wuhan and Tianjin, China
Head Coach, 1993 U.S. National Team to Rostock, Germany & Moscow, Russia
Coach, 1993 U.S. National Team, Alamo Challenge, Pasadena, California
Coach, 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials, Indianapolis, Indiana
Recipient, 1991 PDCA All-American Diving Coach
Masters National Champion, 1987, 1M, 35-39
Bronze Medalist, 3M, 1987 U.S. Masters National Championships, 35-39
Head Coach, River City Diving, Jacksonville, Florida, 1986-1995
Women’s Varsity Diving Coach, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1972-1976
Southeast AAU 3M Champion, 1971
Southeast AAU High-Point Diver, 1971
Captain, Georgia Tech Swim Team, 1971
High School All-American, 1967
Diving coach since 1968, with many All-Americans, 1 Olympian, 2 Olympic Trials qualifiers, 3 National Champions, (Senior & J.O.), 1 Senior U.S. platform finalist, & sanity failing fast!