El nueve de abril/April 9th

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Photo from YCF Diving, where
Ruiz is the head coach. Click HERE.  
¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Mark Ruiz! (1979-        )

An Olympic diver from Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, Ruiz started diving at the age of 9. He moved to Florida at the age of 12 to further train, and he was the individual state champion for diving all four years of high school. In 1999, he swept all three events at US Nationals, the first diver to do so since Greg Louganis. That year, he also won the Pan Am Games gold medal. Ruiz competed in the Olympics in 2000 and 2004, and he was a US National Champion 22 times. Ruiz now runs Mark Ruiz Diving Camps for athletes from all over the country, and he is the head coach for YCF Diving. He is married to Nicole Bolt, an NCAA All American at the University of Florida who was also a state champion diver at his high school. In 2017, Ruiz raised money to help with recovery efforts in Puerto Rico after the devastation of Hurricane Maria. His GoFundMe page has raised nearly $10,000 to date for Unidos por Puerto Rico.

For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

Other April 9th birthdays of note:

Photo from newyorkjets.com. Click HERE. 
Willie Colón, NFL player (not the salsa musician) (1983-    ): A player in the NFL whose father was Puerto Rican. Hear him speak about his father and his upbringing in the Bronx surrounded by many other Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Hispanic kids HERE (he talks about how his father was never ashamed to speak the language or be who he was).


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