UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Babashoff Picks Up Pieces After Mother’s Death

Debbie Babashoff is living at home again after one year at the University of Miami.

No, the former Fountain Valley High School swimmer and 1987 Pan-American silver medalist didn’t flunk out. No, she didn’t get kicked off the team for disciplinary reasons.

But she would have preferred either of those to the real reason she’s back.

Last April, Babashoff’s mother died and she came home to live with her sister, Shirley, and her father, Jack, so they could deal with their grief together.

“My mom had been sick for as long as I had known her,” Babashoff said. “She’d been sick for 30 years with high blood pressure and diabetes. But still it was a shock. Because she had been that way for so long, you just sort of expected her to keep going.”

Babashoff, 19, enrolled at UC Irvine to continue her academic and swimming careers. She says she’s happy now, but she was enjoying her first college experience at Miami, too.

“I was having fun,” Babashoff said. “I was doing good in school and had made a lot of new friends. But I wanted to be with my dad and Shirley.”

When she was three days old, Babashoff was out on the pool deck at Heritage Park in Irvine, where Shirley--then 13 and laying an early foundation for an Olympic gold medal--was working out.

Babashoff harbors her own Olympic dreams, but she’s more concerned with settling into a new classroom environment these days.

“Right now, I’m just trying to get my life together,” Babashoff said. “This was a horrible spring. Two months after my mom died, my grandmother died. Then my other grandparents were seriously injured in an auto accident.”

The academic adjustment has been tough, she admits. And after spending three months without swimming more than a lap or two at a time, the six-mile-a-day regimen has been, well, painful.

“At least we don’t work out at 5 a.m.,” Babashoff said, searching for a positive. “Our first workout is at 7. I was real tired at first. I wish I was a sprinter.”

Shirley would wince at that last comment. During her glory years as the master of the Mission Viejo Nadadores’ “animal lane,” (where the distance swimmers put in legendary workouts), their favorite T-shirt read: “When the going gets tough, the sprinters get out of the water.”

The Anteater women swimmers made their 1989 debut Saturday against Pepperdine and Babashoff swam the middle distances, winning both the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events.

“The times weren’t anything outstanding, but she won both races and it’s a good starting place,” Irvine Coach Charlie Schober said. “Any time you get into a new program, there are adjustments. It’s sort of like Debbie’s a freshman again. But she’s trained hard in the past, so there won’t be a problem.”

Schober knows the addition of Babashoff will mean more points for the Anteaters in dual meets, more points in the conference meet and probably even some points in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. meet. But he’s also hoping her presence will represent more points in the future when Babashoff is gone.

“Good athletes generally like to go where other good athletes are,” Schober said. “So once you get one, it’s easier to get another one. A few upper-echelon swimmers can make a huge difference, and getting the first one is the hardest.”

Babashoff brings an always-ready smile, her legendary swimming surname and a load of talent to the Anteater program. She has been in the pool for most of her 19 years, however, and all those miles and all those mornings of practice can take their toll--both physically and mentally--and burnout can be a problem.

“I think a lot depends on how you grow with your sport,” Babashoff said. “I’m an age-group coach at Mission Viejo now, and swimming in college is really fun because of the team aspect, the team spirit.

“Right now, I like swimming more than ever.”

That’s good news to Schober. A happy swimmer is usually a fast swimmer.

The women’s cross-country team moved up to seventh in the NCAA Division I poll, the Anteaters’ highest ranking ever.

So was Coach Vince O’Boyle beaming?

Not exactly. He would rather be an underdog entering the NCAA Region 8 Championships Nov. 11 in Fresno. Irvine is the top-ranked team in the West. Washington is the region’s next-highest ranked team at No. 15.

“I don’t especially enjoy this high of a ranking,” O’Boyle said. “I’d rather not go into the regional as the favorite.”

O’Boyle, who was named Big West Coach of the Year for both men’s and women’s cross-country after his teams won conference titles Saturday, was more excited about the performance of his men’s team Saturday.

“The win really boosted the team’s confidence,” O’Boyle said. “The key to the victory was the performance of Scott LaForce.”

The top three Anteater men had been running well all season, but No. 4 LaForce had been struggling. Saturday, the Irvine men finished two-three-four-five. LaForce was fifth.

Anteater Notes

It’s only early November, but the men’s basketball team will get a jump on the season Wednesday night when it plays host to High Five America in a 7:30 exhibition game at the Bren Center. High Five America, an anti-drug touring team, features former Cal State Long Beach standouts John Hatten and DeAnthony Langston and is guided by former Athletes in Action Coach Rle Nichols. . . . Outside hitter Ali Wood took over the top spot in the Irvine women’s volleyball record books for career kills as expected last weekend, but she also established marks for career digs and single-season kills. Wood had 1,074 career kills, 715 career digs and 382 kills this season, going into Wednesday night’s match at Cal State Long Beach.

Good News/Bad News Dept.: Former Anteater basketball players Wayne Engelstad and Mike Doktorczyk experienced opposing fates Wednesday. Engelstad, who was cut by Denver and then asked to return, is still on the Nuggets’ roster. Doktorczyk was released by the Chicago Bulls.