Ayers Dawes is a veteran diver from Ridgetop and has been involved with the team as a diver or a coach intermittently since the early 1990s. She was an NCAA D-1 diver at Radford University for the 2006-2007 season and was named a Northeast Conference Diver of the Week. Ayers was an assistant coach for the AAU team Richmond Rockets Dive Club from 2011-2014.  She is looking forward to another great season at Ridgetop!

Shirley Ramsey is a retired school counselor/teacher from Henrico County Schools. She has coached diving since her first coaching position at Bon Air pool in 1973 as part of the JRAC summer league. She has served as a coach in JRAC since then, give or take a few years while raising 3 children. She also coached at Virginia Commonwealth University from 1980 to 1986, while they still had an aquatic program in place. She has been involved with AAU and US diving while assisting in setting up meets to bring these programs to Richmond. While serving as the Varsity Coach for JRAC in the 80’s she was able to take local divers to meets in other cities bringing more competition to our Richmond Divers. Coaching all ages in diving also includes 3 years of coaching the dive team at St. Christopher’s and St. Catherine’s. Ms. Ramsey has coached at Ridgetop for over 15 years. She is a lover of the sport and brings experience as a coach, teacher, school counselor, and advocate for mental health. She serves as a Founding Board Member of the Virginia Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and does community work bringing awareness to teen depression and mental health issues. She holds a BA in Elementary Ed. from VT and an MA. Ed in School Counseling from VCU. Her passion is to work with youth and help them to be the best that they can be.

All the coaches are looking forward to another great season at Ridgetop! They are excited to work with many of the divers that participated in the past as well as recruiting new divers to Ridgetop’s growing program.  Some of our more seasoned divers may assist at some of the practices throughout the season.  Ayers and Ms. Ramsey also serve as judges during meets.

Hank Beach & Bella Lambert are joining the 2023 staff as Junior Assistant Dive Coaches.  Both have been divers with Ridgetop for many years and look forward to supporting our coaching staff.

Dive Representative

Lindsay Horning – Lindsay handles dive registration, communications, and represents Ridgetop dive with JRAC.  She takes the lead on meet logistics and software.  She also coordinates with coaches and serves on the RT Board.

You can reach Lindsay at diving@ridgetop.org

Volunteer opportunities

We are in need of additional dive volunteers to help at meets and to grow the dive program.  Please contact us at diving@ridgetop.org