UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Diver Has a Love-Hate Affair With Sport

Whenever Trishna Coleman walks to the end of the diving board and sees only drudgery instead of clear, blue water below, she remembers that this is supposed to be fun.

After all, that’s what attracted Coleman to the sport in the first place.

It’s why she chucked gymnastics at an early age to, as she said, “concentrate on being in junior high.”

And why she gave up swimming after high school because swimming lap after lap with only a thin black line at the bottom of the pool for company was “ boring .”

Even after qualifying for her fourth consecutive NCAA Regional meet, Coleman has never completely submerged herself in the sport. She recalled vaguely her best finish at previous regionals--13th at last season’s meet. She can’t remember her top scores.

She knows she was second at the Big West Conference championships March 1, which qualified her for the regional meet Friday and Saturday at Arizona State in Tempe.

“It’s a neat release,” she said. “It’s really enhanced my collegiate career.”

There was an element of fear to overcome, but that only seemed to add excitement to diving.

Coleman, a senior, initially wasn’t all that serious about it, diving in meets between country clubs in San Bernardino County while in high school.

“I fell into it,” she said, pun intended. “To tell you the truth, when I first started to dive, I didn’t think much of it. When I first started I was kind of scared. I could do a flip on the ground, I figured I could do it off the board. But I’d rather do it on the ground.”

Coleman started on a one-meter springboard, not much higher than a standard back-yard diving board, then moved to the three-meter board. Legs shaking, she tried not to look.

When she opened her eyes, she found she was good at diving and, yes, it was even fun.

Growing up first in Hawaii and later in Redlands, Coleman always seemed to be outdoors. Her family raised horses and she rode on the beach. When she wasn’t riding, she was swimming in the ocean.

Later she tried gymnastics. The thrill of handstands and flips motivated her more than competition against others.

When her family moved to Redlands, she joined a club team and competed in age-group meets, but quickly tired of the high expectations.

“I got burned out,” Coleman said. “I wanted a social life. I wanted to go to school and not be training all the time.”

Diving wasn’t as time-consuming.

“I’ve loved it and hated it,” she said. “The season is really, really long. Is this worth it? All in all it really is. I think I’ve finally found the fun (in diving). I still take it seriously. (But) sometimes you need to think about something else.”

Dean Andrea, fired Friday after 13 seasons as women’s basketball coach and six more as an assistant men’s coach, had this to say: “I always pitched in around the (athletic) department. I was a great foot soldier for 19 years then they boot me.

“No one ever came up to (me) and told (me) they didn’t like what (I) was doing. I thought we had made real progress. The situation is a lot better now than it was 13 years ago.”

A losing record and a strained relationship with his players persuaded officials not to renew Andrea’s contract.

Andrea’s record at Irvine was 158-204. The Anteaters were 5-22 this past season, the team’s fifth consecutive losing season. In 1989-90, Irvine was 1-27, the worst in school history.

He said he is considering teaching and coaching at the high school level.

The Texas women’s track and field team, second to Louisiana State at last week’s NCAA indoor championships, visits Irvine for an invitational meet Saturday. Field events begin at 11:30 a.m.

Texas is led by sprinter Carlette Guidry, the No. 3-ranked sprinter in the world last year. Guidry won the 55- and 200-meter dashes at the NCAA indoor meet in Indianapolis.

She won the 100 meters at the Goodwill Games last summer at Seattle and was second in the 200 at the NCAA outdoor meet last June in Durham, N.C.

UCI, Cornell, Texas, Texas Tech, Utah State and Weber State will compete in the women’s meet. The men’s field: UCI, Cal State Hayward, Cornell, Utah State and Weber State.

The men’s tennis team moved to No. 20 this week in the Volvo Tennis/Collegiate rankings.

Irvine plays host to No. 19 Miami of Florida at 1:30 p.m. Friday, then meets No. 10 Kentucky at 1 p.m. Saturday and unranked Clemson at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Anteater Notes

Christa Patton, wife of Irvine tennis Coach Greg Patton, delivered the couple’s first child, a girl named Chelsea, on Tuesday afternoon. Mother and daughter are fine. No word yet from the father, whose hyperbolic comments enliven men’s tennis matches. See this space next week for details as only Patton can relate them. . . . Irvine’s golf team won last week’s 15-team Cal State Sacramento Invitational with an 18-hole score of 303. Ken Cruz, a junior from Servite, was second with a 73. Joey Sugar and Adam Horodyski tied for fourth at 75. . . . Bill Bardens, a junior third baseman, went six for 12 in a three-game series against San Diego State to push his batting average to a team-leading .343. He had six runs batted in, two doubles and three runs scored against the Aztecs. . . . Leland Quinn, a freshman volleyball player from Ocean View, was named the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. player of the week for his 31-kill, eight-dig performance in the Anteaters’ 17-15, 13-15, 14-16, 15-11, 15-12 upset of No. 3-ranked Cal State Northridge last week. The Anteaters (3-10, 3-8 in WIVA play) play host to Indiana-Purdue (Fort Wayne) tonight and USC on Thursday. Both matches are at 7:30 in Crawford Hall.